Defining Normal on the Playground: What Would Tinbergen Do?

Abstract

Using non-human animal models, ethologists have identified behaviors of children on the playground which have distinct behavioral ethograms and which seem to serve different functions. Play fighting may be seen between individuals of different size and power, especially if they reverse roles. Dominance-submission interactions often involve acts of power assertion among individuals who show reconciliation behaviors afterwards and who stay together in a stabilized hierarchical arrangement. Aggressive behaviors usually will not show such reversals, reconciliation, or stable pa%erns of affiliation. The literature on bullying, which was not founded on observation, has in all likelihood conflated these different behaviors; this confusion may help explain why bullying interventions often have li%le or no impact on changing children’s behavior.