Abstract
Few topics have attracted as much theoretical and empirical attention as the development, socialization, and regulation of children’s aggressive behavior (see Parke & Slaby, 1983, for a review). Although the study of children’s aggressive behavior has a long history, there are still many important questions and issues that remain unanswered. For example, a long-standing explanation of aggressive behavior is that it is motivated by emotional arousal (EA; e.g., Zillmann, 1983). However, although EA creates a readiness for aggression, it is not a necessary condition for aggression (Berkowitz, 1974). Under what conditions does emotional arousability affect children’s angry and aggressive behaviors and what factors (e.g., temperament, gender, socialization) moderate the relation between children’s EA and angry/aggressive behaviors? These questions serve as the basis for this chapter.
Support for the authors and the data presented in this chapter came from grants from the National Science Foundation (BNS-8807784) to both authors and from the National Institute of Child Health and Development (K04-HD00717) to N.E
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Asher, S.R., Singleto, L.C., Tinsley, B.R., & Hymel, S. (1979). A reliable sociometric measure for preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 15, 443–444.
Bandura, A. (1983). Psychological mechanisms of aggression. In R.G. Green & E.I. Donnerstein (Eds.), Aggression: theoretical and empirical issues (Vol. 1., pp. 1–40). New York: Academic.
Baron, R.A., & Bell, P.A. (1976). The influence of ambient temperature, negative affect, and a cooling drink on physical aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 33, 245–255.
Berkowitz, L. (1974). Some determinants of impulsive aggression: the role of mediated associations with reinforcements for aggression. Psychological Review, 81, 165–236.
Bower, G.H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 26, 129–148.
Bryant, B.K. (1987). Mental health, temperament, family, and friends’ perspectives on children’s empathy and social perspective taking. In N. Eisenberg & J. Strayer (Eds.), Empathy and its development (pp. 245–270). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Camras, L.A. (1977). Facial expression used by children in a conflict situation. Child Development, 48, 1431–1435.
Crockenberg, S. (1985). Toddlers’ reactions to maternal anger. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 31, 361–373.
Cummings, E.M. (1987). Coping with background anger in early childhood. Child Development, 58, 976–984.
Cummings, E.M., Hollenbeck, B., Lannotti, R., Radke-Yarrow, M., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1986). Early organization of altruism and aggression: developmental patterns and individual differences. In C. Zahn-Waxler, E.M. Cummings, & R. lannotti (Eds.), Altruism and aggression (pp. 165–188). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cummings, E.M., Lannotti, R., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1985). Influence of conflict between adults on the emotions and aggression of young children. Developmental Psychology, 21, 495–507.
Cummings, E.M., Zahn-Waxler, C., & Radke-Yarrow, M. (1984). Developmental changes in children’s reactions to anger in the home. Child Development, 25, 63–74.
Denham, S.A. (1986). Social cognition, prosocial behavior, and emotion in preschoolers: contextual validation. Child Development, 57, 194–201.
Derryberry, D., & Rothbart, M.K. (1988). Arousal, affect, and attention as components of temperament. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 958–966.
Dix, T. (1991). The affective organization of parenting: adaptive and maladaptive processes. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 3–25.
Dodge, K.A., & Coie, J.D. (1987). Social-information processing factors in reactive and proactive aggression in children’s peer groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1146–1158.
Dodge, K.A., & Frame, C.L. (1982). Social cognitive biases and deficits in aggressive boys. Child Development, 53, 620–635.
Doyle, M.A., & Biaggio, M.K. (1981). Expression of anger as a function of assertiveness and sex. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 37, 154–157.
Eisenberg, N., Bernzweig, J., & Fabes, R. (in press). Coping and vicarious emotional emotional responding. In T. Field, P. McCabe, & N. Schneiderman (Eds.), Stress and coping in childhood. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R.A., Schaller, M., Carlo, G., & Miller, P. (in press). The relations of parental characteristics and practices to children’s vicarious emotional responding. Child Development.
Fabes, R.A., Eisenberg, N., & Miller, P. (1990). Maternal correlates of children’s vicarious emotional responsiveness. Developmental Psychology, 26, 639–648.
Ferguson, T.J., & Rule, B.G. (1983). An attributional perspective on anger and aggres sion. In R.G. Green & E.I. Donnerstein (Eds.), Aggression: theoretical and empirical reviews (Vol. 1, pp. 41–74). New York: Academic.
Feshbach, N.D. (1987). Parental empathy and child adjustment/maladjustment. In N. Eisenberg & J. Strayer (Eds.), Empathy and its development (pp. 271–291). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fox, N.A. (1989). Psychophysiological correlates of emotional reactivity during the first year of life. Developmental Psychology, 25, 364–372.
Garcia-Coll, C., Kagan, J., & Reznick, J.S. (1984). Behavioral inhibition in young children. Child Development, 55, 1005–1019.
Goodenough, F.L. (1931). Anger in young children. Westport, CN: Greenwood.
Gottman, J.M., & Katz, L.F. (1989). Effects of marital discord on young children’s peer interaction and health. Developmental Psychology, 25, 373–381.
Gottman, J.M., & Levenson, R.W. (1983). The social psychophysiological of marriage. In T. Temoshok, C. van Dyke, & L. Zegans (Eds.), Emotions in health and illness. New York: Greene & Stratton.
Harter, S. (1979). Perceived competence scale for children: manual. Denver: University of Denver Press.
Hartup, W.W. (1974). Aggression in childhood: developmental perspectives. American Psychologist, 29, 336–341.
Klaczynski, P., & Cummings, E.M. (1989). Responding to anger in aggressive and nonaggressive boys. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30, 309–314.
Kopp, C.B. (1989). Regulation of distress and negative emotions: a developmental view. Developmental Psychology, 25, 343–354.
Larsen, R.J., & Diener, E. (1987). Affect intensity as an individual difference charac teristic. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 21, 1–39.
Larsen, R.J., Diener, E., & Emmons, R.A. (1986). Affect intensity and reactions to daily life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 803–804.
Lorenz, K. (1966). On aggression. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World.
Miller, P.M., Danaher, D.L., & Forbes, D. (1986). Sex-related strategies for coping with interpersonal conflict in children aged five and seven. Developmental Psychology, 22, 543–548.
Miller, P.M., & Eisenberg, N. (1988). The relation of empathy to aggressive and exter nalizing/antisocial behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 324–344.
Olweus, D. (1980). Familial and temperamental determinants of aggressive behavior in adolescent boys: a causal analysis. Developmental Psychology, 16, 644–666.
Parke, R.D., & Slaby, R.G. (1983). The development of aggression. In P. Mussen (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 547–641). New York: Wiley.
Patterson, G.R. (1982). Coercive family processes. Eugene, OR: Custalia.
Pettit, G.S., & Bates, J.A. (1989). Family interaction patterns and children’s behavior problems from infancy to 4 years. Developmental Psychology, 25, 413–420.
Rothbart, M.K., & Derryberry, D. (1981). Development of individual differences in temperament. In M.E. Lamb & A.L. Brown (Eds.), Advances in Developmental Psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 37–86). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Strelau, J. (1983). Temperament, personality, activity. New York: Academic.
Thomas, A., Chess, S., & Birch, H. (1968). Temperament and behavior disorders in children. New York: New York University Press.
Whalen, C.K., Henker, B., Hinshaw, S.P., & Granger, D.A. (1989). Externalizing behavior disorders, situational generality, and the type A behavior pattern. Child Development, 60, 1453–1462.
Zillmann, D. (1983). Arousal and aggression. In R.G. Green & E.I. Donnerstein (Eds.), Aggression; theoretical and empirical issues (Vol. 1, pp. 75–102). New York: Academic.
Zillmann, D., & Cantor, R. (1976). Effect of timing of information and mitigating circumstances on emotions responses to provocation and retaliatory behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 12, 38–55.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fabes, R.A., Eisenberg, N. (1992). Young Children’s Emotional Arousal and Anger/Aggressive Behaviors. In: Fra̧czek, A., Zumkley, H. (eds) Socialization and Aggression. Recent Research in Psychology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84653-3_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84653-3_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-54799-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-84653-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive