1. Dominance, aggression, and the functional use of space in institutionalized female adolescents
- Author
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Aristide H. Esser, K. Mark Sossin, and Robert D. Deutsch
- Subjects
Dominance hierarchy ,Dominance (ethology) ,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) ,Injury prevention ,Developmental and Educational Psychology ,Social environment ,Poison control ,Human factors and ergonomics ,Territoriality ,Psychology ,Suicide prevention ,General Psychology ,Developmental psychology - Abstract
Department of Psychiatry, Rutgers Medical School, College of Medicine andDentistry of New Jersey, Piscataway, New Jersey (R.D.DJ; and Social BiologyLab, Rockland Research Institute, Orangeburg, New York (A.H.E., K.M.S.)This is a study of an institutionalized group of female adolescents observed for a nine-week period. These girls were observed to determine the characteristics of their domi-nance relations and how, in turn, this aspect of their social environment was related touse of their physical environment. Correlational analyses between observatiotial andsociometric data suggested that dominance rank was based upon the frequency of beingthe recipient of a dominance act. Fewer dominance acts were initiated against higherranking girls. Dominance ranking was not based upon frequency of initiating a domi-nance act towards others. Higher ranking girls were the ones most frequently observedalone in their own bedroom. Bedrooms were highly desirable areas used for grooming(eg, setting hair, ironing clothes, putting on cosmetics, resting) as girls sought to gainpopularity with the institution's male population. Comparison of results with findingsin similar studies on male adolescents suggest some tentative generalizations as to sexdifference in dominance and territoriality.Key words: adolescents, dominance hierarchy, territoriality, sex differences
- Published
- 1978
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