COGNITIVE INTERPRETATION DEFICITS IN AGGRESSIVE AND VICTIM CHILDREN

Using Dodge's (1986) social information processing model of social competence, we examined the interpretation of social cues in 48 third through sixth grade children classified on the dimensions of aggression and victimization. It was hypothesized that both aggressive and victim children would show interpretation (attribution) deficits or biases as compared to controls. In order to test this hypothesis, subjects were administered a series of short stories. Four of these scenarios depicted ambiguous provocations and three depicted ambiguous prosocial acts directed toward the subject. The stories were designed to measure the extent to which children made negative, blaming attributions in response to the stories. The results provided partial support for the prediction. While victim children manifested no biases, the aggressive children did possess a hostile attributional bias. It was suggested that these children are distinct from each other and may possess very different biases that account for the observed behavioral differences.