Dyadic Aggression: A 'Six-Second' Performance Theory About Children.

This report is an attempt to analyze the aggression which occurs within extended dyadic interchanges of parent and child, husband and wife, or sibling and peers. An argument is made for a "performance" theory of children's noxious behaviors based on the assumption that most children, exposed to modeling and reinforcing contingencies through which they learn the techniques of coercive behaviors, differ with regard to performance rates. It is proposed that it is necessary to search for the immediately impinging stimuli associated with altered probabilities in ongoing noxious behaviors. These stimuli may be found in various dyadic interchanges between the child and other family members. Studies based on across-subjects' daya are reviewed which show networks of controlling stimuli for many noxious behaviors observed in family interactions. A pilot study using an extensive series of intraindividual data for one boy is described. The data replicated the stimulus network findings for noxious behaviors as well as the construction of response classes. The interactions between extended interchanges of response class and maintaining stimuli are described in a probability tree. The latter demonstrated the impact of the environment on the child as well as that of the child on the environment. (CS)