EFFECT OF FATHER SEPARATION ON PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S DOLL PLAY AGGRESSION1

Abstract

The factors that influence anger and aggression in young children are but imperfectly understood. While frustration may be assumed to be an antecedent condition (3), the variety of direction and form is so great that a number of other variables besides the frustration itself must be taken into account if specific instances of aggression are to become interpretable. This is particularly evident in the fantasied aggressions of projective doll play. As early as the third year, children show marked individual differences in both kind and amount (1), and by the fourth year sharp divergence between the sexes can be observed (8). These variations represent fairly consistent characteristics of individual children (4), but the life history experiences that create them have not been charted.