The Coordination of Conflicting Social Goals: Differences between Rejected and Nonrejected Boys

Abstract

In this study involving 58 fourth- and fifth-grade boys ranging in age from 9 to 12 years old, we examined whether aggressive, submissive, and “residual” rejected boys (i.e., rejected boys who are neither highly aggressive nor highly submissive) are less able than nonrejected boys to coordinate individual and relational goals in their social interaction strategies. Participants were read a series of short vignettes describing children in potentially conflictual interactions, and their ideas about handling these situations were coded according to the degree to which individual and relational goals were integrated. As predicted, aggressive rejected boys and “residual” rejected boys provided less integrated responses than nonrejected boys, and this was true regardless of whether automatic or reflective social reasoning processes were evoked. In contrast to our prediction, however, submissive rejected boys displayed no comparable goal coordination deficit. The implications of these findings for children's social competence are discussed.