Social Psychological Explanations: Frustration-aggression

Question 1

What is Dollard’s hypothesis based on

Answer 1

The psychodynamic approach - aggression is a psychological drive similar to biological drives and we experience frustration if our attempt to achieve a goal is blocked by an external factor

Question 2

What does frustration cause

Answer 2

Creates an aggressive drive leading to aggressive behaviour

Question 3

Explain expression of the aggressive drives in behaviour

Answer 3

It is cathartic because the aggression created by the frustration is satisfied

Question 4

What does expression of aggressive drive lead to

Answer 4

Reduces the drive making further aggression last lightly as we feel like we’ve got it off our chest

Question 5

How may aggression be expressed

Answer 5

Indirectly because of the cause of frustration

Question 6

What are the three causes of aggression

Answer 6

1. Abstract (e.g. Government)
2. Too powerful and we risk punishment (e.g. A teacher giving low grades)
3. Unavailable (e.g. The teacher left before you saw the grade)

Question 7

How is aggression expressed indirectly

Answer 7

By being displaced onto an alternative that is not abstract and is weaker and available

Question 8

What does weapons effect show

Answer 8

That frustration only creates a readiness for aggression - then aggressive queues in the environment make it more likely that aggression will happen

Question 9

What did Geen study

Answer 9

Frustration and aggression

Question 10

What was Geen’s procedure

Answer 10

Male university students completed a jigsaw puzzle, during which level of frustration was manipulated in one of three ways

Question 11

What were the three ways Geen manipulated level of frustration

Answer 11

1. For some participants the puzzle was impossible to solve
2. Others ran out of time because another student kept interfering (confederate)
3. Others were insulted by the confederate

Question 12

What were Geen’s participants asked to do

Answer 12

Give a (fake) electric shock to the Confederate whenever they made a mistake on another task

Question 13

What did Geen find

Answer 13

Insulted participants gave the strongest shocks on average, then there interfered group, then the impossible task group

Question 14

What did Geen conclude

Answer 14

All three groups selected more intense shocks than a control group

Question 15

Name a strength of frustration-aggression

Answer 15

Real life applications - ‘the trigger can pull the finger’ has featured in gun control debates - presence of a weapon acts as a cue to aggression making its use more likely - weapons effect reduce gun-related violence by showing aggressive chutes should be removed from environment

Question 16

Name a weakness of frustration-aggression

Answer 16

Justified and unjustified frustration - a study showed participants a difficult paper folding task that was too hard to follow because the experimenter was either in a hurry to meet his girlfriend or because his boss told him to be quick

Question 17

What were the findings of the study that shows to be a weakness

Answer 17

Participants who experienced unjustified frustration produced most aggression - findings show some forms of frustration can create more aggression than others - challenges validity of original hypothesis