Abstract
While a variety of cognitive deficits and biases have been found to characterize aggressive and delinquent children and youth, very little attention has focused on determining whether aggressive youth also display deviant attributional beliefs in response to social failure. Research in the more impersonal cognitive domains such as achievement has shown attributions for failure to be potent determinants of both affective rections and subsequent responding. Thus, the present study was designed to investigate whether specific attributional patterns following social failure may also relate to aggressive behavior. The aim of this study was to determine the relation betweeen the level of self-reported physical aggression and specific atttributional patterns following hypothetical social failure in a sample of incarcerated delinquent males. While the general hypotheses were that increased aggressiveness would be related to a greater tendency to endorse attributions for social failure that are external, stable, and controllable, only the hypothesis with regard to controllability was supported. The findings are discussed in terms of the relation between cognition and aggression in delinquent youth.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Connell, J. P. (1985). A new multidimensional measure of children's perception of control.Child Development, 56, 1018–1041.
Dodge, K. A. (1980). Social cognition and children's aggressive behavior.Child Development, 51, 52–170.
Dodge, K. A. (1986). A social-information-processing model of social competence in children. In M. Perlmutter (Ed.),Minnesota symposium on child psychology (Vol. 18, pp. 77–125). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dodge, K. A., & Frame, C. L. (1982). Social-cognitive biases and deficits in aggressive boys.Child Development, 53, 629–635.
Dweck, C. S., & Eliot, E. E. (1983). Achievement motivation. In P. Mussen (Gen. Ed.) & E. M. Heatherington (Vol. Ed.),Handbook of child psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 643–691). New York: Wiley.
Guerra, N. G., & Slaby, R. G. (1989). Evaluative factors in social problem solving by aggressive boys.Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 17, 277–289.
Guerra, N. G., & Slaby, R. G. (1990). Cognitive mediators of aggression in adolescent offenders: Intervention.Developmental Psychology, 26, 269–277.
Hains, A. A., & Ryan, E. G. (1983). The development of social cognitive processes among juvenile delinquents and nondelinquent peers.Child Development, 54, 1536–1544.
Huesmann, L. R. (1988). An information-processing model for the development of aggression.Aggressive Behavior, 14, 13–24.
Huesmann, L. R., Eron, L. D., Lefkowitz, M. M., & Walder, L. O. (1984). The stability of aggression over time and generations.Developmental Psychology, 20, 1120–1134.
Larsen, K. (1984).Meta-cognitive training with learning disabled delinquents. Unpublished manuscript, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Quay, H. C. (1987). Patterns of delinquent behavior. In H. C. Quay (Ed.),Handbook of juvenile delinquency (pp. 118–188). New York: Wiley.
Rubin, K. H., & Krasnor, L. R. (1986). Social-cognitive and social-behavioral perspectives on problem solving. In M. Perlmutter (Ed.),Minnesota symposium on child psychology (Vol. 18, pp. 1–68). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Russell, D. (1982). The causal dimension scale: A measure of how individuals perceive causes.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 1137–1145.
Russell, D., & McAuley, E. (1986). Causal attributions, causal dimensions, and affective reactions to success and failure.Journal of Personality and Social Phychology, 50, 1174–1185.
Slaby, R. G., & Guerra, N. G. (1988). Cognitive mediators of aggresssion in adolescent offenders: I. Assessment.Developmental Psychology, 24, 580–588.
Worchel, S. (1974). The effect of three types of arbitrary thwarting on the instigation to aggression.Journal of Personality, 42, 300–318.
Wortman, C. G., & Brehm, J. W. (1975). Responses to uncontrollable outcomes: An integration of reactance theory and the learned helplessness model.Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 8, 277–336.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported in part by grant MH 44768-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health to the first author. The authors would like to thank the staff of the Illinois Youth Center-St. Charles for their cooperation.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guerra, N.G., Huesmann, L.R. & Zelli, A. Attributions for social failure and aggression in incarcerated delinquent youth. J Abnorm Child Psychol 18, 347–355 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00917639
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00917639