THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL INCOMPETENT BEH AVIOR IN PROVOCATION-SITUATIONS

The completion of a sociometric procedure with 245 children resulted i n the selection of 16 aggressive (rejected) and 32 non-aggressive (pop ular and average) children. Each subject read eight situations in whic h they were provoked in an ambiguous or non-ambiguous manner by a fell ow-pupil with a known aggressive or non-aggressive reputation. In non- ambiguous situations, children differ in the way they express their sa me level of anger. Aggressive children seem to react with impulsive ag gressive retaliation. Popular or average children react respectively w ith either (sub-)assertive or verbal aggressive and awaiting behavior. In ambiguous situations, the attributions influence the behavioral re sponses. The non-aggressive children perceive the ambiguity of the sit uation and react socially. The aggressive children instead react in an aggressive manner and show a (hostile) intentional attributional bias . Due to this bias, aggressive children perceive ambiguous provocation intentions as non-ambiguous and intentional. The results also demonst rate that the same provocative behavior is attributed to more hostile intentions, triggers off more anger and elicits more aggressive behavi or in children when this provocation is committed by a known fellow-pu pil with an aggressive than with a non-aggressive reputation. Implicat ions for intervention and further research are given.