| Abstract: | Primary manifestations of aggression appear in the behavior of children in the second half of the first year of life. The frequency of Occurrence of interpeer aggression increases with age, and reaches its maximum in the third year. The frequency of aggression may later decrease, but there are considerable individual differences. Changes a h Occur in the form in which aggression is manifested; its motivational background and associated elicitors; its direction, duration, timing, and other operational characteristics, and in the modes of its acquisition. A certain continuity may be traced, however, in any of these features and the development of aggression may be perhaps more adequately represented by the following sequence of developmental stage: - 1 Stage of preaggressive behavior;
- 2 Stage of primary differentiation;
- 3 Stage of the appearance of the individual pattern of aggressive behavior;
- 4 Stage of secondary differentiation of aggression;
- 5 Stage of the beginning of the transition into covert behavior—internalization of aggression
These stages represent certain facets of the interaction between the changing behavioral performance of the child and herlhis social environment, and may be used for evaluating aggressive behavior in young children. |
