2.5 Emotional, social and personality development

• In various studies, acceleration and deceleration in the aggressive behavior of nursery school children was shown to be linked to either positive or negative reinforcing reactions of other children. Positive reinforces for aggression were not approval or attention but crying, passivity, and defensiveness of the victim. Patterson, G.R., Littman, R. A.,&Bricker, W. (1967). Assertive behavior in children : A step toward a theory of aggression. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development , 32 (5, Serial No. 113).
• In other studies, the ability of a child to acquire friends was limited by coercive socialization in the family and peer group – acquired friends were likely to be aggressive and antisocial as well. Patterson, G. R., Reid, J. B.,&Dishon, T. J. (1992). Antisocial Boys. Eugene, OR: Castalia. Among those children, communication with friends likely emphasizes deviant behavior Poulin, F. Dishion, T. J.,&Haas, E. (1999). The peer influence paradox: Friendship quality and deviancy training within male adolescent friendships. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 45 , 42-61. to involve conflict and assertiveness – this leads to acceleration of troublesome, antisocial behavior.

Obviously, emphasis and promotion of certain qualities will lead to those qualities developing over time. Over time certain characteristics or personality traits develop - they do so dependent on the age, special population, and environment of the person. So those studies were examples of how emotional development works. Because children talk to their friends about bullying, they become bigger bullies themselves. It is almost like they are consciously and deliberately forming their own development. Also, what comes along with becoming bigger bullies, is learning how to be good at bullying, almost a bullying competency. Such a thing is hard to measure, so my point is that the activities which lead to development become an integral part of the person and influences other aspects of their personality. Bullying might have the effect of making both the bully and the abused tougher as people, because they are exposed to harsh emotions and become more resilient because of that. Unless a bully constantly feels bad about what he/she did in the past, or the abused forever reflects in sadness on the bullying, the experience is probably going to be something for both parties to learn and develop from. Exposure to more emotion is probably going to lead to more development as long it doesn’t hinder the person. People can grow (or have their personality traits change) from all types of emotion and experience.

• Piaget had the idea that children advanced more cognitively from conflict interactions with peers than with conflict interactions with adults. Children generally accept that adults have greater knowledge about the world than they do, and so yield to the adults point of view. In contrast, peer interaction forces children to coordinate or restructure their own views. Piaget, J. (1932) The moral judgment of the child . Glencoe, IL: Free Press.