the frustration-aggression hypothesis

• P: social learning theorists have argued that aggressive behaviour is only one possible response to frustration

  E: they claim that frustration produces only generalised arousal in the individual, and that social learning determines how that arousal will influence an individual's behaviour. An individual may respond to frustration by engaging in aggressive behaviour if it has been effective for them before or if they have observed it being effective in others
• Link for social learning

  L: this alternative view states that rather than frustration always leading to some form of aggression, as claimed by the frustration-aggression hypothesis, an individual learns to produce aggressive actions and also learns the circumstances under which they are likely to be successful
• P: a problem for the frustration-aggression hypothesis is that not all aggression arises from frustration

  E: frustration is only one of a large number of adversive events that can lead to aggression.

  E: in a study of baseball games in the US kelfman found that as temperatures increased, so did the likelihood that pitchers would display aggressive behaviour towards the batters, with balls often thrown at 90mph direct at batter's head.
• Link for Kelfman


  L: This offers some support for the revised frustration-aggression hypothesis in that extreme temperatures, as with frustration, are aversive stimuli that tend to make people angry, which in turn increases the likelihood of aggression
• P: The frustration-aggression hypothesis has been used as an explanation of mass killings

  E: Staub suggests mass killings are often rooted in the frustration caused by social and economic difficulties within a society. These frustrations lead to scapegoating (blaming someone else) and then discrimination and aggression against this group

  E: in WW1, many germans blamed jews for the loss of the war and severe economic problems that followed. although ordinary germans were not directly responsible for the murders, some historians have argued that they condoned the violence towards jews
• link for mass killings

  L: this shows that widespread frustration particularly when skillfully manipulated by a propaganda machine, can have violent consequences for a scapegoated group