Mediators between frustration and aggression in a field experiment

A qualitative exploration of driving stress and driving discourtesy

BACKGROUND

Driving courtesy, and conversely driving discourtesy, recently has been of great interest in the public domain. In addition, there has been increasing recognition of the negative impact of stress upon the individual's health and wellbeing, with a plethora of interventions aimed at minimising stress more generally. The research literature regarding driving dis/courtesy, in comparison, is scant, with a handful of studies examining the dis/courteous driving behaviour of road users, and the relationship between driving discourtesy and driving stress.

AIM

To examine courteous and discourteous driving experiences, and to explore the impact of stress associated with such driving experiences.

METHOD

Thirty-eight drivers (20 females) from the Sunshine Coast region volunteered to participate in one of four 1-1.5 h focus groups. Content analysis used the verbatim utterances captured via an Mp3 device.

RESULTS

Three themes pertaining to stressful and discourteous interactions were identified. Theme one pertained to the driving context: road infrastructure (eg, roundabouts, roadwork), vehicles (eg, features), location (eg, country vs city, unfamiliar areas), and temporal aspects (eg, holidays). Theme two pertained to other road users: their behaviour (eg, tailgating, merging), and unknown factors (eg, illicit and licit drug use). Theme three pertained to the self as road user: their own behaviours (eg, deliberate intimidation), and their emotions (eg, angry reaction to other drivers, being in control).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Driving dis/courtesy and driving stress is a complex phenomenon, suggesting complex intervention efforts are required. Driving discourtesy was reported as being highly stressful, therefore intervention efforts which encourage driving courtesy and which foster emotional capacity to cope with stressful circumstances appear warranted.

Gender, Age, and the Social Evaluation of Assertion

Lack of assertiveness has been characterized as a social skills deficit amenable to assertiveness training. Recent research suggests, however, that assertion may sometimes be negatively evaluated. This study examined the effects of gender and age on perceptions of assertion. Females and males in two age groups rated the behavior of a female or male model who exhibited one of three types of assertion. Judgments of the model's assertion were affected by the age and gender of the subject and by the interaction of model gender, subject gender, and age. These results are discussed in relation to studies using only college-student samples, and it is suggested that further attention to the interpersonal context of assertion is warranted in evaluating its effectiveness.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining: Interpersonal and Individual Differences Determinants of Anger-Related Behaviors

Two studies examined the effect of status and liking of the anger target on anger behavior and individual differences in angerrelated behavior. Participants recalled anger instances in which the anger target was of higher/equal/lower status and/or liked/ unfamiliar/disliked; subsequently, they indicated which behaviors they had displayed. In both studies, anger behaviors could be grouped into behaviors that imply approaching the target (anger-out, assertion, reconciliation) and behaviors that reflect avoidance/anger-in or social sharing. The results demonstrated that approach behaviors more likely occur toward lower status or liked targets; avoidance behaviors and social sharing more likely occur when the target is of higher status or disliked. On an individual differences level, an approach and an avoid/social sharing person class were identified. The findings suggest that anger may motivate prosocial behavior or social sharing, depending on the individual and type of relation with the target. Only few gender differences were found.

The Effects of Apparel on Compliance

Past research indicates that apparel influences our behavior and our impressions of others. One type of apparel that is both salient and symbolically significant is the uniform. Few studies, however, have examined the influence of uniforms on behavior, especially with female authority figures. In this study a female confederate who was dressed in a uniform, professional attire, or sloppy clothing told subjects to give change to a person who was parked at an expired parking meter (Bickman, 1974). The results showed that compliance was higher when the confederate was dressed in a uniform. Verbal reasons given for complying also differed across conditions. The study shows that a uniform is a certificate of legitimacy (Joseph & Alex, 1972)for females as well as males and that both sexes are influenced by a female dressed in a uniform.

Psychological Momentum: Intuitive Physics and Naive Beliefs

The present research examines psychological momentum (PM), a perceived force that lay intuition suggests influences performance. PM theory is proposed to account for how momentum perceptions arise, and four studies demonstrate the influence of lay intuitions about PM on expectations regarding performance outcomes. Study 1 establishes that individuals share intuitions about the types of events that precipitate PM, and Study 2 finds that defeating a rival increases momentum perceptions. Study 3 provides evidence for the lay belief that as more PM accumulates during a prior task, there should be more residual momentum left to carry over to a subsequent task, and Study 4 finds that an individual whose PM is interrupted is expected to have greater difficulty completing a task than is an individual whose steady progress is interrupted. Discussion focuses on linkages between PM and related constructs.

Zur empirischen Fundierung des Konzepts der feindseligen Aggression

Zusammenfassung: Berkowitz' (1990 , 1993 ) Definition der feindseligen Aggression zeichnet sich dadurch aus, daß sie Annahmen enthält, die empirisch prüfbar sind. Bisher sind Versuche, feindselige Aggression nachzuweisen, rar und vernachlässigen die zentrale Rolle der aggressiven Handlungsziele. In einem Experiment wurde die Entstehung von Zielen der Person, angesichts eines frustrierenden Szenarios, untersucht. Bei den VersuchsteilnehmerInnen wurden zuvor entweder ärger- oder furchtbezogene Kognitionen durch Priming verfügbar gemacht. Im Einklang mit dem neoassoziationistischen Modell ( Berkowitz, 1993 ) und dessen Konzept der feindseligen Aggression wurde vorhergesagt, daß nur unter Ärger-Priming aggressive Ziele (Wunsch nach Schädigung des Gegenübers) im Vergleich zu anderen hedonistischen Zielen in den Vordergrund treten sollten. Die Befunde stützen diese Hypothese und bilden einen experimentellen Beleg für die Nützlichkeit des Konzeptes der feindseligen Aggression.

Male physical aggression as a function of alcohol, frustration, and subjective mood

An experiment tested the hypothesis that alcohol intoxication will increase aggression only if the subject is experiencing the intoxicated state as displeasing. Forty males drank either 0.8 mL of pure alcohol/kg body weight or a placebo drink and were then exposed to either a pleasant or an unpleasant mood manipulation. Following this, they were given the chance to aggress in a modified version of the Buss "aggression machine" paradigm. All subjects were observed under varying levels of frustration. Results indicated that alcohol-drinking subjects were more aggressive than placebo-drinking subjects, and that both intoxicated and sober subjects increased their aggression when frustrated. Intoxicated subjects in a pleasant mood were most aggressive under both provocative and nonprovocative conditions. The hypothesis was not supported and results are discussed in relation to different theoretical models and in relation to results from other similar studies.

Human physical aggression as a function of frustration: role of aggressive cues

An experiment was performed testing whether aggressive cues are necessary or only facilitative in increasing aggression to a frustration and whether their role is to “pull out” aggression directly or to add to the experience of displeasure. 20 subjects participated and a modified version of the Buss' “aggression machine” was used in which frustration was manipulated within subjects and aggressive cues between subjects. Frustration was of an arbitrary kind and aggression was defined to subjects to have instrumental value in overcoming the frustrative event Results indicated that (1) frustration alone is a weak antecedent of aggression, (2) at low frustration aggressive cues seem to be necessary for aggression to increase, and (3) aggressive cues apparently elicit aggression directly. Results were discussed in terms of Berkowitz' reformulation of the frustration-aggression hypothesis.

Alcohol-related aggression: a further study of the importance of frustration

This experiment investigated aggression as an interactive effect of alcohol and frustration in a situation where frustration was defined as strong and arbitrary and aggression as instrumental. 40 male subjects were randomly assigned to either an alcohol or a placebo group, each group further divided into an aggressive-cue group and a no-aggressive-cue group. Subjects either consumed an alcohol dose of 0.8 ml of pure alcohol per kg body weight or a placebo drink. Intensity and duration of shocks administered by subjects to a bogus partner in a supervision “cover task” were measures of relative aggression and absolute aggression was defined as number of shocks given. The aggressive cue manipulation had no effect, and both absolute and relative aggression increased only when intoxicated subjects were frustrated. Aggression was clearly of an instrumental kind with no ingredients of emotional aggression. The different dependent measures were highly intercorrelated and not associated with different types of aggression. The results were discussed as supportive of a model proposing a shift in attentional processes under alcohol to salient external features.