Psychology Commons^™

Playful Aggression And The Situational Contexts That Affect Perceptions, Jennifer Hart

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Play is considered a fundamental tool for early childhood education practices as it provides numerous developmental benefits for young children. However, not all play is viewed by children, parents, and early childhood educators the same, especially playful aggression. For example, rough-and-tumble play, risky play, superhero play, “bad guy” play, active pretend play, play fighting, big body play, war play, gun play, and physically active and imaginative play are types of playful aggression that benefits young children’s development; but are often viewed negatively by the adults who observe it. The contextual factors that influence the development of these conflicting perceptions—the motivation …

Examining The Role Of Resiliency, Sympathetic Nervous System, And Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis In Moderating The Link Between Community Violence And Psychopathology In Children And Adolescents, Ari Neal Rabkin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Research suggests that community violence exposure in children appears to be widespread and likely places children at a higher risk for aggression. However, not all children exposed to community violence develop behavioral problems. Interest has centered on possible moderating factors that may affect the relationship between community violence and later aggression, including biological reactivity of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and supportive resiliency factors. Exposure to violence may be related to an asymmetry between SNS and HPA axis activation, whereas resiliency factors may buffer the effect of community violence. To date, however, few studies have …

Predictors Of Reactive Aggression Among African American And European American Children : The Role Of Perceived Discrimination, Racial Socialization, And Negative Affect, Marvella Alexandria Bowman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Drawing upon the ecological systems perspective of Bronfenbrenner (1986) and Spencer's Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST; 1995, 2003), as well as a reformulation of the frustration hypothesis by Berkowitz (1989), the present study sought to examine a model positing that perceived discrimination acts as a risk factor for reactive aggression; that positive racial socialization messages would buffer against the impact of perceived discrimination on reactive aggression; and that negative affect mediates the relation between the interaction of discrimination and racial socialization and reactive aggression in a sample of 70 African American and European American children (9-13 years of …

Cultural Differences In Relational Aggression In An Elementary School-Age Sample, Brittany L. Walker

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study addressed whether there were differences in relational aggression in 9- to 10-year-old boys and girls in Hungarian and German samples. There has been very little empirical research conducted comparing children of diverse cultures in their use of relational aggression. The current study used teachers’ reports of different aggression styles observed in their 9- to 10-year-old students (N = 269). The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence and styles of aggression used in a 9- to 10-year-old culturally diverse population, as it was hypothesized that culture would be a factor in the incidence of relational …

Children's Reactions To Aggressive And Submissive Peers, Natalie Honey

Theses : Honours

The purpose of this study was to investigate children's attitudes towards aggressive and submissive peers. A 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design was used to test the hypotheses. The three between-subjects variables were (a) the label given to the target child (aggressive/submissive) in a vignette, (b) the nature of the behaviour displayed in a critical incident (aggressive/nonaggressive response) as described in a vignette, and (c) the sex of the participants. A sample of 169 Year 6 and 7 students was divided into four groups containing at least 20 girls and 20 boys. A survey was administered to measure the …

Are Children Remorseful After Committing Violent Criminal Acts?, Arlene Elisa Garcia

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

Stimulus Control : A Coding Of Aversive Stimuli And Aggressive Behavior, John L. Kinch

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Treating aggressive behavior has been of interest to psychologists, sociologists, and law enforcement agencies for many years. Eron (1983) concluded that research should be directed towards understanding the early determinants of aggression before it escalates out of control. The purpose of the present study was to code aversive stimuli that precede aggressive behavior in boys. The following classes were used: Physically Aversive Stimuli, Verbally Aversive Stimuli, Socially Aversive Stimuli, Frustrating Stimuli, Neutral or No Stimuli, and Arguments. It was believed that particular stimuli would facilitate a greater frequency of aggressive behavior in the subjects. Observation revealed that physically aversive stimuli …

Negative Behavior Exhibited By Preschool Children In Same-Age Versus Mixed-Age Groups, Laura Janine Sheppard

Dissertations and Theses

Perhaps due to the increase in the workforce of mothers with young children, much attention has been directed in the past decade towards the subject of out-of-home child care.

In order to gain further understanding of the socialization of preschool children, an observational study was carried out which was designed to measure the amount of negative behavior expressed by children participating in mixed-age versus same-age preschool groups.