Frustration-aggression hypothesis

Cards (7)

  • frustration
    feeling you experience when trying to achieve something but their are barriers either real or imaginary
  • factors that affect likelihood of aggression occurring
    proximity to the goal- close to reaching
    wether aggression will remove the barrier causing frustration- shouting at someone else
  • hypothesis
    if attempt to achieve a goal is blocked by some external factor we experience frustration creating an aggressive drive
  • aggression not always expressed at source of frustration
    cause is abstract e.g economy, govt
    cause is to powerful and risk punishment e.g a teacher
    cause is unavailable at the time e.g teacher left before you realised your grade
  • presence of aggressive cues
    Berkowitz frustration creates a readiness for aggression, the presence if aggressive cues in environment make acting upon this more likely e.g seeing a knife, gun
  • strengths
    weapon cue effect- electric shocks made more aggressive behaviour
    geen et als found that insulted partipants gave highest shocks
  • weakness
    aggression not always prompted by frustration e.g in a threatening situation may choose to fight rather than flight aggression is survival not frustration
    not everyone who is frustrated react with aggression- may feel upset