Copyright Malvin Porter, Jr. 2010 - acumen - The University of ...

easoning and intellectual abilities correlate with their social behavioral competencies. Future
studies should attempt to identify clusters of children who sometimes justify aggressive actions
with prosocial justifications.
Third, this study found that Justice/fair justifications related to prosocial action choices.
Children who chose Justice/Fair Justification Choices were more likely to choose Prosocial
Action Choices than children who chose Aggressive Action Choices. These findings are
consistent with findings from previous research in which children sometimes rationalize their
prosocial behavior as a means of reconciling and reaffirming social relationships and values
among peers (David & Choi, 2009); And, in which some children are motivated to behave in
prosocial ways because of the concern about equality and fair treatment in support of the well-
being of a victim (Eisenberg-Berg, 1979; Miller, Eisenberg, Fabes, & Shell, 1996). In contrast,
other research finds that children sometimes use Justice/Fair Justification Choices to explain
their Aggressive Action Choices as a way evoke equality, shift blame to the victim, or exonerate
their own actions (Bandura, 1973; Dodge et al., 1997). Interestingly, other research supports the
notion that children sometimes make discrepant judgments in favor of retributive punishment
that they later recant in favor of more restorative behavioral outcomes (Carlsmith, 2008).
CBS Prosocial and Aggressive as Predictors of CBVS Action Choices and Justification Choice.
This study found that neither the teacher-reports of children’s Prosocial behavior with
Peers nor teacher-reports of children’s Aggressive behavior with Peers were predictive of CBVS
Action Choices (Prosocial vs. Aggressive) or CBVS Justification Choices (Prosocial/Care vs.
Aggressive/Retribution vs. Justice/Fair). The number of times that Aggressive Action Choices
were selected was much less than the number of times that Prosocial Action Choices were
selected. Additionally, few children who participated in the study were rated by teachers as
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