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Running Head: RELATIONAL AGGRESSION
All About Relational
Aggression Julia Rawlings
Liberty University
Author Note
Julia M. Rawlings, Department of Psychology, Liberty University.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Julia Rawlings,
Department of Psychology, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA.
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract
This paper is a discussion on relational aggression and its importance as a social psychology
topic. This paper also reviews two peer reviewed journal articles that did research on relational
aggression. And finally, this paper will discuss a biblical perspective on relational aggression and
why it is or is not a good behavior in the eyes of God. The first article explores a way to reduce
relational aggression. And the second article finds how home life and parental conflict can affect
relational aggression.
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Introduction
Relational Aggression is “harming another person through the manipulation of
relationships” (Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Akert, R. M., &Sommers, S. R., 2016). Relational
aggression is extremely important because it often times turns into bullying when done
repeatedly. One very common example of relational aggression is cyberbullying. It can start
with small things such as a nasty comment on someone’s photo on Instagram or a mean text
message insulting the target victim. Other times it can be more extreme such as posting sexual
photographs or videos of someone on the internet for all to see without their permission. You
can see cyberbullying often on the Instagram’s or other social media famous accounts. For
example, a girl could post a picture of her in a swimsuit and then get flooded with messages
calling her fat or a slut and telling her to lose weight or sometimes even more horrible things
like telling the person to kill themselves. There have been many instances where relational
aggression leads the victim of it to commit suicide. Girls are a lot more likely to use relational
aggression whereas boys are more likely to use physical aggression to get their way or to bully
someone. Relational aggression is often intended to cause serious harm to the victim of it which
is why it is never okay and an important subject to talk about.
Review of “Evidence That Self-Affirmation Reduces Relational Aggression: A proof of
concept Trial”
Objectives and Hypothesis
This article is based off a research experiment done to see if self-affirmation can reduce
relational aggression. The objective of this research study was to reduce relational aggression
both in everyday life and in clinical conditions because of the consequences that relational
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aggression can have on someone’s life. The researchers believed that self-affirmation would
indeed reduce relational aggression prior to conducting the research experiment.
Methods
503 students from two separate schools were used to conduct this experiment. The
students ages ranged from 11 to 16 years of age. The students were made up of 259 females and
229 males. Students were given questionnaires in their classroom. The questionnaire helped to
assess baseline levels of physical and relational aggression in the students. The students were
randomly split into two conditions. The first was the control in which the students completed a
random distracter task and then “were asked to read a persuasive message designed to reduce
relational aggression” (Armitage, C. J., & Rowe, R., 2017). The experimental group completed
a self-affirmation task and then was asked to read the same persuasive message as the control
group. After receiving the persuasive message, the students answered another questionnaire that
helped rate their interpersonal feelings as well as how well they processed the message.
Interpersonal feelings were measured by rating student’s feelings of love, joy, and giving on a
five-point scale. Rates of relational aggression were rated through the questionnaire by
student’s self-observations using a five-item scale.
Results
After one month’s time participants were contacted again to see the effects of the study
on relational aggression. There were no significant effects that the self-affirmation had on
physical aggression. However, with relational aggression in the experimental group there was a
significant decrease in relational aggression. In the control group there was a non-significant
increase in relational aggression. There was a significantly lower level of relational aggression
in
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the experimental group than in the control group at the time of the follow up. All other possible
variables effects were tested such as age, gender, etc. and there were no significant effects
these other variables had on the levels of relational aggression in either group.
Article in Relation to Relational Aggression
This article relates to the social psychology topic of relational aggression. The article
conducts a study on one of the possible ways to reduce relational aggression. As mentioned in
the introduction section of this paper relational aggression can cause serious damage to the
victims of it to the extent that sometimes suicide has been committed. This is why this article
trying to reduce it is so valuable to this topic. If we can find ways to reduce such a harmful act,
then the social and personal lives of many people can be improved.
Review of “Inter-parental Conflict and Adolescents’ Relational Aggression and Loneliness:
The Mediating Role of Maternal Psychological Control”
Objectives and Hypothesis
The objective of this study was to see if inter-parental conflict and maternal
psychological control would affect a child’s levels of loneliness and relational aggression. The
researchers hypothesized that the children would have an increase in loneliness and relational
aggression as the parent’s levels of inter-parental conflict were worse.
Methods
The sample for this research study was taken from four different Turkish high schools
and was made up of 555 students, between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. The rest of the
sample was made up of 307 mothers ages 31 to 57 years old. The sample was taken during the
9th grade year where students transitioned from middle to high school because it is a more
stressful
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time for the family and therefore more likely for inter-parental conflict to occur (Kocak, A.,
Mouratidis, A., Syll, M., Kindap-Tepe, Y., & Ucanok, Z, 2017). The students and mothers in the
study filled out a questionnaire based around parental conflict. The scale asked the parents about
the frequency their child witnessed inter-parental conflict as well as aggression between parents.
The child also filled out a questionnaire based on their perception of their parent’s conflicts.
Another scale was created for the children to answer their own perception of parents using
psychological control on them. And then, a fourth questionnaire that the mothers answered on
their use of psychological control with their children. There then were another two scales created
for the child to assess loneliness and relational aggression in their lives. The students were then
contacted again eight months later to have a follow up questionnaire on loneliness and relational
aggression
Results
Inter-parental conflict rated both by the child and mother positively correlated with
psychological controls behaviors. Parental conflict as well as psychological control had a
positive correlation with both the first and second ratings of relational aggression as well as
loneliness. There was also a significant difference between male and females in this study which
was taken into account when reviewing the results.
Article in Relation to Relational Aggression
There are many things that could affect a child’s behaviors when it comes to aggression.
Home life plays a huge role in how a child behaves. As we can see in this study inter-parental
conflict and psychological control plays a big role in how often a child uses relational
aggression. Relational aggression is not a good behavior for someone to have and knowing that
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as a parent you could help or hurt your child’s behavior in this area is a great knowledge to have.
It can help you reduce your child’s relational aggression by changing the way you behave at
home. This can help improve your child’s social and personal life.
Biblical Integration
Often times we use behaviors like aggression to hurt someone because they angered us or
hurt us first. The Lord does not want us to get even with others. So many times, in the bible it
says to turn the other cheek when someone hurts you. It also says to forgive others when they
have wronged you. God does not want us to use relational aggression or aggression in any form
to hurt someone because they have hurt or angered us first. In Romans 12:18-19 it says “If
possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves,
but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the
Lord’” (ESV). The Lord promises that He will avenge us because He is a just and fair God. In
the bible it tells us to be slow to anger and to tame our tongues. But relational aggression shows
neither of these. Anger itself is just an emotion like any other, however, it is what anger causes us
to do that makes it a sin. Psalm 37:8 says “cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it
tends only to evil” (ESV). God does not want us to anger easily because it leads us to sin against
others and relational aggression is a great example of that. God is not making these commands
about anger to simply control us but because He loves us and wants our best for our life. He
knows that anger and aggression can lead to horrible things. As Christians we are called to love
on another like Christ loved us first. Christ never used aggression. When Christ was angry it was
a righteous anger and never caused Him to sin. The Lord knows that we will be angry
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sometimes, but it is when we take that anger and use it in ways like relational aggression to
intentionally hurt someone that He disagrees with us. God will never agree with us using
relational aggression because it only ruins our own lives as well as the victim’s life.
Conclusion
Relational aggression as discussed above is defined as “harming someone through the
manipulation of relationships” (Aronson, et al., 2016). In the first article reviewed research found
that self-affirmation can significantly reduce relational aggression. In the second article the study
showed that inter-parental conflict as well as psychological control from mother’s have a positive
correlation with relational aggression. God will never agree with relational aggression as it is
designed to intentionally hurt someone. God wants us to forgive and love others not to use
aggression and sin against each other.
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References
Armitage, C. J., & Rowe, R. (2017). Evidence that self-affirmation reduces relational aggression:
A proof of concept trial. Psychology of Violence, 7(4), 489-497.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/vio0000062
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., Akert, R. M., & Sommers, S. R. (2016). Social psychology (9th ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson. ISBN: 9780133936544
Koçak, A., Mouratidis, A., Sayıl, M., Kındap-Tepe, Y., & Uçanok, Z. (2017). Inter-parental
Conflict and Adolescents’ Relational Aggression and Loneliness: The Mediating Role of
Maternal Psychological Control. Journal of Child and Family Studies,26(12), 3546-3558.
doi:10.1007/s10826-017-0854-x.
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