Honor Statement: I AFFIRM THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT: I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this examination. The ideas are from Crick & Grotpeter, but the wording is my own except where quotations are used. Aiden Layer
1.
Although there have been many previous studies on aggression, few have focused on how gender differences are related to aggression. Of the studies that did focus on gender differences, the common conclusion was that boys were more aggressive than girls, not just in childhood but also “throughout the life span.” This leads to the idea that girls are less aggressive than boys. However, this notion is actually a reflection of the limitations in the understandings of past research. One such limitation was the …show more content…
The children were given a 19 item assessment designed to measure “relational aggression, overt aggression, prosocial behavior, and isolation.” The assessment worked through peer nomination, in which each child selected up to three other children from their class roster that best fit a statement. The peer nomination method can be considered a valid indicator of a child’s aggression and behavior because peers are best positioned to make assessments about how other children interact, since they are interacting with each other on a daily basis. It would be difficult for a teacher or observer to consistently identify relationally aggressive children, because they are not privy to every interaction that children have amongst each other. From the 19 item peer nomination assessment, each child’s sub-scores are calculated by summing the number of nominations he/she received and standardizing them for the size of the class. Children with a sub-score higher than one standard deviation above the mean for the relational aggression and the overt aggression categories are classified as relationally aggressive and overtly aggressive respectively, and the children with high scores in both are classified as relationally plus overtly aggressive. The children with low scores are classified as nonaggressive. The children were also asked to complete self-report socio-psychological adjustment tests that assessed loneliness, social anxiety and avoidance, depression, and perceptions of peer
1.
Although there have been many previous studies on aggression, few have focused on how gender differences are related to aggression. Of the studies that did focus on gender differences, the common conclusion was that boys were more aggressive than girls, not just in childhood but also “throughout the life span.” This leads to the idea that girls are less aggressive than boys. However, this notion is actually a reflection of the limitations in the understandings of past research. One such limitation was the …show more content…
The children were given a 19 item assessment designed to measure “relational aggression, overt aggression, prosocial behavior, and isolation.” The assessment worked through peer nomination, in which each child selected up to three other children from their class roster that best fit a statement. The peer nomination method can be considered a valid indicator of a child’s aggression and behavior because peers are best positioned to make assessments about how other children interact, since they are interacting with each other on a daily basis. It would be difficult for a teacher or observer to consistently identify relationally aggressive children, because they are not privy to every interaction that children have amongst each other. From the 19 item peer nomination assessment, each child’s sub-scores are calculated by summing the number of nominations he/she received and standardizing them for the size of the class. Children with a sub-score higher than one standard deviation above the mean for the relational aggression and the overt aggression categories are classified as relationally aggressive and overtly aggressive respectively, and the children with high scores in both are classified as relationally plus overtly aggressive. The children with low scores are classified as nonaggressive. The children were also asked to complete self-report socio-psychological adjustment tests that assessed loneliness, social anxiety and avoidance, depression, and perceptions of peer