AO3 Frustr-Aggr Hypothesis

• Not all aggression arises from frustration…

  • In a study of baseball games by Reifman et al, it was found that as temperature increased,
  • So did the likelihood of displays of aggressive behaviour by pitchers towards batters,
  • with balls being thrown at over 90mph in the direction of the batters heads.
  • This is supportive of the revised frustration-aggression hypothesis
  • In that extreme temperatures, as with frustration, are aversive stimuli that tend to make people angry
• What did SLTs argue? 


  Aggression is not an automatic consequence of frustration…

  • Frustration produces only generalised arousal in the individual,
  • whereas SLT determines how that arousal will influence the person’s behaviour
  • They will respond aggressively if it has been effective in the past, or they have observed it to be for others
  • Maybe frustration does not always lead to aggression:
  • we learn to produce A actions, and learn the circumstances where they could be successful