The Roots of Social Dominance: Aggression, Prosocial Behavior, and Social Interdependence

ABSTRACT

The authors examined the nature of dominant students in Grades 3–5 in a midwestern school system in the United States. Previous research has indicated 2 ways a student may gain dominance—through bullying and prosocial behaviors. A cluster analysis for dominant children was conducted using social interdependence attitude scores, children's self-reports of bullying and prosocial behaviors, and teacher reports of bullying and prosocial behaviors. Dominant children were clustered into cooperative-prosocial, competitive-aggressive, and individualistic groups. Competitive-aggressive children received higher teacher ratings of dominance than did cooperative-prosocial children, there was no significant among the clusters on perceived leadership by peers, and cooperative-prosocial children tended to have teachers who used more cooperative learning in their classroom.

Keywords:

• bullying
• cooperative experiences
• leadership
• prosocial behaviors
• social dominance
• social interdependence
• victimization