Being surrounded by peers who are accepting of aggression is a significant predictor of the development and persistence of aggression in childhood and adolescence. Whereas past research has focused on social reinforcement mechanisms as the underlying processes, the present longitudinal study analysed the role of external control beliefs as an…

For externals, any variability in the reinforcing behavior of the "teacher" resulted in greater perceived freedom. For internals, perceived freedom was a negative linear function of the amount of reinforcement. Greater freedom was attributed to a person whose behavior was perceived as congruent with the person's inner disposition.…

Children in various ordinal birth positions, grade levels, and sex roles perceive differently the degree or responsibility they assume for their successess and/or failures. (Author/KM)