Relational aggression
Encyclopedia
Relational aggression, also known as covert aggression or covert bullying, is a type of aggression
Aggression
In psychology, as well as other social and behavioral sciences, aggression refers to behavior between members of the same species that is intended to cause humiliation, pain, or harm. Ferguson and Beaver defined aggressive behavior as "Behavior which is intended to increase the social dominance of...

 in which harm is caused through damage to relationships
Interpersonal relationship
An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...

 or social status
Social status
In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc....

 within a group rather than by means of actual or threatened physical violence. Relational aggression is more common and more studied among girls than boys.

Forms

  • Betrayal
    Betrayal
    Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations...

    – Where the abuser breaks agreements with the victim.
  • Exclusion/Solitude
    Solitude
    Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders or circumstances of employment or situation .Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one...

    – Where the abuser prevents the victim from socializing with the abuser's friends.
  • Gossip
    Gossip
    Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others, It is one of the oldest and most common means of sharing facts and views, but also has a reputation for the introduction of errors and variations into the information transmitted...

    – Where the abuser tells others personal information about the victim.
  • Humiliation
    Humiliation
    Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It can be brought about through bullying, intimidation, physical or mental mistreatment or trickery, or by embarrassment if a person is revealed to have...

    – Where the abuser humiliates or shames the victim in front of others.
  • Lie
    Lie
    For other uses, see Lie A lie is a type of deception in the form of an untruthful statement, especially with the intention to deceive others....

    s
    – Where the abuser lies about the victim to others.

Origin of the term

The term relational aggression was first coined in a 1995 study by University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

 researchers Nicki R. Crick and Jennifer K. Grotpeter. Despite the novelty of the term, it has gained usage in books, popular articles, academic papers, web sites and even in the title of research conferences.

Abusive relationships

An abusive relationship is an interpersonal relationship
Interpersonal relationship
An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...

 characterized by the use or threat of physical abuse
Physical abuse
Physical abuse is abuse involving contact intended to cause feelings of intimidation, injury, or other physical suffering or bodily harm.-Forms of physical abuse:*Striking*Punching*Belting*Pushing, pulling*Slapping*Whipping*Striking with an object...

 or psychological abuse
Psychological abuse
Psychological abuse, also referred to as emotional abuse or mental abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder...

 (see battered woman syndrome). Abusive relationships are often characterized by jealousy
Jealousy
Jealousy is a second emotion and typically refers to the negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something that the person values, particularly in reference to a human connection. Jealousy often consists of a combination of presenting emotions...

, emotional withholding, lack of intimacy, infidelity
Infidelity
In many intimate relationships in many cultures there is usually an express or implied expectation of exclusivity, especially in sexual matters. Infidelity most commonly refers to a breach of the expectation of sexual exclusivity.Infidelity can occur in relation to physical intimacy and/or...

, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

, verbal abuse
Verbal abuse
Verbal abuse is best described as a negative defining statement told to you or about you; or by withholding any response thus defining the target as non-existant...

, broken promises, violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...

, control games, and power plays, and are often progressively escalating.

Tactics used to show relational aggression include humiliation, intimidation
Intimidation
Intimidation is intentional behavior "which would cause a person of ordinary sensibilities" fear of injury or harm. It's not necessary to prove that the behavior was so violent as to cause terror or that the victim was actually frightened.Criminal threatening is the crime of intentionally or...

, coercing
Coercion
Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. In law, coercion is codified as the duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way...

, shaming, malicious teasing
Teasing
Teasing is a word with many meanings. In human interactions, teasing comes in two major forms, playful and hurtful. When teasing is playful and friendly, and especially when it is reciprocal, teasing can be regarded as flirting. People may be teased on such matters as their appearance, weight,...

, shunning
Shunning
Shunning can be the act of social rejection, or mental rejection. Social rejection is when a person or group deliberately avoids association with, and habitually keeps away from an individual or group. This can be a formal decision by a group, or a less formal group action which will spread to all...

, and using other forms of emotional abuse in an attempt to harm others. Although aggressive behavior is typically common among younger children, most children become less aggressive as they mature and develop better interpersonal skills. However, consistent aggressive behavior can lead to further problems and increased violence in the aggressor.

Victim effects

Over time a victim facing an abusive or aggressive relationship will follow one or more of the following symptoms below:
  • Increased hostility or aggressiveness
  • Frequent depression or low mood
  • Low sociability to one's friends
  • Denial
    Denial
    Denial is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.The subject may use:* simple denial: deny the reality of the...

  • Refusing a breakup (supposedly followed by denial and/or manipulation)
  • Manipulation (controlled by abuser)
  • Drop in performance
  • Avoiding people and/or public (supposedly followed by humiliation)
  • Stockholm syndrome
    Stockholm syndrome
    In psychology, Stockholm Syndrome is an apparently paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them...


Warning signs

Some of the warning signs that may indicate abuse include:
  • Physical harm of any kind
  • Attempting to control aspects of an individual's life (e.g., how one dresses, who one's friends are, what one does in one's free time, what one says, what one eats, etc.)
  • Humiliation, degradation, verbal threats
  • Coercing and/or threats of physical harm or financial retaliation to an individual or those close to him or her
  • Demanding to know where an individual is at all times, controls where another goes or "isn't allowed to go", etc.
  • "Raging
    Rage (emotion)
    Rage is a feeling of intense anger. It is associated with the Fight-or-flight response and oftentimes activated in response to an external cue, such as the murder of a loved one. The phrase, 'thrown into a fit of rage,' expresses the immediate nature of rage that occurs before deliberation. If left...

    " when emotionally hurt, shamed, or is in jeopardy of losing control in the relationship
  • Online manipulation, i.e., abuser is poised to hurt victim using knowledge of technology

See also


Books

  • Kupkovits, Jamie, Relational Aggression in Girls (2008)
  • Randall, Kaye & Bowen, Allyson A., Mean Girls: 101 Creative Strategies for Working With Relational Aggression (2007)
  • Wosnik, Debra, The I Hate Wendy Club: Story, Lessons, & Activities on Relational Aggression, Grades 2–5 (2007)

Academic articles

  • Carpenter, E.M. & Nangle, D.W. (2006). "Caught between stages: Relational aggression emerging as a developmental advance in at-risk preschoolers". Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 21, 177–188.
  • Casas, J.F., Weigel, S.M., Crick, N.R., Ostrov, J.M., Woods, K.E., Jansen Yeh, E.A., & Huddleston-Casas, C.A. (2006). "Early parenting and children's relational and physical aggression in the preschool and home contexts". Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 27, 209–2227.
  • Coyne, S., Archer, J., & Eslea, M. (2006). We're not friends anymore! Unless...': The frequency and harmfulness of indirect, relational, and social aggression". Aggressive Behavior, 32, 294–307.
  • Crain, M.M., Finch, C.L., & Foster, S.L. (2005). "The Relevance of the Social Information Processing Model for Understanding Relational Aggression in Girls". Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 51, 213–242.
  • Crick, N.R., & Grotpeter, J.K. (1995). "Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment". Child Development, 66(3), 710–722. (ERIC Journal No. EJ503787)
  • Crick, N.R. (1996). "The role of overt aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behavior in the prediction of children's future social adjustment". Child Development, 67(5), 2317–2327. (ERIC Journal No. EJ539853)
  • Crick, N.R., Casas, J.F., & Mosher, M. (1997). "Relational and overt aggression in preschool". Developmental Psychology, 33(4), 579–588. (ERIC Journal No. EJ549585)
  • Crick, N.R., Ostrov, J.M., & Werner, N.E. (2006). "A longitudinal study of relational aggression, physical aggression and children’s social-psychological adjustment". Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 131–142.
  • Crick, N.R., & Werner, N.E. (1998). "Response decision processes in relational and overt aggression". Child Development, 69, 1630–1639.
  • Grotpeter, J.K., & Crick, N.R. (1996). "Relational aggression, overt aggression, and friendship". Child Development, 67, 2328–2338.
  • Ostrov, J.M. Crick, N.R. Stauffacher, K. (2006). "Relational aggression in sibling and peer relationships during early childhood". Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
  • Stauffacher, K. & DeHart, G.B. "Crossing social contexts: Relational aggression between siblings and friends during early and middle childhood". Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
  • Tomada, G., & Schneider, B.H. (1997). "Relational aggression, gender, and peer acceptance: Invariance across culture, stability over time, and concordance among informants". Developmental Psychology, 33, 601-609.

External links

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