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Learning of Aggression

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Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Aggression—behavior aimed at harming another person—has environmental and biological determinants. Environmental factors include the degree to which the environment provides aggressive models, reinforces aggression, and frustrates and victimizes the child. Biological factors include the child’s temperament, hormones, and physique. Interplays between heredity and environment are also influential. For example, children born with irritating, hard-to-handle temperaments are especially at risk for eliciting the rejecting, punitive parental reactions that are conducive to aggressive development. This chapter focuses on environmental bases of aggression. Special attention is paid to how environmental factors interact with the child’s cognitions and behaviors to influence the development of aggression.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, 33431-0991, USA

    David G. Perry & Louise C. Perry

  2. Department of Sociology and Social Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, 33431-0991, USA

    Janet P. Boldizar

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  1. David G. Perry
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  2. Louise C. Perry
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  3. Janet P. Boldizar
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Michael Lewis

  2. Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Suzanne M. Miller

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© 1990 Plenum Press, New York

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Perry, D.G., Perry, L.C., Boldizar, J.P. (1990). Learning of Aggression. In: Lewis, M., Miller, S.M. (eds) Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7142-1_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7142-1_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

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