Aggression

Question 1

What is Aggression?

Answer 1

• Any behaviour meant to harm or injure a living being
• behaviour performed with the intention of harming a living being who is motivated to avoid this treatment
• Excludes accidental harm, rough and tumble play

Question 2

What are the 4 Forms of Aggression?

Answer 2

1. Aggression
2. Reactive aggression
3. Proactive aggression
4. relational aggression

Question 3

What is Reactive aggression?

Answer 3

aggressive acts for which the perpetrator’s major goal is to harm or injure a victim

Question 4

What is Proactive aggression?

Answer 4

aggressive acts for which the perpetrator’s major goal is to gain access to objects, space, or privileges

Question 5

What is Relational aggression?

Answer 5

acts such as snubbing, exclusion, withdrawing acceptance, or spreading rumours that are aimed at damaging a victim’s self-esteem, friendships, or social status

Question 6

What are the 9 Forms of Aggressive Behaviour?

Answer 6

1. Hostile
2. Open
3. Reactive
4. Destructive
5. Instrumental
6. Covert
7. Proactive
8. Nondestructive
9. Relational Aggression

Question 7

What is Hostile aggression?

Answer 7

Actor’s goal is to harm a victim

Question 8

What is Open aggression?

Answer 8

Aggressive act is visible to others

Question 9

what is Reactive aggression?

Answer 9

Aggression is retaliatory action

Question 10

what is Destructive aggression

Answer 10

Involves damaging objects, physically hurting people

Question 11

what is Instrumental aggression?

Answer 11

A person harms another person as
means to some other end

Question 12

what is Covert aggression?

Answer 12

Aggressor does not want to be detected

Question 13

What is Proactive aggression?

Answer 13

Aggressive act is initiated by aggressor

Question 14

what is Nondestructive aggression?

Answer 14

Does not involve physical destruction

Question 15

What are some characteristics that Development of Aggressive Behaviour in Infancy and Childhood?

Answer 15

Infancy: reactive aggression appears by the end of the first year (first girls more aggressive than boys).
- Infants have conflicts over toys and other possessions.

Childhood: aggression becomes less physical and increasingly verbal.
- Somewhat less proactive and increasingly retaliatory

Question 16

what are some Developmental Trends in Aggression?

Answer 16

Aggressiveness is a rather stable attribute
- Aggressive behaviour between 3 and 10 years is a good
predictor of antisocial inclinations later in life

Question 17

what are some Gender Differences in Aggression?

Answer 17

Boys and men are more physically and verbally aggressive than girls and women
- However, gender difference not present until age of 3

Boys are more overtly aggressive.

Girls are more relationally aggressive.

Question 18

what are Gender Differences in Aggression: Biological factors

Answer 18

• Testosterone is related to aggressive behaviour (also in animals)

Question 19

what are the Two Approaches to behaviour disorders in aggression?

Answer 19

1. Dimensional approach
   - Disorder is defined as deviation from population mean
   - Underlying assumption: All people possess attribute to certain degree
   - Commonly used instrument: Behaviour checklists that ask how often children are engaged in certain behaviours
   –> CBCL – Child Behavior Checklist
2. Categorical approach – Diagnosis of disorders (ODD and CD in DSM/ICD)
   - Disorders are defined as separate and distinct categories of behavioral syndromes
   - Classification is based on professional consensus (child psychologists, psychiatrists, pediatricians)

Question 20

2 major Aggression as Behavior Disorders?: Diagnosis (DSM-IV)

Answer 20

1. Oppositional Defiant Behavior (ODD)
2. Conduct Disorder (CD):

Question 21

what is Oppositional Defiant Behavior (ODD)?

Answer 21

• An age-inappropriate recurrent pattern of stubborn, hostile, and defiant behavior
• > Often loses temper
• > Often argues with adults
• > Often actively defies or refuses to comply with adults’ requests
• > Often deliberately annoys people
• > Often blames others for his or her mistakes or misbehavior
• > Is often angry and resentful
• > Is often spiteful and vindictive

Diagnostic Criteria
- At least 4 criteria present for at least 6 months

Question 22

what is Conduct Disorder (CD)?

Answer 22

Definition: Pattern of behaviour where basic rights of others or societal norms are violated
- Aggression to people and animals
->Often bullies, threatens or intimidates others
->Often initiates physical fights
-> Is cruel to people or animals
-> Has stolen while confronting a victim (e.g. purse snatching, mugging)
- Destruction of property (fire setting, vandalism)
- Deceitfulness or theft
->Has broken into someone else’s house building or car
-> Often lies to obtain goods or favors or to avoid obligations
- Serious violations of rules
-> Often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions
-> Is often truant from school

Diagnostic criteria
- At least 3 of 15 criteria need to be satisfied for last 12 months with at least one criterion present in the past 6 months
- Differentiation
-> Childhood-onset CD - At least one symptom of disorder before age 10
-> Adolescent onset CD - No symptom of disorder before age 10

Question 23

what are the Pathways of Adolescence-Limited
Antisocial Behavior?

Answer 23

Delinquent behavior peaks in late adolescents
- Some youngster become delinquent in adolescence and later abstain from these behaviors

Delinquent behavior with onset after age of 10 years is normally not continued

Question 24

what are Poor Parenting factors for LCP?

Answer 24

• Harsh discipline
• Inconsistent disciplinary practices
• Lack of parental supervision
• Lack of affection and warmth
• Coercive family processes
• Hostility in parent-child relationship
• Child has parents as a role model for aggressive behavior
• Defiant behavior is reinforced

Question 25

what was Dodge’s social information-processing theory of aggression?

Answer 25

Kenneth Dodge (1994) proposed that a child’s response to an aggressive act will depend on the outcome of six cognitive steps (see Figure 15.6).
- A child’s mental state can influence any of the model’s six phases of information- processing.
- Reactive aggressors overattribute hostile intent to peers.
- Proactive aggressors do not; they also tend to experience less guilt feelings when engaging in aggressive behaviour.

Highly aggressive individuals display a hostile attributional bias.
- This causes them to overattribute hostile intents to others and to retaliate in a hostile manner.

Question 26

what is a Coercive home environment?

Answer 26

a home in which family members often annoy one another and use aggressive or otherwise antisocial tactics as a method of coping with these aversive experiences

Question 27

what is a Coercive Cycle?

Answer 27

cycle of negative parent-child interactions leading to the development of conduct and antisocial behaviour in the child. The increasing hostility, aggression and negativity between parents and children form a positive feedback cycle of aggressive behaviours
- continues until one participant “wins”

Question 28

what are some Methods of controlling aggression in young children?

Answer 28

• Creating “nonaggressive” play environments
• Relying on control procedures such as time-out and the incompatible response technique
• Implementing social-cognitive interventions

Question 29

what are some Intervention and Treatments for children with CD?

Answer 29

Effective treatments for children with childhood onset CD
1. Parent management training (PMT)
- Teaches parents to change child’s behavior by using contingency management techniques
- Aims at improving quality of parent child interaction
2. Problem solving skills training (PSST)
- Identifies child’s cognitive deficiencies and distortions in social situations
- Teaches new ways of handling these situations
3. Multisystemic treatment
- Uses PMT and PSST together with other specialized interventions tailored to the child’s and parents’ needs