Instrumentality of aggression, feedback, and frustration as determinants of physical aggression.

Abstract

Physical aggression was studied in relation to 5 variables. There were 2 intensities of frustration plus a control group. The aggression (delivery of electric shock) was either of instrumental value in overcoming the frustration or of no instrumental value. The victim cither gave feedback (moans, groans) or did not. Ss were cither men or women; the victims were either men or women. Frustration did not lead to more aggression than a control. When aggression was of instrumental value, it was more intense than when it was of no value. Feedback lowered aggression intensity. Men aggressed more intensely than women, and male victims received more intense aggression than women. Thus frustration was the only variable that did not affect aggression, a fact which bears on both the definition of frustration and the frustrationaggression relationship. There have been hundreds of studies of aggression (see Berkowitz, 1962; Buss, 1961) but only a few in which a subject aggresses physically against another person. These are experiments by Berkowitz and his students (Berkowitz, 1962), Hokanson and colleagues (e.g., Hokanson, Burgess, & Cohen, 1963), Milgram (1963), Walters and his students (e.g., Walters & Thomas, 1963), and the author (e.g., Buss, 1963). Investigations of the relationship between pure frustration and actual aggression (as opposed to projective or inventory measures) are even more rare. Of course this statement depends upon one's definition of frustration. Berkowitz (1962) adopts an inclusive position, denning frustration as: the interruption of an internal response sequence or the blocking of some drive. Similarly, a person who steps on our toes might also arouse anger if this action interrupted or interfered with the internal response oriented toward the preservation or attainment of security and comfort [p. 30].