Aggression and Adaptive Functioning: The Bright Side to Bad Behavior

The following four papers were presented in a symposium at the meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development (Minneapolis, 2001) entitled Aggression and Adaptive Functioning: The Bright Side to Bad Behavior. The title of the symposium hinted at what we believe to be a frequently underreported aspect of human behavior: That aggression in certain contexts may be associated with positive outcomes and desirable traits. Furthermore, at least some (and possibly many) aggressive individuals appear to be socially attractive to peers rather than repellant. Indeed, we have observed that some very aggressive children are central figures in their social groups and tend to enjoy all the benefits of social inclusion. Thus, in its own way, each of the four papers challenges currently accepted assumptions about aggressive behavior and trait aggression.