Success , Failure , and Aggression

In order to discover the effects of success and failure on subsequent aggressiveness, 26 sale and 55 female college students were randomly assigned to success, failure, and neutral conditions. Those in the success condition were led to feel they were superior to other college students on a task, those in the failure condition were led to feel they vere inferior, and those in the neutral condition were given no basis for judgement. After subsequently being insulted by E, Ss filled out a questionnaire indicating their opinion of the study, as the dependent measure of aggression. Rating scale evaluations showed no significant differences, but Ss in the failure condition chose ftfrustratingo and also other unfavorable adjectives to describe the study significantly more than those in the other two conditions. The results supported the prediction that failure would increase aggressiveness but not the hypothesis that the "warm glow of success" would inhibit aggression. (Author) Success, Failure, and Aggression Mary B. Harris and Judith L. Fisher University of New Mexico A. Introduction 4 U.S. OIPARTMONT OP NIIALTN, IDUCATION 11 WOLPARI NATIONAL INSTITUTE OP THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED D NOT REPRE SENT OFF ICO iAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY A large number of conditions have been suggested as increasing the level of subsequent aggressive behaviors including frustration, general arousal, modeling of aggressive responses, physical assaults, pain, verbal threats and insult, cessation of reinforcement, thwarting of goal directed behavior, and instructions to aggress, among others (1,4). Other factors have been suggested as possible inhibitors of aggression, such as pain cues from the victim, guilt and anxiety, lack of reinforcement for aggression, modeling of non-aggressive responses, sometimes direct or vicarious punishment for aggression, self punishment for aggression, reinforcement for non-aggressive activities, and empathy for or identification with the victim of aggression(1,4,8). The present study was designed to look at the effect of failure and success on several tasks upon subsequent aggression. In a study by Nelson, Gelfand, and Hartmann(7) children participated in competitive games and either won (succeeded) or lost (failed). Children in a control group played noncompetitive games. Half of the children in each group subsequently viewed an aggressive M and half a aonaggressive M. Almost no aggression was displayed by those seeing a nonaggressive 1, but among those seeing an aggressive M, those who experienced failure were more aggressive than those who experienced success, while those who experienced success were more aggressive than those who participated in the noncompetitive games. The