A study of some determinants of aggression in young children.

Abstract

The frustration-aggression theory of Dollard, Doob, Miller, Mowrer, and Sears (3) presented aggression as a natural and inevitable consequence of interference with, or blocking of, a goal response. Although the major postulate of the frustration-aggression hypothesis has required modification, its corollary, that aggression presupposes the occurrence of frustration, has been widely accepted (5). Studies of child-training practices (e.g., I, 7, 8, Io) have provided some supporting, if not always consistent, evidence for this latter hypothesis. Such studies suggest, however, that the extent to which aggression is manifested depends not only upon the degree of frustration that a child experiences, but also on the effectiveness of the parents' training into social conformity. Early in the child's life measures are taken to curb the development of aggression by threatening the child with punishment or loss of love. Even as aggressive patterns of behavior are being learned, aggression is being partially inhibited or channeled into more socially accepted forms. One consequence of the development of inhibitions is the displacement of aggression to objects other than the original frustrator. Thus, a child who is frustrated by its parents may displace aggression to a sibling or a toy. Analogously, one might expect a child who is frustrated by an adult in a school setting to displace aggression to playthings in his environment. The extent to which displacement occurs may be thought of as a joint