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On Not Being Able to Aggress *
Author(s) -
BERKOWITZ LEONARD
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
british journal of social and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0007-1293
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1966.tb00966.x
Subject(s) - anger , aggression , anticipation (artificial intelligence) , psychology , social psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence
An experiment was conducted with male college students in order to demonstrate the importance of cues in eliciting aggressive behaviour from angered persons. Most of the subjects were deliberately provoked by giving them an excessive number of electric shocks which supposedly were administered by a peer in a nearby room. Those subjects who had previously been led to believe they would have an opportunity to retaliate against the anger instigator but who, subsequently, were not able to do so, later displayed the greatest volume of aggression when all subjects were given an opportunity to attack the anger instigator. It is suggested that the anticipation of the first aggressive opportunity had provided symbolic cues activating an implicit aggressive response sequence which was then frustrated by the failure to attack the anger instigator. This thwarting had presumably strengthened the instigation to aggression.