frustration-aggression hypothesis

• define social psychology?

  • to do with feelings,thoughts,beliefs,intentions & goals that are constructed
  • how they influence our interaction with others
  • looks at human behaviour which is influenced by other people & social context
• who proposed the frustation-aggression hypothesis?

  • dollard 1939
• frustration aggression hypothesis?

  • aggression is a consequence of feelings of frustration
  • always caused by frustration
  • frustration is a feeling we experience when we are working towards goal & theres barriers that prevent you from doing it
• which approach is this explanation based on?

  • psychodynamic - aggression is a drive
• 2 factors affecting whether aggression occurs?

  1. proximity
  2. if frustration can be justified or not
• explain proximity?

  • if person is very close to achieving their goal - aggression more likely to be greater
• explain justification?

  • if frustration can be justified - aggression is more likely to be lower
• green 1968?

  • gave male uni students task of completing jigsaw puzzle
  • after they had to give electric shock to confederate every time they made mistake on another task
• how did green manipulate level of frustration?

  1. puzzle was impossible to complete
  2. ran out of time to complete as confederate student kept interfering
  3. confederate insulted student as they failed to solve puzzle
  4. control group - no frustration
• green 1968 findings?

  • those who were insulted - gave strongest electric shock - interfered - impossible
  • all 3 groups selected more intense shocks than control
  • shows that high levels of frustration cause individual to be more aggressive - more frustrated - more aggressive to confederate
• link green 1968 to factors?

  1. those closer to finishing puzzle - higher levels of frustration & aggression - more proximity to goal
  2. condition 3 - unjustified comments so more likely to shock them
• 3 * of frustration-aggression hypothesis?

  1. evidence to support from harris 1974
  2. evidence to support from pastore 1952 - justification
  3. evidence to support from przybylski
• 2 X of frustration-aggression hypothesis?

  1. too simplistic
  2. not all types of frustration causes aggression
• * evidence from harris?

  • had confederates push in front of people ques in shops
  • found that if person was closer to front of que were more likely to respond in aggressive way tha if they were towards back
  • shows aggression is result of frustration & due to proximity of goal
  • theyre more closer to goal
• evidence to support from pastore?

  • gave p series pf situation to rate how aggressive they would feel in
  • included situations such as waiting for bus & see it drive straight past
  • found p were more angrier & aggressive in responses when situations were frustrating
  • when justified p rated themselves lower - less aggressive than when left unjustified
  • shows aggression is result of frustration & due to justification less likely to be aggressive
• * evidence to support from przybylski?

  • p invited to take part in study about video games
  • before playing - place hands in ice cold bath of water - 25s
  • were told this length of time was determined by earlier p - untrue
  • given game of tetris to play - half regular - half bastet
  • after p had to decide how long next p had to submerge hand in ice water for
  • found those who played bastet - longer punishments by mean 10s
  • neither game was violent yet aggression increased in bastet version
  • shows aggression is result of frustration as p gave longer punishments when they played more frustrated game of tetris
• X too simplistic?

  • there are individual differences in aggression that cant be accounted for by this hypothesis
  • many people are frustrated daily yet they do not end up becoming aggressive
  • suggests may be other factors that cause aggression in some people but not in others
  • genetic - people become aggressive as they have inherited defective MAOA-L gene - less serotonin broken down
  • does not explain why an aggressive response is not universal
  • shows must be another better explanation
• X not all types of frustration causes aggression?

  • research has shown that aggression only occur with unjustified reasons not justified
  • eg if theres legitimate reason behind frustration you are less likely to be aggressive compared to unjustified frustration
  • not all frustration causes aggression so there must be other factors affecting aggression