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

Social information processing models of aggressive behavior can be used by educators
and parents to teach aggressive children how to think about and emotionally process aggressive
behavior (Dodge, 1986; Huesmann, 1988; Rubin & Krasnor, 1986). Specific education
interventions can help children reframe mental representations of social experiences and generate
new social cues that require new behavioral responses hypothesized from assessments of re-
encoded (e.g., trained) memories representing perceived social cues (Rabiner, Lenhart, &
Lochman, 1990). Social information process education provides opportunities to re-code
memory cues (e.g., scripts, schemas) and to access and evaluate subjective attributions (Dodge,
1980b; Nasby, Hayden, & DePaulo, 1979). Perceived expectations and beliefs that bias hostile
attributions can be reframed in order to generate new assessments and choices for behavior that
leads to subsequent peer acceptance (Ableson, 1981; Bowlby, 1980; Dodge, Pettit, & Bates,
1994; Rabiner & Coie, 1989).
Currently, there is debate about the nature and extent to which multiple mental constructs
(personal beliefs, self-efficacies, latent mental structures, schemas) and online processing
influence child behavior in situations of harm and victimization. Interestingly, in spite of formal
rules about specific social behavior or moral rules about being just and fair, children often act in
their own personal interests (i.e., matters that primarily affect the self, choice of friendships,
personal activities, private communications). However, children are capable of making
distinctions between social or moral motivations, such as hitting another child versus putting
oneself in harm’s way. Thus, an intervening act of aggression committed by a bystander toward a
peer that results in harm may be considered wrong, but may also be considered right when it is
committed in order to protect a victim from aggression by a bully (Killen & Turiel, 1998). Social
cognitive learning theory posits that children base their judgment on outcome expectancies from
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