Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

Question 1

Describe Dollard et al’s argument of aggression

Answer 1

• All aggression is the result of frustration, caused when people are prevented from getting something they want
• Frustration is necessary for aggression, and context factors like threat of punishment, can inhibit aggression

Question 2

Outline the frustration-aggression hypothesis

Answer 2

• Predicts a cause-effect relationship between frustration, aggression and catharsis (a form of emotional release)
• Frustration leads to the arousal of an aggressive drive, which leads to aggressive behaviour, which relieves the aggressive urges, which has a cathartic effect

Question 3

When does frustration increase?

Answer 3

When our motivation to achieve a goal is strong and there’s nothing we can do about it

Question 4

Describe Doob and Sears’ research on frustration and aggression

Answer 4

• They investigated the condition under which frustration would lead to aggression
• They asked participants to imagine how they would feel in different frustrating situation, e.g. waiting for a bus that passed without stopping.
• Most said they would feel angry in all frustrating situations

Question 5

What is unjustified frustration?

Answer 5

When there’s no valid reason on why the goal was blocked

Question 6

What is justified frustration?

Answer 6

There’s a reason for why the goal was blocked

Question 7

Describe Pastore’s research on frustration and aggression

Answer 7

• Distinguished between justified and unjustified frustration, arguing unjustified produces aggression
• He produces different situation of Doob and Sears’ situations, involving unjustified and justified frustration, e.g. a bus that didn’t stop or a bus displayed an ‘out of service’ message
• He found that in the justified condition, participants expressed lower levels of anger

Question 8

Describe displaced aggression

Answer 8

When people are frustrated, they have a drive to be aggressive to the object of their frustration, but it may be impossible or inappropriate to do so, this leads to aggression being displaced from the source onto the something else (a scape goat)

Question 9

When does the displacement of aggression occur?

Answer 9

If the cause of frustration is:
- too powerful
- not available or physically present
- too abstract (the economy)

Question 10

Describe the revised frustration-aggression hypothesis

Answer 10

• Berkowitz’s revised hypothesis argued that frustration is only 1 of many types of unpleasant experiences that leads to aggression. These experiences create ‘negative affect’ in the individual (negative feeling) which triggers aggression
• Also, an unanticipated interference is more likely to cause aggression than an anticipated interference as it’s more unpleasant. So, how negative the resulting affect is, is important

Question 11

Give evaluation for the frustration-aggression hypothesis (support from real-word application of the theory)

Answer 11

• e.g. after WWI, many Germans blamed Jews both for the loss of the war and the severe economic problems. This means that this frustration, about the problems following WWI, lead to mass aggression toward the Jewish.
• This shows that widespread frustration can have violent for a scapegoated group, as suggested by the frustration-aggression hypothesis

Question 12

Give evaluation for the frustration-aggression hypothesis (there’s no supporting evidence)

Answer 12

• Researchers suggest that behaving aggressively is likely to lead to more, rather than less, aggression in the future.
• e.g. Bushman found that aggressive behaviour kept aggressive thoughts active in memory and made people more aggressive
• This calls into question the idea that catharism reduces aggressiveness urges, suggesting the hypothesis may lack validity

Question 13

Give evaluation for the frustration-aggression hypothesis (research hasn’t found that all aggression stems from frustration)

Answer 13

• Reifman et al studied a baseball games and found that as temperature increases, so did the likelihood that pitchers would display aggression towards the batters.
• Suggesting that other situation that lead to different negative emotion, may contribute to aggression. This contradict the idea that frustration is the direct cause of all aggression

Question 14

Give evaluation for the frustration-aggression hypothesis (research found that not every instance of frustration leads to aggression)

Answer 14

• e.g. Bandura claims that frustration produces a generalised arousal and social learning determines how that arousal influences behaviour.
• An individual may respond to frustration aggressively if it has had a positive effect for them before (direct conditioning) or if they’ve observed positive consequence for others (vicarious reinforcement)
• This suggests that there are other factors in the frustration-aggression relationship that the hypothesis fails to explain.