Mod 6 - Rough Draft of Final

Results and Discussion Draft: Aggression in Children

Martha Ramsey

Saint Leo University

Research Methods II: PSY 535

Instructor Keith Burton

August 7, 2022

Analysis

In the analysis, a few items will be measured: the frequency of children being aggressive towards others. Two types of aggressiveness will be measured, relational aggressiveness and physical aggressiveness. Two scales will be used to combine the scores: the relational aggressiveness scale (RAS) and the physical aggressiveness scale (PAS). The scores for each scale will range from 0 to 5, where the scale measures the number of instances or times the children will have been aggressive towards their colleagues. A score of 0 means that the child is not aggressive, a scale of 1 means that the child is slightly aggressive, two means that the child is relatively aggressive, three means that the child is aggressive, 4 means the more aggressive, and five means that the highly aggressive.

With six questions, each with an option to score a maximum of 5 points and a minimum of 0, each type of aggressiveness will have a possible total score of 30. The two types of aggressiveness will thus have a cumulative maximum score of 60, whereas the least score is 0 for each participant or response received.

In the two scales, if more than 4 item questions are missing, the response will be disregarded and not included in the analysis. If three or fewer items are missing from each scale, then the average of the answered items will be awarded to the missing items used in the analysis.

The scores for each scale will be added based on the gender and their averages determined. The averages will be compared between the genders to identify the possible patterns.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Results

In PAS, using excel, a comparison between each of the six items being examined will be made. This will show between each element of the PAS scale which gender has the highest scores. In RAS, using excel, a comparison button for each of the six items being examined will be made. This will show between each element of the RAS scale which gender has the highest scores.

Comparisons will be done between the sums of variables for the two genders. The results will be able to depict the gender that is more aggressive relationally and more aggressive physically. The overall mean scores across the genders based on the two scales will be computed and compared. The largest mean between the genders will imply the more aggressive gender.

Using excel, a Pearson’s R-value will be calculated to establish whether there is a relationship between relational aggressiveness and physical aggressiveness in boys and girls separately.

Discussion

Aggressiveness tends to occur in two different types: relationally and physically. Both boys and girls are expected to exhibit these characteristics separately. A boy is expected to be more relationally aggressive than physically aggressive or vice versa. Others are expected to depict both characteristics. For girls, it’s expected that girls will display more aggressiveness, either relationally or physically, or both. This is because some girls are good at using verbal words and cues to make their peers like or hate others. Other girls are physically more aggressive when using words and non-physical means. These characteristics are also expected to be exhibited in boys. The results will indicate whether the boys are more aggressive, or the girls are more aggressive than their male counterparts.

These results are very important because they will be used to understand how best to approach the two genders with the desire to have a program that can be used to make boys and girls how to control their behaviors. This concerns aggressiveness and social wellbeing. More aggressive children tend to be less social, and this is because they do not tolerate certain social behaviors that are exhibited by their counterparts.

It is thus paramount for people in charge of such young people to understand how to teach them to embrace socializing and better ways to resolve disputes or misunderstandings than resolving to become aggressive and thus harming other peers.

References

Coyne, S. M., Nelson, D. A., & Underwood, M. (2010). Aggression in children.

Cuellar, A. (2015). Preventing and treating child mental health problems. The Future of Children, 111-134.

Lochman, J. E., Powell, N. R., Whidby, J. M., & FitzGerald, D. P. (2012). Aggression in children.

Skinner, A. Behavior Frequency Scale. Parenting Across Cultures. Retrieved 3 August 2022, from http://parentingacrosscultures.org/behavior-frequency-scale/ .

Feedback77.5 %

Please make sure to review the sample papers provided to see the level of detail expected for final results/discussion sections.

With regard to your results, try to connect the specific proposed analyses with the hypotheses you're testing. And if you're doing a gender comparison, a Pearson's r will not be what you want. Any straight group comparison will require either a t-test (two groups, one DV) or an ANOVA (2 or more groups, one or more DVs).

Also make sure to discuss some other anticipatable limitations to this kind of study - for example, the preconceptions the raters might have about boys' and girls' behavior. And what else might be helpful to measure here? Any confounds that you haven't considered?