Characteristics Of Social Cognition And Personality Development Of Preschool Aggressive Children

Two groups of children, each comprising 33 aggressive children and 33 non-aggressive children, were studied in comparison in our research. By questionnaires, we compare the differences between the two kinds of children, on self-perception and their perception of evaluation of parents versus parents' actual evaluation, also include their perception of evaluation of teachers versus teachers' actual evaluation. Tests with pictures of attackers and non-attackers were used to identify the preference of the subjects. Standardized stories were used as measures to determine the subjects' social cognitional abilities of possession, attribution, intentional perception and social perspective taking. Furthermore, we created three scenarios of companion activities to study the different reaction of aggressive behaviors between aggressive children and non-aggressive children. In the first scenario, subjects played with two companions who were doing fighting games. In the second scenario, subjects were with two companions doing calm play. In the last scenario, we observed subjects with one companion fight-7and another do calm play. From these studies, we found out:1. Aggressive children lagged behind non-aggressive children in terms of their perception of evaluation of parents, attribution and social perspective-taking2. Aggressive children preferred attackers when they were given pictures of attackers and non-attackers.3. No developmental differences were found of possession concept between aggressive and non-aggressive children. Aggressive children demonstrated a tendency to resolve to aggressive behaviors in order to protect their own belongings.4. Aggressive children tend to interpret others' behaviors as having aggressive intentions. They displayed more aggressive behaviors in situations where his two companions were all playing calmly.In conclusion, cognitional preference and the acquisition of social cognition are major factors contribution to children's development of aggressive behaviors.