Nancy Eisenberg

Young Children’s Emotional Arousal and Anger/Aggressive Behaviors

Few topics have attracted as much theoretical and empirical attention as the development, socialization, and regulation of children’s aggressive behavior (see Parke & Slaby, 1983, for a review). Although the study of children’s aggressive behavior has a long history, there are still many important questions and issues that remain unanswered. For example, a long-standing explanation of aggressive behavior is that it is motivated by emotional arousal (EA; e.g., Zillmann, 1983). However, although EA creates a readiness for aggression, it is not a necessary condition for aggression (Berkowitz, 1974). Under what conditions does emotional arousability affect children’s angry and aggressive behaviors and what factors (e.g., temperament, gender, socialization) moderate the relation between children’s EA and angry/aggressive behaviors? These questions serve as the basis for this chapter.