Applying systems principles to models of social information processing and aggressive behavior in youth

Systems perspectives view development as the product of hierarchically-organized levels of varied life processes that are continually changing and interacting as time passes. This theoretical approach may be of considerable importance to developing research programs in child social cognition, particularly since multilevel, multiprocess models of social information processing and aggressive behavior in youth are still in relatively formative stages. This paper proposes that key systems principles can be conceptually applied to social information-processing models in ways that are critical to furthering future research in social–cognitive foundations of aggressive behavior. Examples of initial applications to current social information-processing models of aggression in childhood are presented. Implications of this theoretical approach for substantive empirical research (e.g., modes of processing) are discussed and directions for methodological design (e.g., computer simulation) are proposed.