Relational Aggression: How Does the Popular Media Compare to Empirical Research?

Our first spotlight selection is a piece written by Stephanie Storlie of Augsburg University as part of her recent URGO experience.

Abstract:

Relational aggression’s emergence into the popular media as a topic of discussion has brought forth perceptions regarding various aspects of this type of aggression. The purpose of this paper is to examine four of those perceptions (gender, age, social-psychological outcomes, and popularity) compared to the empirical research. The popular media has assumed that relational aggression is found exclusively in females and adolescents, but this focus is too limited. Only pieces of the picture of social-psychological outcomes have been captured by the media through their narrow focus on victims. Finally, popular media and empirical research both speak to an association between relational aggression and popularity without a definitive stance on the directionality of the association in either body of literature.

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