Social Aggression Among Girls and Term Paper

To this end new research tools and methodologies need to be developed that will focus more on the investigative aspects that can enhance the understanding of the psychological and social development in girls.

Much of the literature on this subject is concerned with the differences as well as the interaction between social and physical aggression and how this correlates with the different sexes. A study that investigates this aspect in-depth is The development of Social Aggression and Physical Aggression: A Narrative Analysis of the Interpersonal Conflicts by Xie et al. The results of this extensive study are similar in some respects to studies already mentioned in this literature review. For example, it was found that girls were more likely to use indirect and social aggression against girls, while boys were more like to use physical aggression against their own sex.

An interesting finding was that physical aggression was "linked to concurrent and future maladjustments" (Xie et al., 2002, p. 341) The aspect of physical aggression was also positively linked to high school dropout figures. In essence the study finds that that social aggression and physical aggression are related to different interpersonal functions and trajectories and involve varied social processes.

From the literature that has been discussed it seems that there are a number of areas that could be researched in more depth. One of these is the social and developmental aspects of gender and aggression at a very young age. To what extent can the differences that have been shown between the way that boys and girls deal with and express aggression be explained by early childhood development? This question relates as well to the work by Horn (2003) which investigates the difference between cultural aggression and aggression as a psychological trait.A second important issue is that of social and cultural stereotyping. As many of the studies discussed above indicate, social stereotypes are often not true or too simplistic and very often run counter to the actual psychological reality of gender development. An aspect that might be an avenue for further exploration is the way that culture and society develops these stereotypes and to what extent they are a central cause of aggressive behavior, especially among adolescents. The issue of self - representation and the influence of images from society and the media, can also be an important element in the understanding of childhood aggression.

Reference List

Bjorkqvist K. et al. Do Girls Manipulate and Boys Fight. Developmental Trends in regard to Direct and Indirect Aggression. Aggressive Behavior; 18; 117-127.

Durret M.A. (1957) The Relationship of Early Infant Regulation and Later Behavior in Play Interviews. Child Development; 30; 211-216.

Horn S.S. (2003) Mean Girls or Cultural Stereotypes? Human Develoment; 47;

Hencke R. And Raya P. (1993) You're Mean! Differences between Three-Year

Old boys and Girls in Narratives about Nice and Mean Social Interactions. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. New Orleans, LA, March 25-28.

Morretti M.M. (2001) Self- Other Representations and Relational and Overt

Aggression in Adolescent Girls and Boys. Behavioral Sciences and Law; 19; 102-126.

Russel A. And Owens L. (1999) Peer Estimates of School- Ages Boys' and Girls' Aggression to same - and Cross- Sex Targets.Oxford; Blackwell Publishers.

Talbott E. (1997) Reflecting on Antisocial Girls and the Study of Their

Development: Researchers' views; Exceptionality; 7(4); 267-272

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