the psychologists argued there is but one cause of aggression (frustration) and
one response to frustration (aggression). A student frustrated in efforts to geton the honor roll, an unemployed worker frustrated by an economic reces-
sion, and a rat frustrated in its effort to find a piece of cheese all should re-
spond with aggression. And anyone who acts aggressively should have
experienced some earlier frustration.
The researchers adopted another psychoanalytic notion to explain when
aggression will stop. They proposed that aggression ceases when we experi-ence catharsis, loosely conceived of as a release of tension. Freud discussed
catharsis in terms of a release of psychic energy. However, these early aggres-sion researchers described tension in terms of arousal, energy levels, and mus-cle tension. The frustrated student who kicks her books across the room and
the slumping batter who pounds his bat against the dugout wall should feel
their tensions subside. Until the frustration builds tension levels up again, weshould expect no further outbreaks.
At first glance, the frustration-aggression hypothesis makes some intuitive
sense. You may have felt the urge to kick a malfunctioning copy machine.
We’ve all seen how a little shoving in a long line can lead to angry words, if
not an occasional fist. But soon a problem with the theory becomes apparent.
Given all of the frustrating experiences in our lives, why don’ t we spend more
of our time acting aggressively? To account for this problem, some of the
original theorists modified their positions, again borrowing from psychoana-
lytic theories (Doob & Sears, 1939; Miller, 1941; Sears, 1941). They proposed
that frustration sometimes leads to indirect expressions of aggression. Indirect
aggression can be expressed in many ways. One is by displacing the aggression
to a new target, such as taking frustrating working conditions out on yourspouse. Another is to attack in an indirect manner. For example, we might
not hit our supervisors, but we can make their jobs a little harder or spread
malicious gossip about them. We can also use sublimation (another concept
adapted from psychoanalytic theory). For example, a frustrated person
might run a few miles or play a hard game of basketball to work out tension.
Thus frustration always leads to aggression, but not always in the mostobvious forms.
The frustration-aggression hypothesis and its subsequent variations have
spawned a large amount of research. The following sections examine three to-pics addressed by that research, each of which retains a psychoanalytic flavor:
frustration, displacement, and catharsis.
Frustration and Aggression
The connection between frustration and aggression can be seen in many
places in society. Elementary school children in one study were asked which
of their classmates engaged in aggressive behavior, such as pushing or shov-ing (Guerra, Huesmann, Tolan, Van Acker, & Eron, 1995). The investigators
found that the most aggressive children were those who experienced the high-
est levels of stress and frustration at home. Another study looked at adultswho had been laid off from their jobs (Catalano, Dooley, Novaco, Wilson, &
Hough, 1993). These individuals were 6 times more likely to engage in an
act of violence, such as striking a spouse, than those who were still employed.132 CHAPTER 6 The Neo-Freudian Theories