Gender Differences in Children's Expression and Control of Fantasy Aggression

The purpose of this study was to examine: 1) possible gender differences in children's expression of aggression in story sequences; 2) possible gender differences in children's expression of aggression control in story sequences; 3) the relationship between aggression content of stimuli and amount of fantasy aggression (FA) expressed; and 4) the relationship between aggression content of stimuli and the amount of aggression control expressed. Subjects were randomly selected from a group of 2nd and 3rd grade volunteers. The Fantasy Aggression Task (FAT), a projective technique developed by Brodzinsky, Messer, and Tew (1979), was modified for use in the present study. Six stimulus cards were used. The six stimulus cards selected depicted one of 3 different Situations, with males in 3 scenes and females in the other 3 scenes. Subjects’ stories were scored for FA content and aggression control. Results indicated no gender differences for the expression of FA or FA control in story sequences. No differences were found in subjects’ responses to male and female stimulus characters. Total FA expressed varied with aggression content of stimuli. Low aggression content stimuli elicited the least amount of Total FA and progressively more total FA was elicited by medium and high aggression content stimuli. Type of FA elicited also varied according to the aggression content of stimuli. Low aggression content stimuli elicited more verbal aggression (VA) and indirect aggression (IA) than either medium or high aggression content stimuli, while high aggression content stimuli elicited the least amount of VA and IA. High aggression content stimuli elicited significantly more physical aggression (PA), and low aggression content stimuli elicited the least amount of PA. The results of the present study also indicated that expression of Level I controls was different as a function of aggression content of stimuli, but further testing failed to identify the location of the differences.