Pedersen, Bushman, Vasquez, & Miller, 2008). We see examples of this effect
when a frustrated mother overreacts to her child ’s messy room or a basketball
player having a bad game lashes out at an opponent who happens to brush up
against him too hard.
Catharsis and Aggression
Each of us has been told at one time or another that we needed to “let off a
little steam” rather than do something in anger we ’ll later regret. We are told
to punch a pillow or spend 10 minutes vigorously shooting baskets. Sometherapists advise clients to strike plastic dolls or use foam-rubber bats to
work off their tensions. The idea is to get the aggressive tendencies out of the
client’s system so therapy can continue in a violence-free atmosphere. These
examples illustrate one more prediction from the frustration-aggression hy-pothesis: Our need to aggress is reduced after a cathartic release of tension.Conventional wisdom often agrees. The best way to deal with frustration,
many people believe, is to express our feelings against some harmless target.
The problem is, this widely dispensed advice appears to be wrong.
Consider the experience of participants in one investigation, who wrote
essays that supposedly were graded by another participant (Bushman, 2002).The feedback from this other person was particularly harsh, ending with ahandwritten comment that “This is one of the worst essays I have ever
read!”Needless to say, this irritated the real participants. Some of these angry
participants were then given the chance to hit a punching bag as hard and for
as many times as they wished while looking at a picture of and thinking
about the person who had just insulted them. Other participants also hit the
punching bag, but were told to do so while thinking about how much exer-
cise they were getting. Finally, some participants had no opportunity to hit
anything, and simply sat quietly for a few minutes. As shown in Figure 6.3, the
conventional wisdom about letting off steam didn ’t work. Not only were the
participants who hit the bag while thinking of their insulter the angriest,
they also were the most aggressive when later given a chance to do something
that would hurt the person they were mad at. Contrary to the advice we have
all received, the least angry and least aggressive participants were those who
calmly sat alone without punching anything.
These findings also contradict the original frustration-aggression hypothe-
sis, which maintained that aggression leads to a tension-reducing catharsisthat reduces the need for aggression. Consistent with the hypothesis, research-
ers often find a sudden drop in physiological arousal after participants are al-lowed to attack another person (Geen, Stonner, & Shope, 1975; Verona &
Sullivan, 2008). But not only does this cathartic reaction not reduce aggres-
sion, several studies find that acting aggressively often increases the tendency
to aggress (Bushman, Baumeister, & Stack, 1999; Geen et al., 1975; Verona &
Sullivan, 2008).
Why should this be the case? Researchers have identified several reasons
(Geen & Quanty, 1977). Acting aggressively may lead to a kind of disinhibi-tion. That is, most of us have strong reservations about physically hurting
other people. However, once we violate that rule, we may find it easier toPsychoanalytic Concepts and Aggression 137