A 2 (Frustration, No Frustration) × 2 (Catharsis, No Catharsis) factorial design was used to demonstrate catharsis. The Frustration condition involved interrupting a counting task; catharsis involved breaking cardboard boxes. After being exposed to one combination of these conditions, each of 44 children was tested for aggression in a setting which allowed for the assessment and control of arousal, inhibition/disinhibition, and demand characteristics. There were three dependent variables, nonaggression, and displaced human and nonhuman aggression. The Frustration-No Catharsis condition produced significantly more displaced aggression than either the Frustration-Catharsis or No Frustration-No Catharsis condition; these findings and others supported a cathartic interpretation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BakerJ.ShaieK.Effects of aggressing “alone” or “with another” on physiological and psychological arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1969, 12, 80–86.
2.
BramelD.TaubB.BlumB.An observer's reaction to the suffering of his enemy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1968, 8, 384–392.
3.
BussA.The psychology of aggression. New York: Wiley, 1961.
4.
BussA.Instrumentality of aggression, feedback, and frustration as determinants of physical aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1966, 3, 153–162.
5.
DollardJ.DoobL.MillerN.MowrerO.SearsR.Frustration and aggression. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univer. Press, 1939.
6.
DoobA.Catharsis and aggression: The effect of hurting one's enemy. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 1970, 4, 291–296.
7.
DoobA.WoodL.Catharsis and aggression: The effects of annoyance and retaliation on aggressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972, 22, 156–162.
8.
FeshbachS.The catharsis hypothesis and some consequences of interaction with aggressive and neutral play objects. Journal of Personality, 1956, 24, 449–462.
9.
FeshbachS.The stimulating versus cathartic effects of a vicarious aggressive activity. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1961, 63, 381–385.
10.
FeshbachS.Aggression. In MussenP. (Ed.), Carmichael's ‘Manual of child psychology.’New York: Wiley, 1970. Pp. 159–259.
11.
FeshbachS.SingerR.Television and aggression. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1971.
12.
FoutsG.The effect of self-modeling on behavior and self-esteem. Resources in Education, 1975, 10, No. 6. (Ed 103 104).
13.
GambaroS.RabinA.Diastolic blood pressure responses following direct and displaced aggression after anger arousal in high and low guilt subjects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1969, 12, 87–94.
14.
GeenR.Effects of frustration, attack, and prior training in aggressiveness upon aggressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1968, 9, 316–321.
15.
GeenR.StonnerD.ShopeG.The facilitation of aggression by aggression: Evidence against the catharsis hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 31, 721–726.
16.
HokansonJ.Effects of frustration and aggression on overt aggression. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1961, 62, 346–351.
17.
KahnM.The physiology of catharsis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1966, 3, 278–286.
18.
KonecniV.DoobA.Catharsis through displacement of aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972, 23, 379–387.
19.
KuhnD.MadsenC.BeckerW.Effects of exposure to an aggressive model and “frustration” on children's aggressive behavior. Child Development, 1967, 38, 739–745.
20.
LeakG.Effects of hostility arousal and aggressive humor on catharsis and humor preference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974, 30, 736–740.
21.
LesserL.An experimental investigation of the aggressiveness of children's behavior as a function of interpolated activities and individual differences in imaginative productions. Dissertation Abstracts, 1963, 24(2), 836–837.
22.
MallickS.McCandlessB.A study of catharsis of aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1966, 4, 591–596.
23.
ManningS.TaylorD.Effects of viewed violence and aggression: Stimulation and catharsisJournal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 31, 180–188.
24.
SchaferR.Requirements for a critique of the theory of catharsis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1970, 35, 13–17.
25.
SiegelS.Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.
26.
WaltersR.BrownM.A test of the high magnitude theory of aggression. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 1964, 1, 367–387.
