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Frustration and successful vs. Unsuccessful aggression: A test of Berkowitz' completion hypothesis
Author(s) -
Gustafson Roland
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
aggressive behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.223
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1098-2337
pISSN - 0096-140X
DOI - 10.1002/1098-2337(1989)15:1<5::aid-ab2480150103>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - aggression , frustration , psychology , test (biology) , poison control , developmental psychology , social psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , medical emergency , biology , paleontology
Author experiment using a modified version of the Buss' aggression paradigm tested Berkowitz' completion hypothesis, which states unsuccessful aggressive attempts at the frustrator serve as further frustration and intensify aggression. Testing was done by varying the number of successful aggressive attempts for different experimental groups. The experiment indicated first a positive relationship between subjective levels of frustration and aggression, which supports a general frustration‐aggression hypothesis, and second that unsuccessful aggressive attempts lead to increased aggression in terms of shock intensity. This was interpreted as supportive of Berkowitz' completion hypothesis, although alternative interpretations in terms of cognitive and behavioral strategies cannot be excluded.