AN INVESTIGATION INTO AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR OF CHILDREN AS SEEN THROUGH PROJECTIVE TESTS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of the relationship between overt aggression in the normal classroom behavior of children and the aggressive content they produce in their TAT, in their Hostile Sentence Construction Test (HSCT) protocols and in their compositions about their classmates.
Previous studies and clinical theory in this area suggest specific hypotheses for investigation. These hypotheses may be stated as follows: 1) The relationship between aggressive content in the TAT and their compositions, and overt aggression, will be positive and linear. 2) There will be a curvilinear relationship between the aggressive content in the HSCT and overt aggression.
Hypothesis 1. is based on a common assumption that the thematic material in general projects overt behavior in actual situation. Hypothesis 2 is due to our assumption that hostile content in the HSCT, as in the Rorschach, may be an expression of covert hostile tension.
Two projective tests, TAT and HSCT, were administered to one hundred and twenty children between eleven and twelve years of age. Then they were asked to write freely the in relations with their friends.
Their overt aggressions were rated by their classroom teachers.
Results: 1) There was a significant relationship between the ratings of aggressions which was expressed in children's compositions and the ratings of their overt aggressions.
2) There was no significant correlation between the hostile content they produced in their TAT and their overt aggressions.
3) The ralationship between the HSCT and their overt aggressions was curvilinear. In other words, children rated at both extremes on display of overt aggressions, i. e., very aggressive or very nonaggressive, proved to be more aggressive in the HSCT than those children who were rated as moderately aggressive.