Question

Peter, who is an aggressive 11-year-old, is referred to the counselor because of a recent episode of fighting on the bus. when asked to explain what happened, peter said that he had to sit next to a girl who was laughing with her friend across the aisle about the "stupid kids in school." enraged by this, peter pushed her head into the window. what is the most likely explanation for peter's aggressive reaction

Answer 1

The correct answer would be, Hostile Attribution Bias.

Step-by-step explanation:

Peter's aggressive reaction was due to the Hostile Attribution Bias.

Hostile Attribution Bias is the tendency to interpret others behaviors as having hostile intent, even if the behavior is ambiguous or is not intended to hit someone.

In such type of behaviors, people assume that the other person is hitting them indirectly and in most situations it is not the case.

So in this example given in the question, Peter fought with the girl sitting next to him in the bus because he heard the girl saying in the school to someone that, 'stupid kids in school', and Peter thought that the girl was pointing him indirectly. so he illustrated the Hostile Attribution Bias.