Sex-Related Comparisons: Theory 157Girls play in small groups, which minimize
conflict and emphasize cooperation. In girls’
groups, the potential for the expression of
emotions that foster relationships, such as
sadness and fear, is high.
Peers also contribute to aggression
through modeling and reinforcement.
Whereas aggression in younger children is
associated with being rejected by peers, there
is some evidence that aggression can con-
fer status among preadolescents and ado-
lescents. Some social cliques are based on
aggression. Aggressive behavior may come
to be viewed as powerful and attractive. The
aggressive adolescents who become more
popular may be characterized by what has
been referred to asproactive aggression
compared toreactive aggression(Poulin &
Boivin, 2000a). Reactive aggression is an
angry, impulsive response to threat or prov-
ocation more clearly tied to the frustration-
aggression hypothesis. Proactive aggression,
by contrast, is unprovoked, planned, goal
directed, and socially motivated. Reactive
aggression has been associated with peer
rejection and peer victimization, but pro-
active aggression has not (Hubbard et al.,
2010). Proactive aggressive groups may
gang up on and target a specific individual.
These children expect to be rewarded for
their behavior. Reactive aggression is asso-
ciated with anger and physiological arousal,
but proactive aggression is associated with
a noticeable lack of physiological arousal—
making it all the more disturbing (Hubbard
et al., 2010).
So, is there anything that parents can
do, according to Harris (1998)? Yes: Parents
should choose to live in a good neighbor-
hood. This is because it is the peers in the
neighborhood who are going to influence the
child. But we wonder: What is the cause of
the neighborhood children’s behavior?parents may be less likely than friends or
relatives to use category-based information
when interacting with their children.
This line of thinking is similar to that
of Judith Harris (1998), who concluded that
parents have largely no effect on the devel-
opment of a child’s personality. (This was
a great relief to me, as the book appeared
shortly after my daughter was born.) She
wrote a controversial book entitledThe Nur-
ture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the
WayTheyDo:ParentsMatterLessThanYou
Think and Peers Matter More. The title says
it all. Harris argues that the source of influ-
ence on children comes from outside the
home, in particular, from the peer group.
Her conclusion is partly based on the fact
that children raised by the same parents in
the same environment often turn out to have
very different personalities. However, we can
debate whether the same home and the same
parents constitute the same environment for
each child. Harris’s theory is calledgroup so-
cializationand emphasizes the child’s expe-
rience outside the home. According to her
theory, children learn behavior inside the
home but then test it on others outside the
home to see if it is going to be accepted or
rejected. Others’ reactions determine if the
behavior is repeated.
Is there evidence that peers influence
sex differences? The prominence of same-
sex play in childhood (discussed in depth in
Chapter 7) is thought to reinforce sex-typed
behavior (Golombok et al., 2008). The dif-
ferences in girls’ and boys’ early peer groups
could certainly lead to differences in behav-
ior. Boys play in larger groups, which have
the potential for conflict and aggression. In
boys’ groups, the potential for the expres-
sion of anger is high, but the potential for
the expression of emotions that make us
vulnerable, such as fear and sadness, is low.M05_HELG0185_04_SE_C05.indd 157 6/21/11 8:03 AM