Is It Bad to Be Good? An Exploration of Aggressive and Prosocial Behavior Subtypes in Adolescence

Research in aggressive behavior development has distinguished between proactive (i.e., intended to achieve an instrumental goal) and reactive (i.e., emitted as an emotional response to provocation) subtypes of aggression. A similar distinction has not been made with regard to prosocial behavior. In this study, subtypes of both aggressive and prosocial behavior and their relation to aggression-supporting social cognitions were examined in a sample of 250 early and middle adolescents. Adolescents completed behavior rating scales and a measure of their beliefs about the acceptability of responding aggressively. Principal components analysis identified 3 subtypes of aggressive and prosocial behavior: aggressive, prosocial, and proactive prosocial. Proactive prosocial behavior was positively correlated with aggression and aggression-supporting beliefs, while other prosocial behavior was negatively correlated with these constructs. Findings are discussed in the context of aggressive behavior development and with regard to traditional views of prosocial behavior as altruistic.

[1]  L. Eron,et al.  Learning of aggression in children , 1971 .

[2]  R. Bibace,et al.  Children's conceptions of illness , 1981 .

[3]  E. Turiel,et al.  The Development of Social Knowledge: Morality and Convention , 1983 .

[4]  L. Rowell Huesmann,et al.  The Relation of Prosocial Behavior to the Development of Aggression and Psychopathology , 1984 .

[5]  M. Ford,et al.  Children's Conceptions of Interpersonal Events. , 1986 .

[6]  K. Dodge,et al.  Social-information-processing factors in reactive and proactive aggression in children's peer groups. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  L. Eron.  The development of aggressive behavior from the perspective of a developing behaviorism. , 1987, American Psychologist.

[8]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  The relation of empathy to aggressive and externalizing/antisocial behavior. , 1988, Psychological bulletin.

[9]  K. Lagerspetz,et al.  Is Indirect Aggression Typical of Females? Gender Differences in Aggressiveness in 11- to 12-Year-Old Children , 1988 .

[10]  K. Dodge,et al.  The structure and function of reactive and proactive aggression. , 1991 .

[11]  R. Blair.  The development of morality , 1992 .

[12]  Linda Bream,et al.  Proactive and Reactive Aggression: An Analysis of Subtypes Based on Teacher Perceptions , 1992 .

[13]  K. Lagerspetz,et al.  Indirect Aggression in Boys and Girls , 1994 .

[14]  K. Björkqvist,et al.  Sex differences in physical, verbal, and indirect aggression: A review of recent research , 1994 .

[15]  D. Hay,et al.  Prosocial development. , 1994, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[16]  N. Crick,et al.  Relational aggression: The role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type , 1995, Development and Psychopathology.

[17]  N. Crick,et al.  Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. , 1995, Child development.

[18]  K. Dodge,et al.  Social information-processing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression. , 1996, Child development.

[19]  M. Tisak,et al.  Preschool Children's Social Interactions Involving Moral and Prudential Transgressions: An Observational Study , 1996 .

[20]  M. Osborne,et al.  A revised teacher rating scale for Reactive and Proactive Aggression , 1996, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[21]  L. R. Huesmann,et al.  Children's normative beliefs about aggression and aggressive behavior. , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  J. Tisak,et al.  Aggression and conventional rule violation among adolescents: Social-reasoning predictors of social behavior , 1998 .

[23]  K. Dodge,et al.  Social-Cognitive and Behavioral Correlates of Aggression and Victimization in Boys' Play Groups , 1998, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[24]  L. Rowell Huesmann,et al.  The role of social information processing and cognitive schema in the acquisition and maintenance of habitual aggressive behavior , 1998 .

[25]  D. Laible,et al.  Early Adolescence and Prosocial/Moral Behavior I: , 1999 .

[26]  M. Boivin,et al.  Proactive and Reactive Aggression and Boys' Friendship Quality in Mainstream Classrooms , 1999 .

[27]  R. Simons,et al.  Proactive and Reactive Aggression in Delinquent Adolescents: Relations to Aggression Outcome Expectancies , 2000, Journal of clinical child psychology.

[28]  M. O'moore.  Critical issues for teacher training to counter bullying and victimisation in Ireland , 2000 .

[29]  K. Björkqvist,et al.  Social intelligence - empathy = aggression? , 2000 .

[30]  M. Boivin,et al.  The role of proactive and reactive aggression in the formation and development of boys' friendships. , 2000, Developmental psychology.

[31]  Kendra Delveaux,et al.  Children's social cognitions: Physically and relationally aggressive strategies and children's goals in peer conflict situations. , 2000 .

[32]  Richard E. Tremblay,et al.  The development of aggressive behaviour during childhood: What have we learned in the past century? , 2000 .

[33]  S. Asher,et al.  Linkages between Children’s Beliefs about the Legitimacy of Aggression and Their Behavior , 2001 .

[34]  L. Eron.  Seeing is believing: How viewing violence alters attitudes and aggressive behavior. , 2001 .

[35]  Melanie Jackson,et al.  Is prosocial behaviour a good thing? Developmental changes in children's evaluations of helping, sharing, cooperating, and comforting , 2001 .

[36]  M. Reynolds,et al.  Assessing the Status of Research on Violence-Related Problems Among Youth , 2001, Journal of clinical child psychology.

[37]  L. Keltikangas-Järvinen,et al.  Peer-attributed prosocial behavior among aggressive/preferred, aggressive/non-preferred, non-aggressive/preferred and non-aggressive/non-preferred adolescents , 2001 .

[38]  G. Carlo,et al.  The Development of a Measure of Prosocial Behaviors for Late Adolescents , 2002 .

[39]  Mark Meerum Terwogt,et al.  Bullying and Victimization Among School-age Children: Stability and Links to Proactive and Reactive Aggression , 2002 .