A Social Psychological Interpretation of Human Aggression

Abstract

Near the end of the most bloody century in the history of the human species it is noteworthy how little progress has been made in the study of aggression. Our knowledge has advanced little further than a theory proposed by Freud (1920) more than half a century ago. Although Freud’s frustration-aggression theory was recast into the language of behavioristic learning theory (Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer, and Sears, 1939), the basic principles are little changed from the original formulation. Alternative psychological theories of instrumental conditioning, cue-frustration and aggression, and modeling have not provided great insights into why people assault, rape, and kill one another. The view to be presented here is that the essential problem with psychological approaches to studying human aggression is an inadequate conceptualization of the phenomena to be explained. Current conceptions of aggression will be examined and an alternative interpretation will be proposed.