The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis (OCR A-Level Psychology): Revision Notes
15.3.1 The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
The Frustration-Aggression hypothesis
Dollard et al
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All aggression is caused by frustration, which is when you are prevented from achieving your goals
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Thus, aggression is caused by environmental factors
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When people behave aggressively, they experience catharsis and their negative feelings go away Catharsis: Releasing strong emotions, therefore providing relief
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When you are unable to direct aggression at what has caused the frustration, you displace your aggression onto someone or something else
Factors that increase aggression:
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Proximity to the goal: The closer you are to the goal, the more likely you are to behave aggressively when prevented from achieving it.
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Effectiveness of aggression: The more effective aggression is for helping you to reach a goal, the more likely you are to behave aggressively.
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The justifiability of the frustrating event: People are less likely to be aggressive if the frustrating situation preventing them from achieving their goal is justified.
Evaluation:
(1)
P: One problem with the frustration-aggression hypothesis is that there are individual differences in how people respond to aggression E: For example, some people may cry or withdraw, rather than become aggressive
E: This is a weakness as it suggests the frustration-aggression hypothesis doesn't offer a complete explanation of human aggression because there are other responses and people may react in different ways.
(2)
P: Research support has mainly come from laboratory experiments E: Because of this, there are issues with ecological validity
E: Therefore, it is uncertain whether people would display this aggression in real-life situations
(3)
P: Aggression doesn't always lead to catharsis E: Bushman found that being aggressive can lead to increased aggression
E: Therefore, there may potentially be other explanations, reducing the usefulness of the frustration-aggression hypothesis
(4)
P: One problem with the frustration-aggression hypothesis is that it is difficult to test experimentally E: This is because it's unethical to deliberately create frustration in participants. Therefore, a lot of supporting evidence relies on self-report techniques and hypothetical situations which may provide invalid data due to participants not describing how they would react truthfully.
E: As a result, there is limited evidence to support the frustration-aggression hypothesis as an explanation of human aggression and so we can't be confident that it is a valid theory