Social reasoning: A source of influence on aggression

Aggressive children show deficits and biases in their social information pr ocessing: Cognitions based on early experience and social schemas are also related to development and maintenance of aggressive behavior. Social reaso ning can be linked to these aspects of social cognition, impacting on the s ituational cues individuals encode, their interpretations of events, and in fluencing response decisions. Past experience also influences development o f social reasoning and social schema. Despite this, current discussion of t he links between cognition and aggression rarefy involves consideration of the influence of social reasoning. In this review, domain theory (E. Turiel , 1978, 1983) underpins an examination of links between social reasoning an d aggression using empirical evidence drawn from research on the social rea soning of normal and aggressive children. Children as young as 3 appear to use consistent patterns of social reasoning when making judgments about tra nsgressions and other social events, and these patterns are linked to socia l reasoning domains. We propose that aggressive children access information from the underlying social reasoning domains differently than their prosoc ial peers. This in turn affects their decision making and subsequent behavi or in social situations. Our review explores developmental and clinical imp lications of the proposal and provides directions for future research. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.