She has already demonstrated that a child's goal priorities, such as winning games, having fun or developing personal relationships, are good predictors of whether or not a child will behave aggressively. The results of her and her colleagues' studies, she says, could help teachers, guidance counselors and even parents to understand and address childhood aggression. Erdley's work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Social Development , Developmental Psychology , and Child Development . She also has authored a book chapter on childhood aggression in the context of peer relationships. I'm looking at social-cognitive factors such as goal priorities.
Some kids give high priority to retaliation goals.
These perceptions include beliefs about how good a child is at being aggressive. Another factor is whether or not a child thinks that aggression is a legitimate response. Then there are familial factors. I think psychologists understand a lot about what factors are related to aggression, but even so, I don't think you can predict something like which adolescent is going to pull a gun at school. My ultimate goal is to better understand what underlies aggression so we can design better interventions.