Soical psychological explainations of aggression: Frustration - agression hypothesis

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The original hypothesis

Dollard et all 1939 the view that frustration ,or failure to reach a certain goal can lead to aggression like violent fantasies or verbal outbursts (frustration-aggression hypothesis).

-removes the negative emotion Catharsis (psychodynamic concept):

-aggression created by frustration is satisfied ,there by reducing the drive and making further aggression less likely

-aggression is often displaced from what caused the frustration

F-A hypothesis; aggression is not always expressed directly towards the source of frustration three reasons:

-frustration may be abstract I.e economic situation

-may be to powerful and we risk punishment

-unavailable

So aggression can be deflected onto an alternatives

Berkowitz:frustration creates a readiness for aggression. Environmental cues can increase this response:

Berkowitz and Lepage: weapon effect in a lab study. Participants were given shocks by a confederate creating frustration and participants later had a chance to send fake shocks to the confederate. The shocks were greater when there was two guns on the table compared to other conditions.

Geen:study to investigate how frustration Affects aggression and found that the insulted participants gave the strongest shocks on average followed by the interfered group,then the impossible task participants.All three gave more intense shocks than the control group

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Research support

Point-strength for supporting F-A hypothesis is the research support for the concept of displaces aggression suggesting frustration leads to aggression even when the original source is unavailable

Evidence-Marcus Newhall conducted a meta-analysis of 49 studies of displaced aggression.They found that displaced aggression is a reliable phenomenon. frustrated participants who were provoked but unable to retaliate to the initial source of frustration were significantly more likely to aggression against and innocent third party

Explain-this strongly supports the FAH that aggression is an automatic response to frustration since the aggressive drive carries on even when the initial target is unavailable. aggression is simply redirected towards a weaker or an available target supporting Dollard et al that the aggressive energy must be discharged somehow

Link:therefore the meta-analysis provides strong evidence based validation that the link between frustration and aggression is reliable, even in complex social situations involving displacement

Role of catharsis

Point-One Limitation against the FAH is that aggression may not be cathartic

Evidence-Bushman found through his research where participant vented their anger by hitting a punchbag, that those who vented were more aggressive afterwards compared to participants who did nothing were less aggressive. Bushman argued that venting is like using petroleum to fuel the fire

Explain-contradicts the cathartic assumption that releasing aggressive energy reduces the drive.if venting increases aggression it suggests that aggressive behaviour is being reinforced rather than being let go. This weakness the FAHs claim that aggression is purely an automatic weakness

Link-Therefore ,the failure of catharsis to reduce aggression means that FAH provides a incomplete explainations for aggressive behaviour as it overlooks the potential for aggressive actions to escalate rather than resolve conflicts

Frustration aggression link

Point-another limitation of the FAHs is that the link between frustration and aggression is complex and isn’t automatic

Evidence-Early research on FAH shows clearly that frustration doesn’t always end in aggression and aggression can occur without frustration. The link is not automatic. People who feel frustrated behave in different ways / people who are aggressive can be for different reasons

Explain-This contradicts the link between frustration and aggression as the FAH assumes that frustration always leads to aggression which is deterministic and simplistic failing to understand individual differences in response. If it was automatic everyone’s frustration would lead to aggression but it doesn’t

Link:Therefore The link between frustration and aggression is to complex and not as automatic as the researchers say as they fail to realise everyone is different