Closely related to increased and restless movements are feelings of anger that may to destructiveness and hostile attacks. In the toy experiment, kicking, knocking, breaking, and destroying were greatly increased following frustration. Only a few children did any kicking or knocking in the original free-play situation but, the majority did so after becoming frustrated.

a. Direct Aggression:

Sometimes aggression is expressed directly against the individual or object that is the source of the frustration. In ordinary play situations, when one small child takes a toy from another child, the second is likely to attack the first in an attempt to regain the toy. For adults, aggression may be verbal rather than physical-the victim of a slighting remark usually, replies in kind. The anger engendered when one is blocked tends to find expression in some kind of direct attack.

Because, the wire barrier was the source of the blocking in the toy experiment, the children’s first attempt at problem solving was to get by the barrier or remove it. Aggression of this kind need not be hostile; it may be a learned way of solving a problem. When the obstacle is another person, the first tendency is to attack, treating that person as a barrier. But, this may not be the only form of aggression in response to frustration.

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b. Displaced Aggression:

Frequently the frustrated individual cannot satisfactorily express aggression against the source of the frustration. Sometimes the source is vague and intangible. The person does not know how to attack, yet feels angry and seeks something to attack. Sometimes the person responsible for the frustration is so powerful that an attack would be dangerous.

When circumstances block direct attack on the cause of frustration, aggression may be “displaced”. Displaced aggression is an aggressive action against an innocent person or object rather than against the actual cause of the frustration. A person who is reprimanded at work may take out his unexpressed resentment on his family.

The tongue-lashing Bill gives his roommate may be related to the poor grade Bill received on the midterm quiz. The child who is not getting along well with his playmates may pull the tail of his cat.

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The practice of “scapegoating” is an example of displaced aggression. An innocent victim is blamed for one’s troubles and becomes the object of aggression. Prejudice against minority groups has a large element of displaced aggression, or scapegoating.

The fact that from 1882 to 1930 the price of cotton in certain regions of the south was negatively correlated with the number of lynchings in the same regions (the lower the price of cotton, the higher the number of lynchings) suggests that the mechanism of displaced aggression may have been involved. The greater the economic frustration, the greater the likelihood that aggression would be displaced against the blacks, a group serving as a scapegoat, since, they were not responsible for the price of cotton.

An experiment with boys at a summer camp shows the relationship between frustration and scapegoating. The boys were required to participate in a lengthy and boring testing session which ran overtime so that they missed their weekly outing to the local movie. A survey measuring attitudes toward Japanese and Mexicans given before and after the testing session showed a significant increase in unfriendly feelings. The boys displaced their anger verbally toward remote peoples rather than expressing it directly toward the administrators of the tests (Miller and Bugelski, 1948).