PSYCH 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: John Dollard, Social Learning Theory, Psy
Document Summary
Nature versus nurture: a false debate? origins of aggression are a source not only of scientific disagreement but also political controversy. Whatever the ultimate causes of aggression, it is clear that specific, immediate situational factors can promote or inhibit aggressive thoughts and actions: frustration, negative affect, arousal, and factors that influence people"s thoughts and information processing. This book sets forth two major propositions, which taken together are called the frustration-aggression hypothesis: (1) Frustration produced by interrupting a person"s progress toward an expected goal will always elicit the motive to aggress, and (2) all aggression is caused by frustration. Dollard claimed that the motive to aggress is a psychological drive that resembles physiological drives like hunger. According to this theory, just as food deprivation elicits a hunger drive, so frustration elicits an aggressive drive. Just as the hunger drive prompts the search for food, so the aggressive drive prompts the attempt to inflict injury.
