Cognitive processes and the persistence of aggressive behavior

Abstract

Recent data from several longitudinal studies including one spanning 22 years suggest that aggression is quite stable over time and situation. Early measures of intellectual competence predicted concurrent and later aggression, but early aggression was independently a good predictor of reduced intellectual achievement as an adult. Over a shorter period of years cognitive rehearsal of aggressive behaviors predicted overt aggression, was predicted by overt aggression, and correlated with the child’s TV viewing. In combination, these data suggest a circular process in which scripts for aggressive behavior are learned at an early age and become more firmly entrenched as the child develops, so that aggression becomes self-perpetuating in children with certain cognitive characteristics.