Contents
The most common theory of aggression in modern science claims that people become aggressive when they are frustrated, that is, when they are unable to achieve their goals or do not receive the expected rewards. The example of a mother’s cruel treatment of her child, given by us, from the point of view of this theory, is explained by the blocking of a number of needs and the frustrations caused by this: the lack of normal living conditions and material benefits that she expected and hoped to have, the impossibility of solitude and the demands of her mistress, the daughter’s disobedience and all other things related to unfulfilled hopes.
This theory deserves the closest attention: after all, over its history it has inspired hundreds and hundreds of studies, and most importantly, it is still so widespread that its influence on the scientific community can hardly be overestimated. I will first present the most well-known and precise points of this theory, and then present a modification of it.
The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis, 1939
Although some authors noted from the dawn of scientific psychology that frustrations often provoke aggressive reactions, the most famous supporters of this generally accepted idea were psychologists from Yale University, led by Dollard, Miller, Oak, Maurer and Sears (John Dollard, Neal Miller, Leonard Doob, O. H. Mowrer, Robert Sears). In the already classic monograph Frustration and Aggression, first published in 1939, they gave a precise definition of the term “frustration” and identified a number of factors that, from their point of view, influence the intensity of emerging aggressive behavior.
Frustration: definition and basics
What is frustration? Like “aggression,” the word “frustration” has many different meanings. Even among psychologists there is no consensus on what frustration is; some of them, speaking of frustration, mean outer barrier, which prevents the achievement of the goal, while others denote by this term internal emotional reactionconditioned by this or that restriction or obstacle on the way to the goal (thus, we say that we “feel frustrated”), Dollard and his colleagues used this term in the first of these meanings. We can say that they described frustration as an external condition that prevents the individual from receiving the pleasures he expects. See →
Applying the Frustration-Aggression Concept
I will now apply the results of this analysis to a situation familiar to most of us — a football game — and try to show that many things that seem inconsistent with this theory can, however, be quite explicable precisely from its point of view. On any given fall weekend, millions of Americans watch two teams of young adults undergo a series of frustrations. They see players on opposing teams pushing, blocking, hitting each other. See →
Do All Types of Frustration Generate Aggression?
I have shown how one could explain, in terms of the theory of Dollard and his colleagues, the relative absence of outbreaks of violent aggression on the football field. However, does it all come down to this? Are there other reasons why football players do not show pronounced aggression generated by frustrations? See →
Even unintentional frustration can lead to aggression
Here I would like to emphasize the following: although people’s ideas about the reasons for their frustrations may affect the likelihood that they will openly attack someone, they can behave aggressively even when blocking their pursuit of the goal was unintentional or justified (legitimate) . Aggressive impulses are not always obvious, and besides, sometimes even socially adequate frustrations give rise to aggressive tendencies. See →
Some Conditions That Increase the Likelihood of Aggressive Reactions to Frustration
I have repeatedly pointed out that not every frustration leads to an open attack. Obviously, a number of conditions can influence the likelihood that people will behave aggressively when they are prevented from achieving their goals. Some of these conditions have already been mentioned. See →
Summary
The chapters in Part 1 of this book discuss the most important causes of emotional aggression, starting with frustrations. Dollard and his colleagues proposed the most widely known version of the frustration-aggression concept, according to which frustrations generate aggressive tendencies. If this somewhat outdated concept is stated in more modern terms, then its main thesis is that barriers to the expected goals give rise to stimulation to emotional aggression. Subsequently, psychologists noted that frustrations excite various tendencies, only one of which is aggressive. This suggests that people can learn either that it is possible to respond to frustrations with non-aggressive behavior, or that aggressive responses to frustrations «pay off» (benefit, some benefits). The concept of «frustration-aggression» basically, however, suggests that learning only modifies the relationship between frustration and aggression, but does not define it. See →
Chapter 3
Negative affect as a source of emotional aggression. Studies of pain-induced aggression in animals. Aversive events as a source of human aggression. Negative affects, aggressive tendencies and anger. Negative affect, but not stress. Anger often accompanies other negative emotions. Impulsive aggression: the role of aggressive key signals. Reactions to external key signals. See →