An information processing model for the development of aggression

Abstract

A theory is presented to account for the development of habitual aggressive behavior during early childhood. It is argued that the aggressive child is one who has acquired aggressive scripts to guide behavior early in life. Once estahtihed these scripts become resistant to change and may even persist into adulthood. Aggressive scripts are acquired and maintained through both observational and enactive learning processes. These processes interact with each other as actual aggressive behavior engenders conditions under which the observation of aggressive behavior is more likely and creates conditions that provoke rather than inhibit aggression. The cumulative result is a network of cognitive scripts for social behavior emphasizing aggressive responding. A number of intervening variables may play a role in this cycle, and among the more important would seem to be popularity and academic achievement. Once encoded, the scripts for aggressive behavior may be elicited through a general activation of memory or by specific cues to which the person is exposed. Some of the most potent cues should be those present when the script was encoded, though any aggressive cue may trigger the retrieval of an aggressive script. Thus, observed violence not only provides scripts for future behavior but also triggers the recall of existing aggressive scripts. If these scripts are rehearsed, their recall in the future will be more likely. If undampened, this cumulative learning process can build enduring schemas for aggressive behavior that persist into adulthood.

Seek Help from Teachers or Fight Back? Student Perceptions of Teachers’ Actions during Conflicts and Responses to Peer Victimization

“…This finding is in line with theory suggesting that reactively aggressive youth have relatively few mental scripts or response options when reacting to aggressive provocation (Crick and Dodge 1996; Fontaine and Dodge 2006; Huesman 1988). Yet, having fewer response options may be a product of situational or environmental factors (e.g., McClowskey et al 2005).…”

Seek Help from Teachers or Fight Back? Student Perceptions of Teachers’ Actions during Conflicts and Responses to Peer Victimization

“…This finding is in line with theory suggesting that reactively aggressive youth have relatively few mental scripts or response options when reacting to aggressive provocation (Crick and Dodge 1996; Fontaine and Dodge 2006; Huesman 1988). Yet, having fewer response options may be a product of situational or environmental factors (e.g., McClowskey et al 2005).…”

The legacy of harsh parenting: Enduring and sleeper effects on trajectories of externalizing and internalizing symptoms.

“…However, qualifying the persistent association between harsh parenting and externalizing symptoms across late childhood and late adolescence, developmental sensitivity analyses revealed that the predictive effect of the harsh parenting intercept when centered at Age 9 on externalizing symptoms intensified and strengthened in magnitude as the intercept of externalizing symptoms was sequentially recentered across Ages 9–18, thus providing support for a sleeper effects model. Consistent with our findings, information processing models further hypothesize that youths’ enactment of aggressive behavior may intensify over time through an enactive learning process ( R. L. Huesmann, 1988 ; L. R. Huesmann & Eron, 1992 ). Illustrating the enactive learning component, coercive family process theory proposes that youth and their parents may engage in mutually reciprocated levels of hostility ( Patterson, 1982 ).…”

Longitudinal relations between children's exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977-1992.

“…Rather, it is that their use of the learned aggressive behaviors or aggressive scripts was inhibited by their existing normative beliefs about appropriate female roles. This explanation is consistent with the information-processing perspectives on learning aggressive behavior that Huesmann (1986, 1988, 1998) andDodge (1980) have offered. According to Huesmann's model, learned scripts for aggressive behavior are not followed if they violate individuals' normative beliefs about what is appropriate for them.…”

Seek Help from Teachers or Fight Back? Student Perceptions of Teachers’ Actions during Conflicts and Responses to Peer Victimization

“…This finding is in line with theory suggesting that reactively aggressive youth have relatively few mental scripts or response options when reacting to aggressive provocation (Crick and Dodge 1996; Fontaine and Dodge 2006; Huesman 1988). Yet, having fewer response options may be a product of situational or environmental factors (e.g., McClowskey et al 2005).…”

The legacy of harsh parenting: Enduring and sleeper effects on trajectories of externalizing and internalizing symptoms.

“…However, qualifying the persistent association between harsh parenting and externalizing symptoms across late childhood and late adolescence, developmental sensitivity analyses revealed that the predictive effect of the harsh parenting intercept when centered at Age 9 on externalizing symptoms intensified and strengthened in magnitude as the intercept of externalizing symptoms was sequentially recentered across Ages 9–18, thus providing support for a sleeper effects model. Consistent with our findings, information processing models further hypothesize that youths’ enactment of aggressive behavior may intensify over time through an enactive learning process ( R. L. Huesmann, 1988 ; L. R. Huesmann & Eron, 1992 ). Illustrating the enactive learning component, coercive family process theory proposes that youth and their parents may engage in mutually reciprocated levels of hostility ( Patterson, 1982 ).…”

Longitudinal relations between children's exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977-1992.

“…Rather, it is that their use of the learned aggressive behaviors or aggressive scripts was inhibited by their existing normative beliefs about appropriate female roles. This explanation is consistent with the information-processing perspectives on learning aggressive behavior that Huesmann (1986, 1988, 1998) andDodge (1980) have offered. According to Huesmann's model, learned scripts for aggressive behavior are not followed if they violate individuals' normative beliefs about what is appropriate for them.…”

Seek Help from Teachers or Fight Back? Student Perceptions of Teachers’ Actions during Conflicts and Responses to Peer Victimization

“…This finding is in line with theory suggesting that reactively aggressive youth have relatively few mental scripts or response options when reacting to aggressive provocation (Crick and Dodge 1996; Fontaine and Dodge 2006; Huesman 1988). Yet, having fewer response options may be a product of situational or environmental factors (e.g., McClowskey et al 2005).…”

The legacy of harsh parenting: Enduring and sleeper effects on trajectories of externalizing and internalizing symptoms.

“…However, qualifying the persistent association between harsh parenting and externalizing symptoms across late childhood and late adolescence, developmental sensitivity analyses revealed that the predictive effect of the harsh parenting intercept when centered at Age 9 on externalizing symptoms intensified and strengthened in magnitude as the intercept of externalizing symptoms was sequentially recentered across Ages 9–18, thus providing support for a sleeper effects model. Consistent with our findings, information processing models further hypothesize that youths’ enactment of aggressive behavior may intensify over time through an enactive learning process ( R. L. Huesmann, 1988 ; L. R. Huesmann & Eron, 1992 ). Illustrating the enactive learning component, coercive family process theory proposes that youth and their parents may engage in mutually reciprocated levels of hostility ( Patterson, 1982 ).…”

Longitudinal relations between children's exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and violent behavior in young adulthood: 1977-1992.

“…Rather, it is that their use of the learned aggressive behaviors or aggressive scripts was inhibited by their existing normative beliefs about appropriate female roles. This explanation is consistent with the information-processing perspectives on learning aggressive behavior that Huesmann (1986, 1988, 1998) andDodge (1980) have offered. According to Huesmann's model, learned scripts for aggressive behavior are not followed if they violate individuals' normative beliefs about what is appropriate for them.…”