Developmental Origins of Aggression

While aggression is often conceived as a learned behavior that peaks during adolescence, this important volume shows that aggressive behaviors have their origins in early childhood and even infancy. Findings from major longitudinal research programs are used to illuminate the processes by which most children learn alternatives to physical aggression as they grow older, while a minority become increasingly violent. The developmental trajectories of proactive, reactive, and indirect aggression are reviewed, as are lessons learned from animal studies. Bringing together the best of current knowledge, the volume sheds new light on the interplay of biological factors, social and environmental influences, and sex differences in both adaptive and maladaptive aggression.

Richard E. Tremblay, PhD, is Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Psychology at the University of Montreal and Director of the Inter-University Research Unit on Children's Psychosocial Maladjustment. For over 20 years, he has conducted a program of longitudinal and experimental studies addressing the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development of children from conception onward to understand the development and prevention of antisocial behavior.

Willard W. Hartup, EdD, is Regents' Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Hartup has spent many years researching friendship and peer relations in child development, antipathies and their significance, and conflict and aggression in childhood and adolescence.

John Archer, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom. His research is concerned with human aggression, grief and loss, and sex differences. Dr. Archer is also the author of several books, including Sex and Gender (with Barbara Lloyd) and The Nature of Grief; numerous book chapters; and over 100 articles in refereed journals covering psychology, medicine, and biology. In recent years, he has published a number of meta-analytic reviews on topics connected with sex differences in aggression.