An Attributional Analysis of Childhood Aggression

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ABSTRACT It is known that aggressive children tend to perceive ambiguous negative events as intentionally caused by others. Such judgments then provoke hostile retaliation. This robust empirical finding is elaborated in the current research, using attribution theory to illuminate the dynamics of aggression and to guide the creation of an attributional intervention with African American school-aged boys labeled as aggressive. In seven studies, sociometric procedures will be used to identify aggressive males and matched groups of nonaggressive subjects. Laboratory paradigms taken from social psychology will then be used to investigate the antecedents of judgments of intent and responsibility. Among the topics to be examined are: a) whether aggressive children over-attribute hostile intent to others in both aggressive and nonaggressive contexts; b) the likelihood that race (i.e., perceived prejudice) is used by black subjects as an attributional cue in judgments of self-responsibility; and c) whether aggressive children understand the communication strategies and excuses that are used to mitigate anger from others. These findings will then be used to create an intervention designed to reduce hostile behavior among African American boys labeled as aggressive. The intervention will be tested in an actual school setting and its development is guided by the belief that a change in cognition (i.e., attribution to intent) should lead to changes in the feelings and behavior that logically follow this causal inference.