frustration-aggression hypothesis

• the frustration aggression hypothesis suggests that frustration (being blocked from achieving goals) causes aggressive behaviour

  and that after behaving aggressively, a person can experience catharsis where their negative feelings go away
• displacement is when aggression cant be directed at the source and is instead directed elsewhere (a person or an object)
• there are three factors that affect the likelihood of frustration leading to aggression

  • proximity to the goal
  • effectiveness of aggression
  • justifiability of the behaviour of the person blocking our goals
• Doob and Sears

  • gave hypothetical scenarios to participants
  • participants reported that they would feel angrier in the more frustrating situations
  • which supports the idea of the frustration aggression hypothesis
• Priks et al - swedish football, real life application

  • found that swedish football fans displayed more aggression when their team is performing worse
  • their goal of seeing their team win has been blocked
• Bushman et al - limitation of catharsis

  • made participants angry and then had some of them punch a punching bag and some of them do nothing
  • according to the FA hypothesis, those who punched a punching bag should be calmer, however this was not the case
  • Bushman found that those who expressed their anger reported more anger at the end of the study
  • this suggests that expressing anger does not lead to catharsis