Anger, Aggression and communication Research Paper

Anger, Aggression and communication - Research Paper Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that frustration has been linked to anger when an obstruction of motivationally relevant goals has been observed. In order for angry affect to occur the situation must be understood and personally important. In other words, there must be a goal that is blocked and others may be blamed. In many circumstances, the blockage of this personally relevant goal can be viewed as either legitimate or illegitimate (unfair). Weiss, Suckow, and Cropanzano investigated the effect of unfairness of a particular outcome on reported levels of anger. As the amount of unfairness increased so did the level of anger. It is important to maintain the distinct difference between anger and aggression. Anger is an affect, an emotion, while aggression is a destructive or hostile behavior. Frustration has been studied with aggression as well as with anger. Dollard et al. were some of the first researchers to investigate the effects of frustration on aggression. They foun d that the obstruction of an expected reward created increased levels of aggression. More recently Leonard Berkowitz and his colleagues have modified this theory. In general it is accepted that the blockage of some personally relevant goal leads to frustration, which in turn may lead to anger and/or aggression. The type of frustration required to elicit an anger response may not need to be a goal of long standing personal relevance. Roseman investigated appraisals involving emotions and concluded that transient rewards or fleeting punishments can produce anger arousing affect. Obstructions to a goal determined to be purposeful created more anger than situations in which they were deemed accidental, even in temporary situations of reward and punishment. There is evidence indicating that people may become more aggressive in a frustrating situation, specifically, when anger is primed in comparison to fear. Betsch (1999) studied the concept of hostile aggression with university students . Hostile aggression was measured by participants' reactions when confronted with a scenario involving a frustrating event. Either anger or fear related cognitions were activated. Results indicate that in the anger priming condition, hostile goals (i.e. aggression) were more likely to be reported. This suggests that frustration, anger, and aggression are associated. It is assumed that in a frustrating situation, levels of anger will increase. As reported previously, as anger increases so does the amount of aggression displayed. There are other reasons for the onset of anger and in turn aggression. One interesting aspect is the role of communication. Communication Communication is an essential part of human existence, and research suggests that there are innate mechanisms in the development of human