Studies of the psychology of kids at play.

Factual Questions
1

My son is 6 and he has recently gained a new friend. My lady friend who comes over and brings her 6 year old with her. As soon as the two kids see each other they start wrestling and play fighting nonstop.

I’ve always wondered why kids do this, psychologically. I understand that’s what kids do, they play. But what studies have been done regarding this subject? Do they do it for territorial claim? Social hierarchy? To see who’s tougher?

Humans being intelligent animals ourselves, they remind me of puppies and other animals that “fake fight”. Is it any different?

2

Hey, without that instinct to develop combat skills, the world would still be run by dinosaurs.

Or something other than humans, to be sure.

3

I don’t know why you limit it to humans. Humans are a violent species like other mammals such as bears, tigers, lions, and apes. They all do the same thing when they are young.

4

You ought to see 2 little girls playing dolls or Barbies. They’re all about drama and punishment and conflict. It’s like a soap opera x 10.

5

Did you read my whole post?

6

Looks to me like you answered your own question.

7

Do you “wrestle” with your ladyfriend? Maybe it’s just genetics - your genes want to wrestle with hers :wink:

8

Not really, because I’m looking for studies done on the subject as well.

9

Here is a list of the questions contained in the text of the OP:

Here is a list of the statements contained in the text of the OP:

Kindly explain which statements answer which questions.

10

Exactly.

11

You missed one statement. “Humans being intelligent animals ourselves, they remind me of puppies and other animals that ‘fake fight.’”

Not sure about any studies, and while I would have to think someone has tried I suspect that it pretty much just does come down to the researching throwing up the wild-assed guess that kids do it because humans are combative animals. The best one could do to prove this theory would be to check the brain readings of a human kid against a puppy, but of course that has the problems that:

  1. It’s going to be rather hard to get a brain scan of a kid who’s in the middle of wrestling around with a friend.
  2. Ditto for a puppy.
  3. The most this would tell you is that human kids and puppies were being entertained in the same way, but not what that entertainment was.
  4. It’s doubtful that you could make any sort of one-to-one relationship between the brain of a dog and a human to even be able to draw such a conclusion (without a whole lot of extra work.)
12

Hold on, do you have a cite for this? :smiley:

13

No, I quoted those words in the question section, because they were part of a question.

Maybe, though, Bryan Eckers took it to be a statement and missed the question that it was part of. That’s understandable.

-FrL-

14

Good to hear that you have found a wrestling partnerette.

It sounds as if the lads like each other.

Have you ever considered that the observers might be influencing the experiment ?

When they have an audience their behaviour will be different from when they are on their own, although leaving two six year old males unsupervised is a rather risky proposition.

Ahem, to answer your question, they are ‘showing off’ - and not to each other.

15

I thought the overall question “Why do humans do this?” and the answer “they do this for the same reason other mammals do”.

As for studies on pre-adolsecent aggression, I’m sure they exist. Happy hunting.