1-013 - Children’s and Adolescents’ Experiences and Judgments of Revenge: Findings from the U.S., Colombia, and Pakistan

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The desire to retaliate when harmed is a basic aspect of psychological functioning (Dodge, 2009; Orth, 2004; Stillwell et al., 2008). Revenge is also a vexed phenomenon, in part because it creates individual and social dilemmas that are difficult to resolve adequately; the pursuit of vengeance creates cycles of violence and aggression that maintain conflict, sometimes over generations (Baumeister & Newman, 1994). To date, developmental research has focused largely on individual differences in the endorsement of revenge and their linkages to behavioral and social difficulties. The four papers included in this symposium extend the literature in significant ways. First, they span a broad age range (4-17) and comprise diverse samples, including two community samples from the United States and two international samples of war-exposed youth (from Pakistan and Colombia). Second, they collectively address different forms of revenge (e.g., avenging a friend vs. oneself; proportional vs. escalatory responses to provocation), as well as the different relational contexts in which revenge occurs. Third, they expand the previous focus to examine social-cognitive, affective, and moral dimensions of youths’ retaliatory experiences. And lastly, they are methodologically varied, comprising qualitative and quantitative approaches that capture youths' own experiences with revenge and their responses to hypothetical vignettes. Altogether, findings in this symposium point to the complex ways in which children’s and adolescents’ experiences with and understandings of revenge are embedded in their relational and cultural milieus, connected to their moral and social belief-systems, and serve varied needs for self-presentation and self-preservation.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chairs

• Cecilia Wainryb, University of Utah

• Holly Recchia, Concordia University

Individual Presentations

• Children’s Evaluations of Retaliation in the Context of Different Peer Relationships - Presenting Author: Courtney L. Ball, University of Rochester; Judith G Smetana, University of Rochester

• Proxy Revenge: “Why Do They Do It If It’s Not Their Fight?” - Presenting Author: Karin S Frey, University of Washington; Adaurennaya C. Onyewuenyi, University of Washington; Zoe Higheagle Strong, Washington State University; Avalon Valencia, University of Washington; Cynthia Pearson, University of Washington

• I Wanted to Make Him Pay: Colombian Youths’ Accounts of their Own Retaliatory Actions - Presenting Author: Holly Recchia, Concordia University; Cecilia Wainryb, University of Utah; Roberto Posada, Universidad Nacional de Colombia

• Affective and Cognitive Predictors of Retaliation to Provocation in Pakistani Youth - Presenting Author: Kristina McDonald, University of Alabama; Salma Siddiqui, National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan