Simulating conditions of child abuse in the laboratory

A child abuse analog was created by placing an adult in a frustrating teaching situation with a child learner. The child's performance was programmed to deteriorate despite the adult's teaching efforts. The intensity of the adult's responses used to terminate the child's signals of success or failure was examined over the course of the interaction. The magnitude of these responses increased over trials, particularly in response to signals of failure, and these increases occurred without the adult's awareness. The findings were considered within the context of a social interactional model of child abuse, in which the adult's aggressive behaviors were presumed to result from arousal generated by the child's aversive behaviors.