to the subject of aggression. The theory relied heavily upon that of biological and evolutionary theoretical conclusions. Though from studies on recent research, this theory could be considered somewhat outmoded and the findings not necessarily correspondent with what is now known about aggression. It must be noted that this theory was originally developed as an explanation of prejudice, not aggressive behaviour, and that it was developed in a time where there was minimal research in terms of social approaches to the subject. Not all of Dollard’s findings were entirely wrong and many aspects of it are supported by Berkowitz, in his 1989 examination of the hypothesis. Although Berkowitz makes many modifications to Dollard’s findings, he does…show more content… Drewes then goes on to discuss that such displays of aggression, in a sense, almost grant the viewer permission to behave as such. When compared to a study by Bandura and Huston in 1961, in which children observed a similar model, displaying nurturing and non-nurturing behaviour, it was found that the children exhibited similar behaviours and were more likely to imitate the actions observed.(Bandura and Hudson 1961) This therefore suggests, according to Drewes that even the mere observation of aggression by a child, regardless of the relationship between viewer and model, serves as a sufficient condition for producing imitative aggressive behaviours. It must also be noted here that Drewes refers to Zillman’s excitation transfer model, and discusses that the children within the “Bobo doll experiment”, were more likely to experience an increment in aggression, due to a combination of motoric activity and the recognition that anger had already been aroused. (Drewes 2008)
Further support towards such theories as the social learning theory, and the excitation transfer theory, are displayed in a journal by Fisher in 2001, examining ‘A Social Psychological…show more content… The idea that children often are a product of their surroundings is strengthened by not only findings in recent experiments and journals, but also by observations displayed within our society. Zillman’s Excitation-transfer theory, is also still widely accepted due to the fact that it was refined by Zillman throughout the years, and was therefore more adaptable and applicable to modern day research. When looking at Dollard’s theory for example, this conflicts with what we now know on the subject of aggression. From more recent research, it is now argued that anger is a much more likely cause of aggression rather than frustration (Berkowitz 1989), therefore rendering Dollard’s theory relatively obsolete. However as previously stated, Dollard’s findings come from a time where there was little input in terms of social psychology, and this theory was developed initially to explain intergroup conflict not necessarily the aggression of individuals. It is therefore essential to understand that aggression is not dependant on any one factor alone, and so in order to obtain a more rounded view on the subject, all theories mentioned, must be taken into
