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12 Myth Three: The Hydraulic Model

• Published: October 2008
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The idea that emotions are feelings lends itself to another passive image, that of a psychic fluid filling up the mind or the body. This is referred to as the “hydraulic model.” This chapter challenges this as a misleading metaphor. To say that it is a metaphor, however, is not in itself to condemn it. Good science is filled with metaphors, often provocative, pregnant, and insightful. But this particular metaphor points us in exactly the wrong direction if we are to understand our emotions. Even the illustrious Freud employed it, and it led him to some of his most-often disputed models of the mind.

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The way aggression is expressed is somewhat complex. After an argument, slamming the door can release pent-up anger, which is a form of aggression. The hydraulic model of instinctive behaviour in aggression links together  Lorenz’s theory of aggression (consisting of innate releasing mechanisms and fixed action patterns in ethology), focusing on the motivation behind an action, behaviour, and external stimuli to explain how aggression is expressed in animals. 

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The way aggression is expressed is somewhat complex. After an argument, slamming the door can release pent-up anger, which is a form of aggression. The hydraulic model of instinctive behaviour in aggression links together Lorenz’s theory of aggression (consisting of innate releasing mechanisms and fixed action patterns in ethology), focusing on the motivation behind an action, behaviour, and external stimuli to explain how aggression is expressed in animals.

• We will explore Lorenz's theory of aggression, specifically examining the hydraulic model of instinctive behaviour.
• First, we will briefly define innate releasing mechanisms in ethology for context's sake.
• Then, we will provide a hydraulic model of aggression definition, highlighting vacuum activity and spontaneous fixed action patterns .
• Throughout, we will link back to motivation in animal behaviour and how this affects aggression.
• Finally, we will briefly evaluate Lorenz's hydraulic model of instinctive behaviour.

Lorenz's Theory of Aggression

Lorenz stated aggression was a necessary, adaptive response in animals. By displaying aggressive behaviours, the animal in question has a higher chance of securing the means for its survival.

• These include food, territory, and the right to mate.

Lorenz believed aggression occurred due to a build-up of pressure released by a sign stimulus, resulting in specific behaviours common across the species (FAPs triggered by IRMs, as discussed above). Aggression is a means to secure survival, so it usually does not result in animals fighting to the death, interestingly enough.

It would not be productive for animals to regularly fight to the death for resources, as the species would eventually begin to suffer.

Lorenz famously stated, in how his models related to human behaviour:

I believe... present-day civilized man suffers from the insufficient discharge of his aggressive drive.²

Innate Releasing Mechanisms in Ethology

Innate releasing mechanisms (IRMs) in ethology are hardwired neural networks in the brain that recognise specific stimuli ( sign stimuli or releases ) to trigger fixed action patterns (FAPs) , i.e., a sequence of actions encoded in response to these specific stimuli.

The hydraulic model of instinctual behaviour brings these ideas together to illustrate how this is implemented in an animal, considering the animal’s motivation and aggressive displays.

The Hydraulic Model in Psychology

A hydraulic model in psychology is a physiological or psychological model that proposes that when pressure builds in a system (i.e. a human), the built-up energy will need to be released.

Hydraulic Model of Aggression Definition

The hydraulic model of aggression visualizes Lorenz's idea on how aggressive behaviours occur in animals, specifically in that aggression builds up in a reservoir over time, and a sign-stimulus or releasor unleashes the built-up aggression, resulting in aggressive behaviours. It involves a reservoir (drive), a release mechanism, a stimulus which "unplugs" the reservoir, and resulting behaviours upon release.

Overall, the hydraulic model visualises the pent-up aggression an animal may experience and how it is released, taking into account IRMs and FAPs and acknowledging motivation in animal behaviour.

Interestingly, Lorenz’s hydraulic model of instinctual behaviour goes back to the work of Freud . He believed that aggression was an inevitable outcome because, in his view, animals, especially males, are biologically programmed to fight for what they deem necessary for their survival (as we discussed above). Take a look at the diagram below:

Lorenz believed that aggression increases over time as the urge to be aggressive builds up in animals. Once the internal pressure to be aggressive builds up enough, a sign stimulus releases it, triggering aggression.

The reservoir is emptied in this case and is more sensitive the longer the time that has passed since the last release. Let's explore how the hydraulic model of instinctive behaviour links to motivation in animal behaviour, specifically, how fluid in the model builds up and drives the mechanism.

Motivation in Animal Behaviour

Motivation is the fluid that accumulates in the reservoir and becomes the drive to act in this mechanism.

Action-specific energy or pent-up aggression accumulates in the reservoir, and the sign stimulus serves as the trigger. In this case, the stimulus is the weight that clogs the reservoir.

A sign stimulus will ‘release’ the pent-up reservoir, resulting in FAPs, and FAPs can vary depending on how much the reservoir releases. The spouts indicate different behaviours, and different levels of release result in different behaviours.

Once this occurs, the animal’s aggression level drops (known as behavioural quiescence ) until the pent-up aggression builds back up, and the process repeats.

Motivation increases over time , so the reservoir builds up over time . Motivation in animal behaviour is specific to the behaviours it triggers (e.g., when a species needs to mate or secure food).

A male stickleback has increased motivation to mate with a female stickleback during the mating season. This motivation rises over time and accumulates in its ‘reservoir’.

When the male stickleback encounters another male stickleback, identifiable by its red underbelly (the sign stimulus or release), it releases this reservoir. It begins its FAP, aggressive behaviour to fend off competition.

Rhoad and Kalat (1975) observed the aggressive behaviour of male Siamese fighting fish ( Betta splendens ) in response to other male fish (recognised by their bright colours), a mirror image of the fish, a moving model, and a stationary model. They exposed the fish to each stimulus for one hour per day.

Typically, Siamese fighting fish inflate in response to the presence of another male by inflating their dorsal, ventral, and caudal fins, among others.

Rhoad and Kalat (1975) found that the fish would puff up in response to any stimulus, exhibiting similar behaviours. The mirror image elicited a response most effectively , followed by the moving and stationary models. However, another fish is still more effective than the mirror image, and its effectiveness does not depend on the stimuli’s order.

• After repeated exposure, the aggressive behaviours decreased rapidly .
• However, the fish were still alert to the stimuli, but they actively avoided them instead of being aggressive (habituation), which could signify how the ‘reservoir’ needs to replenish itself.

Vacuum Activity and Spontaneous FAPs

In Lorenz’s model, either the stimulus causes the release of pent-up aggression, leading to FAPs, or the pressure from the reservoir spontaneously discharges (usually due to a lack of sign stimulus' or releasors).

Known as vacuum activities , the pent-up aggression has built up to a point where it must be released and does so in the absence of external stimuli . It makes its way out and leads to a FAP.

Typically, animals in captivity display vacuum activities as there is a lack of external stimuli to help them release pent-up aggression.

Evaluation of Lorenz’s Hydraulic Model (1950)

Konrad Lorenz’s theories are essential for multiple reasons, namely through their contributions to understanding behaviour in animals, specifically aggression, and acting as a model for comparative aggression in humans.

However, the model has a few problems, which we will address here:

Arms et al. (1979) measured spectators watching aggressive sports on scales of hostility. Male and female participants were exposed to stylised aggression (professional wrestling), realistic aggression (ice hockey), and competitive non-aggressive events (i.e., swimming).

They found aggression and hostility increased rather than decreased after viewing the events. However, this was not the case for the non-competitive events.

The Hydraulic Model of Instinctive Behaviour - Key takeaways

• Lorenz’s theory of aggression is linked to the hydraulic model of motivation, which focuses on the motivation behind an action, behaviour, and external stimuli to explain how aggression is expressed in animals.
• Overall, the hydraulic model visualises pent-up aggression that can be released in an animal, incorporating innate releasing mechanisms (IRMs) and fixed action patterns (FAPs) while acknowledging the animals’ motivation.
• The hydraulic model illustrates how action-specific energy or pent-up aggression accumulates in a reservoir, and a stimulus acts as a release. In this case, the stimulus is the weight that clogs the reservoir. Release triggers a FAP.
• Once the hydraulic model’s aggression buildup is relieved, the animal’s aggression level drops (known as behavioural quiescence) until the aggression buildup rebuilds, and the process repeats. Spontaneous acts of aggression (known as vacuum activities) may occur if the reservoir is not released due to absences in sign stimuli.
• The model fails to recognise the ability to learn and adapt FAPs and is overly simplistic without much structural evidence in the brain.
• Fig. 2 - Hydraulic model of motivation diagram by Shyamal, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
• Konrad Lorenz. (1966). On aggression. Translated by Marjorie Latzke. London, Methuen & Co. ‌

Frequently Asked Questions about The Hydraulic Model of Instinctive Behaviour

--> what is the hydraulic model in psychology .

In psychology, specifically ethology, the hydraulic model is a concept Konrad Lorenz developed to demonstrate the release of pent-up aggression in animals (innate releasing mechanisms), specifically by showing a reservoir of motivation/aggression. A sign stimulus releases this reservoir to cause fixed action patterns to specific stimuli.

--> Who proposed the psychohydraulic model? 

Konrad Lorenz proposed the psychohydraulic model (1950).

--> What was Konrad Lorenz’s theory? 

Konrad Lorenz’s theory surrounded the concept of aggression and its release in animals, explicitly referencing innate releasing mechanisms and fixed action patterns. 

--> Why is Konrad Lorenz’s theory important? 

Konrad Lorenz’s theories are essential for multiple reasons, namely through their contributions to understanding behaviour in animals, specifically aggression, and acting as a model for comparative aggression in humans. 

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What is the hydraulic model of instinctive behaviour?

The hydraulic model of instinctive behaviour is a concept Konrad Lorenz developed to demonstrate the release of pent-up aggression in animals (innate releasing mechanisms), specifically by showing a reservoir of motivation/aggression. A sign stimulus releases this reservoir to cause fixed action patterns to specific stimuli.

Who proposed the hydraulic model of instinctive behaviour?

Konrad Lorenz (1950).

How does the hydraulic model relate to innate releasing mechanisms and fixed action patterns?

It ties them together to show how aggression builds up and is released in an animal.

What does Lorenz’s hydraulic model derive from?

Freud’s work. 

What did Konrad Lorenz believe about aggression?

He believed it was inevitable, particularly for males, as they are biologically programmed to fight for survival. 

What components exist in the hydraulic model?

The components are:

• The drive/motivation (liquid) building up in the reservoir (pent-up aggression).
• The weight and sign stimulus clogging the reservoir and releasing to initiate behaviours.
• The spouts indicating different levels of behaviours.  

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Developing a Hypothesis

Rajiv S. Jhangiani; I-Chant A. Chiang; Carrie Cuttler; and Dana C. Leighton

Learning Objectives

• Distinguish between a theory and a hypothesis.
• Discover how theories are used to generate hypotheses and how the results of studies can be used to further inform theories.
• Understand the characteristics of a good hypothesis.

Theories and Hypotheses

Before describing how to develop a hypothesis, it is important to distinguish between a theory and a hypothesis. A  theory  is a coherent explanation or interpretation of one or more phenomena. Although theories can take a variety of forms, one thing they have in common is that they go beyond the phenomena they explain by including variables, structures, processes, functions, or organizing principles that have not been observed directly. Consider, for example, Zajonc’s theory of social facilitation and social inhibition (1965) [1] . He proposed that being watched by others while performing a task creates a general state of physiological arousal, which increases the likelihood of the dominant (most likely) response. So for highly practiced tasks, being watched increases the tendency to make correct responses, but for relatively unpracticed tasks, being watched increases the tendency to make incorrect responses. Notice that this theory—which has come to be called drive theory—provides an explanation of both social facilitation and social inhibition that goes beyond the phenomena themselves by including concepts such as “arousal” and “dominant response,” along with processes such as the effect of arousal on the dominant response.

Outside of science, referring to an idea as a theory often implies that it is untested—perhaps no more than a wild guess. In science, however, the term theory has no such implication. A theory is simply an explanation or interpretation of a set of phenomena. It can be untested, but it can also be extensively tested, well supported, and accepted as an accurate description of the world by the scientific community. The theory of evolution by natural selection, for example, is a theory because it is an explanation of the diversity of life on earth—not because it is untested or unsupported by scientific research. On the contrary, the evidence for this theory is overwhelmingly positive and nearly all scientists accept its basic assumptions as accurate. Similarly, the “germ theory” of disease is a theory because it is an explanation of the origin of various diseases, not because there is any doubt that many diseases are caused by microorganisms that infect the body.

A  hypothesis , on the other hand, is a specific prediction about a new phenomenon that should be observed if a particular theory is accurate. It is an explanation that relies on just a few key concepts. Hypotheses are often specific predictions about what will happen in a particular study. They are developed by considering existing evidence and using reasoning to infer what will happen in the specific context of interest. Hypotheses are often but not always derived from theories. So a hypothesis is often a prediction based on a theory but some hypotheses are a-theoretical and only after a set of observations have been made, is a theory developed. This is because theories are broad in nature and they explain larger bodies of data. So if our research question is really original then we may need to collect some data and make some observations before we can develop a broader theory.

Theories and hypotheses always have this  if-then  relationship. “ If   drive theory is correct,  then  cockroaches should run through a straight runway faster, and a branching runway more slowly, when other cockroaches are present.” Although hypotheses are usually expressed as statements, they can always be rephrased as questions. “Do cockroaches run through a straight runway faster when other cockroaches are present?” Thus deriving hypotheses from theories is an excellent way of generating interesting research questions.

But how do researchers derive hypotheses from theories? One way is to generate a research question using the techniques discussed in this chapter  and then ask whether any theory implies an answer to that question. For example, you might wonder whether expressive writing about positive experiences improves health as much as expressive writing about traumatic experiences. Although this  question  is an interesting one  on its own, you might then ask whether the habituation theory—the idea that expressive writing causes people to habituate to negative thoughts and feelings—implies an answer. In this case, it seems clear that if the habituation theory is correct, then expressive writing about positive experiences should not be effective because it would not cause people to habituate to negative thoughts and feelings. A second way to derive hypotheses from theories is to focus on some component of the theory that has not yet been directly observed. For example, a researcher could focus on the process of habituation—perhaps hypothesizing that people should show fewer signs of emotional distress with each new writing session.

Among the very best hypotheses are those that distinguish between competing theories. For example, Norbert Schwarz and his colleagues considered two theories of how people make judgments about themselves, such as how assertive they are (Schwarz et al., 1991) [2] . Both theories held that such judgments are based on relevant examples that people bring to mind. However, one theory was that people base their judgments on the  number  of examples they bring to mind and the other was that people base their judgments on how  easily  they bring those examples to mind. To test these theories, the researchers asked people to recall either six times when they were assertive (which is easy for most people) or 12 times (which is difficult for most people). Then they asked them to judge their own assertiveness. Note that the number-of-examples theory implies that people who recalled 12 examples should judge themselves to be more assertive because they recalled more examples, but the ease-of-examples theory implies that participants who recalled six examples should judge themselves as more assertive because recalling the examples was easier. Thus the two theories made opposite predictions so that only one of the predictions could be confirmed. The surprising result was that participants who recalled fewer examples judged themselves to be more assertive—providing particularly convincing evidence in favor of the ease-of-retrieval theory over the number-of-examples theory.

Theory Testing

The primary way that scientific researchers use theories is sometimes called the hypothetico-deductive method  (although this term is much more likely to be used by philosophers of science than by scientists themselves). Researchers begin with a set of phenomena and either construct a theory to explain or interpret them or choose an existing theory to work with. They then make a prediction about some new phenomenon that should be observed if the theory is correct. Again, this prediction is called a hypothesis. The researchers then conduct an empirical study to test the hypothesis. Finally, they reevaluate the theory in light of the new results and revise it if necessary. This process is usually conceptualized as a cycle because the researchers can then derive a new hypothesis from the revised theory, conduct a new empirical study to test the hypothesis, and so on. As  Figure 2.3  shows, this approach meshes nicely with the model of scientific research in psychology presented earlier in the textbook—creating a more detailed model of “theoretically motivated” or “theory-driven” research.

As an example, let us consider Zajonc’s research on social facilitation and inhibition. He started with a somewhat contradictory pattern of results from the research literature. He then constructed his drive theory, according to which being watched by others while performing a task causes physiological arousal, which increases an organism’s tendency to make the dominant response. This theory predicts social facilitation for well-learned tasks and social inhibition for poorly learned tasks. He now had a theory that organized previous results in a meaningful way—but he still needed to test it. He hypothesized that if his theory was correct, he should observe that the presence of others improves performance in a simple laboratory task but inhibits performance in a difficult version of the very same laboratory task. To test this hypothesis, one of the studies he conducted used cockroaches as subjects (Zajonc, Heingartner, & Herman, 1969) [3] . The cockroaches ran either down a straight runway (an easy task for a cockroach) or through a cross-shaped maze (a difficult task for a cockroach) to escape into a dark chamber when a light was shined on them. They did this either while alone or in the presence of other cockroaches in clear plastic “audience boxes.” Zajonc found that cockroaches in the straight runway reached their goal more quickly in the presence of other cockroaches, but cockroaches in the cross-shaped maze reached their goal more slowly when they were in the presence of other cockroaches. Thus he confirmed his hypothesis and provided support for his drive theory. (Zajonc also showed that drive theory existed in humans [Zajonc & Sales, 1966] [4] in many other studies afterward).

Incorporating Theory into Your Research

When you write your research report or plan your presentation, be aware that there are two basic ways that researchers usually include theory. The first is to raise a research question, answer that question by conducting a new study, and then offer one or more theories (usually more) to explain or interpret the results. This format works well for applied research questions and for research questions that existing theories do not address. The second way is to describe one or more existing theories, derive a hypothesis from one of those theories, test the hypothesis in a new study, and finally reevaluate the theory. This format works well when there is an existing theory that addresses the research question—especially if the resulting hypothesis is surprising or conflicts with a hypothesis derived from a different theory.

To use theories in your research will not only give you guidance in coming up with experiment ideas and possible projects, but it lends legitimacy to your work. Psychologists have been interested in a variety of human behaviors and have developed many theories along the way. Using established theories will help you break new ground as a researcher, not limit you from developing your own ideas.

Characteristics of a Good Hypothesis

There are three general characteristics of a good hypothesis. First, a good hypothesis must be testable and falsifiable . We must be able to test the hypothesis using the methods of science and if you’ll recall Popper’s falsifiability criterion, it must be possible to gather evidence that will disconfirm the hypothesis if it is indeed false. Second, a good hypothesis must be logical. As described above, hypotheses are more than just a random guess. Hypotheses should be informed by previous theories or observations and logical reasoning. Typically, we begin with a broad and general theory and use  deductive reasoning to generate a more specific hypothesis to test based on that theory. Occasionally, however, when there is no theory to inform our hypothesis, we use  inductive reasoning  which involves using specific observations or research findings to form a more general hypothesis. Finally, the hypothesis should be positive. That is, the hypothesis should make a positive statement about the existence of a relationship or effect, rather than a statement that a relationship or effect does not exist. As scientists, we don’t set out to show that relationships do not exist or that effects do not occur so our hypotheses should not be worded in a way to suggest that an effect or relationship does not exist. The nature of science is to assume that something does not exist and then seek to find evidence to prove this wrong, to show that it really does exist. That may seem backward to you but that is the nature of the scientific method. The underlying reason for this is beyond the scope of this chapter but it has to do with statistical theory.

• Zajonc, R. B. (1965). Social facilitation.  Science, 149 , 269–274 ↵
• Schwarz, N., Bless, H., Strack, F., Klumpp, G., Rittenauer-Schatka, H., & Simons, A. (1991). Ease of retrieval as information: Another look at the availability heuristic.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61 , 195–202. ↵
• Zajonc, R. B., Heingartner, A., & Herman, E. M. (1969). Social enhancement and impairment of performance in the cockroach.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13 , 83–92. ↵
• Zajonc, R.B. & Sales, S.M. (1966). Social facilitation of dominant and subordinate responses. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2 , 160-168. ↵

A coherent explanation or interpretation of one or more phenomena.

A specific prediction about a new phenomenon that should be observed if a particular theory is accurate.

A cyclical process of theory development, starting with an observed phenomenon, then developing or using a theory to make a specific prediction of what should happen if that theory is correct, testing that prediction, refining the theory in light of the findings, and using that refined theory to develop new hypotheses, and so on.

The ability to test the hypothesis using the methods of science and the possibility to gather evidence that will disconfirm the hypothesis if it is indeed false.

Developing a Hypothesis Copyright © 2022 by Rajiv S. Jhangiani; I-Chant A. Chiang; Carrie Cuttler; and Dana C. Leighton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Article contents

Stress and coping theory across the adult lifespan.

• Agus Surachman Agus Surachman Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University
•  and  David M. Almeida David M. Almeida Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.341
• Published online: 30 July 2018

Stress is a broad and complex phenomenon characterized by environmental demands, internal psychological processes, and physical outcomes. The study of stress is multifaceted and commonly divided into three theoretical perspectives: social, psychological, and biological. The social stress perspective emphasizes how stressful life experiences are embedded into social structures and hierarchies. The psychological stress perspective highlights internal processes that occur during stressful situations, such as individual appraisals of the threat and harm of the stressors and of the ways of coping with such stressors. Finally, the biological stress perspective focuses on the acute and long-term physiological changes that result from stressors and their associated psychological appraisals. Stress and coping are inherently intertwined with adult development.

• social stress
• psychological stress
• biological stress
• life events
• chronic stressors
• daily stressors

What Is Stress?

While stress is difficult to define (Contrada, 2011 ), stress researchers tend to share a common interest in a process by which external, environmental, or psychosocial demands surpass an individual’s adaptive capacity and result in biological and psychological changes that have the potential to jeopardize one’s health and well-being (Cohen, Kessler, & Gordon, 1997 ; Contrada, 2011 ). Stress can thus be viewed as a process delineated by three components (Almeida, Piazza, Stawski, & Klein, 2011 ; Cohen et al., 1997 ; Wheaton, 1994 ; Wheaton & Montazer, 2010 ): stressors (external or environmental demands), stress appraisals (the perceived severity of stressors), and distress (affective, behavioral, or biological responses to stressors).

Each of these components is emphasized in one of three theoretical stress perspectives: social, psychological, and biological (Cohen et al., 1997 ). The social stress perspective highlights the way that environmental or external demands precipitate individuals’ stress and how such demands are contingent upon contextual factors or social circumstances (Wheaton & Montazer, 2010 ). The psychological stress perspective focuses on individuals’ appraisals of stressors and the availability of coping resources to manage the overwhelming demands of such stressors (Cohen & Janicki-Deverts, 2012 ; Lazarus, 1999 ). Finally, the biological stress perspective highlights how and when physiological systems become activated by stress processes that may risk individuals’ physical health (Cohen et al., 1997 ). The purpose of this article is to describe each of these theoretical perspectives and their relevance to aging research.

Social Stress Perspective

The social stress perspective primarily focuses on the origins of stressful life experiences (Aneshensel, 1992 ; Pearlin, 2009 ). According to the social stress perspective, the experience of stressors is structurally constrained (Wheaton, 1999 ; Pearlin, 2009 ). Exposure to external demands is not random, but rather embedded in an individual’s position in society, social structure, social organizations, roles, and other social constructs (Aneshensel, 1992 ; Wheaton, 1999 ). Two central themes have emerged from the social stress perspective: (a) the differentiation of categories of stressor types and (b) the ways that social structures link to individuals’ experiences of stressors.

Categories of Stressors

Stressors are commonly divided into five categories: life events, chronic stressors, daily stressors, trauma, and nonevents (Wheaton, 1994 , 1999 ; Wheaton & Montazer, 2010 ).

Life Events

Life events , also known as life change events or event stressors , are discrete, observable stressor events that have a clear onset and offset (Wheaton & Montazer, 2010 ). Some examples of life event stressors are the death of a spouse, divorce, and job loss. The modern study of social stress started with the analysis of life events, partly because the easily verifiable nature of these events make it possible to operationalize the concept of stress itself (Wheaton, 1994 ; Wheaton & Montazer, 2010 ). One challenge of this research is identifying a pool of all possible life events that an individual might experience (Aneshensel, 1992 ). For example, items in the stressful life event scales often mix life events with traumas and daily stressors (Aldwin & Yancura, 2011 ).

Life event representation is an important issue for aging researchers. For example, an early study found an inverse association between age and exposure to life events, with older individuals showing fewer life events than their younger counterparts (Rabkin & Struening, 1976 ). Such a result runs counter to the general assumption that late life is associated with higher stressors due to the development of chronic illnesses and higher levels of bereavement (Aldwin & Yancura, 2011 ). However, further analysis showed that the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe, 1967 ) that was used by Rabkin and Struening in their study consisted of items that included life events pertaining to younger individuals, such as marriage, birth, divorce, graduation, and job loss (Aldwin & Yancura, 2011 ). Analysis of life events using items designed for older individuals showed that there was no association between age and exposure to life events (Aldwin, 1990 ). Another study of life events showed that different sociohistorical experiences (e.g., wars, terrorist attacks, and economic downturn) influenced different levels of reported life events, indicating significant period effects (Chukwourji, Nwoke, & Ebere, 2017 ; Elder & Shananhan, 2006 ; Pruchno, Heid, & Wilson-Genderson, 2017 ). More longitudinal studies are needed to disentangle the influence of age and sociohistorical experiences on the reporting of stressful life events.

Chronic Stressors

The concept of chronic stressors , from a social stress perspective, originated from a study of chronic role strain by Pearlin and Schooler ( 1978 ) that articulated the importance of chronic disruptions in important social roles (e.g., marriage, work, and parenting) for health and well-being. Additional work by Wheaton and Montazer ( 2010 ) refined these ideas by providing three defining characteristics of chronic stressors that set them apart from event stressors:

Chronic stressors develop slowly and insidiously as continuous problems related to social roles and the social environment. In addition, chronic stressors may or may not start out as events.

The duration of the stressors from onset to offset is usually longer than the duration of life events.

Chronic stressors include both regular problems and issues related to daily roles and more specific problems, making them less self-limiting than life events.

Although chronic stressors are often tied to social roles, they also can include ambient stressors , which are not role bound, such as time pressure, financial problems, or living in a noisy place (Kershaw et al., 2015 ; Henderson, Child, Moore, Moore, & Kaczynski, 2016 ; Wheaton & Montazer, 2010 ). Table 1 provides a description of seven types of problems that are considered chronic stressors (Wheaton, 1997 ).

Most studies of stress involving older adults focused on chronic stressors (Aldwin & Yancura, 2011 ; Grzywacz, Almeida, Neupert, & Ettner, 2004 ). However, more research is needed to investigate age differences across adulthood in the prevalence and duration of chronic stressors (Aldwin & Yancura, 2011 ). Different age groups might have different sources of chronic stressors, which might lead to a similar rate of prevalence and duration of chronic stress (e.g., chronic diseases among older adults, as opposed to economic hardships among younger individuals).

Table 1. Problems Considered as Chronic Stressors

Daily stressors.

Daily stressors , or daily hassles , are often mistaken as chronic stressors (Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, & Lazarus, 1981 ). The defining characteristics of daily stressors, which separate them from chronic stressors, are their duration and magnitude of severity. DeLongis, Folkman, and Lazarus ( 1988 ) characterized a daily stressor or daily hassle as a short-duration experience of a stressor, such as having an argument with a partner or getting caught in a traffic jam. In addition, Almeida ( 2005 ) defined daily stressors as relatively minor events experienced in day-to-day living. Table 2 provides example questions from the Daily Inventory of Stressful Events (DISE), used by researchers to ascertain information about the frequency of people’s daily stressors.

Compared to life events, daily stressors tend to have a more proximal effect on well-being (Almeida, 2005 ; Almeida et al., 2011 ). Daily stressors produce spikes in psychological distress during a particular day, while life events create prolonged bouts of distress (Almeida, 2005 ; Almeida et al., 2011 ). Daily stress also may have prolonged health effects when piled up across days, which in turn creates persistent irritations, frustrations, and overloads, including chronic physical and psychological distress, chronic conditions and functional impairment, and mortality (Chiang, Turiano, Mroczek, & Miller, 2018 ; Lazarus, 1999 ; Leger, Charles, Ayanian, & Almeida, 2015 ; Pearlin, Menaghan, Lieberman, & Mullan, 1981 ; Piazza, Charles, Sliwinski, Mogle, & Almeida, 2013 ; Zautra, 2003 ).

Such a pileup of stressors (i.e., accumulation of stressor exposure or total number of stressors that an individual experiences) is more problematic if the stressors experienced are less diverse (i.e., low evenness of the type of daily stressors that an individual experiences). Higher levels of stressor exposure that are accompanied by lower levels of stressor diversity indicate a depletion of specific types of resources and may indicate the chronicity of the stressors (see Koffer, Ram, Conroy, Pincus, & Almeida, 2016 , for an extensive discussion of stressor diversity).

The experience of daily stress differs across adulthood. Based on Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) data, a national longitudinal study of health and well-being ( http://midus.wisc.edu ), adults in the United States report at least one stressor on 40% of study days, and multiple stressors on 10% of study days (Almeida, Wethington, & Kessler, 2002 ). In general, studies show that the type and frequency of daily stressors differ by age (Aldwin, Sutton, Chiara, & Spiro, 1996 ; Almeida & Horn, 2004 ; Chiriboga, 1997 ). Mroczek and Almeida ( 2004 ) found that older adults reported fewer daily stressors, measured using DISE (see Table 2 ), and less stressor-related daily negative affect than younger individuals; however, older participants reported a higher level of severity in the reported stressors. Finally, Stawski, Sliwinski, Almeida, and Smyth ( 2008 ) found that there were no age differences in daily stressor-related negative affect.

Stressors sometimes can be categorized as traumatic. Trauma is defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edition) as “events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others . . . the person’s response [to the events] involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror” (APA, 1994 , pp. 427–428). However, according to Wheaton and Montazer ( 2010 ), not all traumas happen as events. Physical abuse that happens one time during childhood might fit the definition of a traumatic event. On the other hand, repeated and regular experiences of physical abuse might be better categorized as a chronic traumatic experience. Another important defining characteristic of trauma is its greater severity compared to other types of stressors. As a consequence, traumas might have a greater impact on long-term health and well-being.

Table 2. Questions From the DISE

Note : A “Yes” answer to each stem question is followed up with questions, including (a) a series of open-ended “probe” questions that ascertain a description of the stressful event, (b) a question regarding the perceived severity of the stressor, and (c) a list of structured primary appraisal questions inquiring about goals and values that were “at risk” because of the event (Almeida et al., 2002 ).

Source : Almeida et al. ( 2002 )

According to Ozer, Best, Lipsey, and Weiss ( 2003 ), most people experience at least one violent or life-threatening situation during their lives. Among older adults, car accidents are the most common source of trauma (Weintraub & Ruskin, 1999 ). In addition, a study by Wheaton, Roszell, and Hall ( 1997 ) indicated that being sent away from home in childhood is the least common trauma (prevalence rate = 3.5%) and the death of a spouse, child, or other loved one is the most common traumatic experience (prevalence rate = 50%). Using the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ) shown in Table 3 , Ogle, Rubin, Berntsen, and Siegler ( 2013 ) found that nondisclosed childhood physical abuse is the least common trauma, and unexpected death, illness, or accident involving a loved one is the most common trauma.

Table 3. The TLEQ and Its Prevalence Among Adults in the United States

Note: n = 3,208.

Sources: Kubany et al. ( 2000 ); Ogle et al. ( 2013 ).

The last category of stressors are nonevents , defined as anticipated events or experiences that do not happen in reality (Gersten, Langer, Eisenberg, & Orzeck, 1974 ; Neugarten, Moore, & Lowe, 1965 ). Normative expectations play an important role in the stressfulness of nonevents such as not getting married by a certain age or not getting an anticipated promotion at a certain career stage (Frost & LeBlanc, 2014 ). Schuth, Posselt, and Breckwoldt ( 1992 ) studied miscarriage in the first trimester as a nonevent stressor. According to Wheaton and Montazer ( 2010 ), nonevents that have no tie to normative timing are more similar to chronic stressors, such as expecting a loan for low-income housing, but not receiving one.

Social Stress and Health: Exposure Versus Vulnerability

There are two hypotheses that researchers draw on to explain how social structures link to stressors and health outcomes: the exposure hypothesis and the vulnerability hypothesis (Aneshensel, 1992 ; Turner, Wheaton, & Lloyd, 1995 ). These competing hypotheses focus on disentangling whether exposure or vulnerability to stressors leads to disease risk. Stressor exposure is the likelihood that a person will be exposed to stressors given her or his social location, such as socioeconomic status (SES) or gender, and individual characteristics, such as personality (Almeida et al., 2011 ). On the other hand, vulnerability to stressors relates to the concept of reactivity , which is the likelihood that one will show physical or psychological reactions to experienced environmental demands or stressors (Almeida, 2005 ; Bolger & Zuckerman, 1995 ; Cacioppo, 1998 ).

There is considerable evidence supporting the idea of differentiated exposure to stressors based on sociodemographic, psychosocial, and situational characteristics as an explanation of why some people are healthier than others. For example, researchers have found that SES (Evans & Kim, 2010 ; Turner et al., 1995 ; Turner & Avison, 2003 ), age (Aldwin, 1990 ; Almeida & Horn, 2004 ; Hamarat et al., 2001 ), personality (Bouchard, 2003 ; Ebstrup, Eplov, Pisinger, & Jørgensen, 2011 ; Penley & Tomaka, 2002 ), and social support (Brewin, MacCarthy, & Frunham, 1989 ; Felsten, 1991 ; Huang, Costeines, Kaufman, & Ayala, 2014 ; Kwag, Martin, Russell, Franke, & Kohut, 2011 ) play critical roles in differentiating individuals’ experiences of stressor exposure.

However, there is also substantial evidence to support the vulnerability hypothesis. For example, a recent analysis of exposure and vulnerability to daily stressors showed that SES was not associated with exposure to daily stressors. However, individuals with lower SES were more reactive to the daily stressors that they experienced (Almeida, Neupert, Banks, & Serido, 2005 ; Grzywacz et al., 2004 ; Surachman, Wardecker, Chow, & Almeida, 2018 ). There are at least four speculated reasons for this (Grzywacz et al., 2004 ; Surachman et al., 2018 ), including (a) the experience of chronic stressors may desensitize individuals with lower SES in their reactions to minor day-to-day stressors; (b) the possibility of gender and racial differences that obscure the systematic variation in exposure to daily stressors; (c) individuals with lower SES may be less reflective and articulate when reporting their daily stressors; and (d) individuals from lower SES may encounter similar types of daily stressors, indicating a low number of daily stressors encountered and lower levels of daily stressor diversity.

Psychological Stress Perspective

The psychological stress perspective focuses on an individual’s perception and evaluation of the potential damage caused by external environmental demands (Cohen et al., 1997 ). The two concepts that are fundamental to the psychological stress perspective are appraisal and coping (Krohne, 2002 ). The stress appraisal model, developed by Lazarus & Folkman ( 1984 ) is the most influential psychological stress model. According to this perspective, the way that we evaluate external events (i.e., stressors) determines our degree of stress. Specifically, Lazarus and Folkman ( 1984 , p. 19) define psychological stress as “a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being.”

Psychological Stress and Appraisal

Arnold ( 1960 ) was the first theorist to use the term appraisal in the context of emotion and personality. Appraisal became the central concept of Lazarus’s psychological stress theory. The term appraisal refers to the continuous evaluation by individuals of their relationship with the external environment with respect to their implications for well-being (Lazarus, 1999 ).

Lazarus ( 1999 ) emphasizes the importance of differentiating the act of appraisal and appraising. The former focuses on the evaluative product, while the latter is the act of making the evaluation. Lazarus also distinguishes primary and secondary appraisal and appraising. The distinction is based on different sources of information in each evaluation process (Krohne, 2002 ). Primary appraisal refers to the evaluation of whether external events are relevant to one’s values, goal commitments, beliefs about the self and the world, and situational intentions. Stress occurs when external events threaten these key features of well-being during primary appraisal. There are three different stress conditions: harm/loss (damage that has already happened), threat (the possibility of damage in the future), and challenge (the possibility for growth). The primary appraisal has three main components: goal relevance , goal congruence , and type of ego development (Lazarus, 1999 ).

Secondary appraisal reflects evaluative processes that assess resources for dealing with or managing stress. During secondary appraisal, individuals provide judgments about who or what is responsible for a harm, threat, challenge, or benefit in order to place the blame or credit for an outcome issue. It is important to point out that the primary and secondary appraisal processes do not operate independently; instead, they reciprocally influence each other over time (Lazarus, 1999 ).

There are at least three criticisms regarding the concept of appraisal by Lazarus (Smith & Kirby, 2011 ). First, the labeling of appraisal as primary and secondary is misleading, as people often mistakenly assume that they reflect a sequence. Second, the definition of psychological stress is unclear, especially related to how much demand is considered as taxing one’s resources. Lazarus’s definition of stress is relatively restrictive to extreme conditions (i.e., environmental demands exceed resources). Third, it is not clear whether the three types of appraisal (i.e., harm/loss, threat, and challenge) are shaped purely by primary appraisal or by the combination of primary and secondary appraisal.

Coping Processes

Coping processes are very similar to stress appraisal processes. According to Lazarus and Folkman ( 1984 , p. 141), coping is defined as “constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific external and/or internal demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person.” According to this approach, coping follows stress appraisal and involves specific cognitive and behavioral strategies to manage stressful experiences and their consequences (Aldwin & Yancura, 2011 ). According to the definition of coping by Lazarus and Folkman ( 1984 ), coping efforts do not include their outcome or effectiveness. Every form of coping can be both effective and maladaptive (Smith & Kirby, 2011 ). Thus, coping also can be defined as the efforts to manage stressful situations, regardless of the effectiveness of those efforts (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984 ; Smith & Kirby, 2011 ). Indeed, the study of coping is intended to discriminate factors associated with adaptive versus maladaptive coping (Smith & Kirby, 2011 ).

According to Lazarus and Folkman ( 1984 ), coping can be categorized into two types: problem-focused coping (managing or changing the source of stress) and emotion-focused coping (regulation of stressful emotions). Brown and Nicassio ( 1987 ) offer an alternative classification of coping, which is active versus passive coping. In addition, Jensen, Turner, Romano, and Strom ( 1995 ) classify coping into cognitive versus behavioral types. Finally, Compas and colleagues ( 2001 , 2006 ) differentiate coping into three different categories: primary-control engagement (e.g., problem solving, changing the situation, and emotion regulation), secondary-control engagement (e.g., positive thinking, acceptance, and distraction), and disengagement coping.

There are clear signs that active/primary-control and accommodative/secondary-control coping are associated with adaptive outcomes such as better emotional well-being and physical health (Compas et al., 2006 ; Moskowitz, Hult, Bussolari, & Acree, 2009 ; Walker, Smith, Garber, & Claar, 2005 ). However, there are numerous null findings linking active/primary-control and accommodative/secondary-control coping and positive outcomes (Compas et al., 2001 ; Smith, Wallston, & Dwyer, 2003 ). Coyne and colleagues have extensively discussed limitations in the study of coping (e.g., Coyne & Racioppo, 2000 ). In general, there are at least two aspects that are needed to be improved in future studies of coping (Smith & Kirby, 2011 ): (a) coping should be studied in a more situated, context-specific manner, in which coping and the outcomes associated with individual incidents are examined; and (b) more studies are needed to focus on the role of control-related appraisals mediating the relationship between these dispositional antecedents and coping behavior.

Stress Appraisal and Coping Across Adulthood

In terms of age differences in stress appraisal, older adults appraise problems as less stressful (Aldwin et al., 1996 ; Folkman, Lazarus, Pimley, & Novacek, 1987 ) than younger adults. One possible explanation for this finding is that older individuals have higher levels of resiliency to stressors because of what they have been through across the life course (Aldwin et al., 1996 ). Major life events that are common to older adults, such as the death of a spouse or family member, make them more tolerant of minor stressors in their daily lives. Another possible explanation is that the lower stress appraisal among older adults is due to environmental changes (Lawton, Kleban, Rajagobal, & Dean, 1992 ). For example, retirement may lead to more leisure time for older adults, and thus fewer stressful experiences (Ginn & Fast, 2006 ; Rosenkoetter, Gams, & Engdahl, 2001 ).

Another example of environmental change is that older adults receive more respect from family members, which make their social experiences more pleasant (Fingerman & Baker, 2006 ). For example, others may be more hesitant to argue with or express their negative emotions with older individuals (Fingerman, Miller, & Charles, 2008 ). These explanations may partly explain why older adults reported fewer stressors with age. However, explanations based on retirement or deference to older adults are less conclusive, given that decreases in stressor appraisal continue long after retirement, and long after people have entered the venerable period (Charles, 2010 ). Two theoretical frameworks are especially useful to look at for their alternative explanations regarding lower stressor appraisal among older adults: socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, Fung, & Charles, 2003 ) and the strength and vulnerability integration (SAVI) model (Charles, 2010 ).

According to socioemotional selectivity theory, time perspective plays a critical role in human goal-directed behavior and motivation (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999 ). As individuals get older, they perceive that they have a relatively more limited future compared to younger individuals (Lang & Carstensen, 2002 ). This awareness of limited time left is amplified by the fact that older adults increasingly experience the deaths of friends and family members (Cartensen et al., 2003 ). Change in time perspective is associated with goals among older adults, as they care more about experiencing meaningful relationships and care less about knowledge-related goals (Cartensen et al., 2003 ). According to socioemotional selectivity theory, older individuals achieve this goal by regulating their social contacts and network (Carstensen, Gross, & Fung, 1997 ). Thus, older adults reduce their social contacts in order to optimize emotionally meaningful and gratifying experiences and fewer experiences of negative interchanges (Cartensen et al., 2003 ).

The decrease in social contacts begins relatively early in life, around the 30s (Carstensen, 1992 ), indicating that this decrease is not unique to older individuals (Charles, 2010 ). Empirical studies show that social selection promotes affective well-being, such as increased satisfaction and more positive emotional experiences (Charles & Piazza, 2007 ; Fingerman, Hay, & Birditt, 2004 ). Finally, even though the size of social networks among older adults is decreasing, their social networks are characterized by warm, satisfying, and trusting relationships (Ryff & Keyes, 1995 ).

Charles ( 2010 ) extended the socioemotional selectivity theory by integrating age-related physiological vulnerabilities when considering emotion regulation among older adults. This concept is known as strength and vulnerability integration (SAVI) . According to SAVI, later adulthood is associated with both strengths and vulnerabilities, in which they play important roles in emotion regulation. The strengths include the motivation to maintain meaningful and gratifying relationships due to a change in time perspective (similar to socioemotional selectivity theory), as well as the cognitive-behavioral skills to do so. The vulnerabilities associated with aging include age-related physiological vulnerabilities that affect the recovery process during emotion regulation due to stressful experiences. Thus, increase in age is associated with an enhanced ability to avoid stressors, reappraise them as being less stressful, or both, while at the same time, it is also associated with physiological vulnerabilities that lower the flexibility of response to stress (Almeida et al., 2011 ; Charles 2010 ).

According to SAVI, age-related changes in emotion regulation are less likely to happen during exposure to stressors that cause high levels of physiological arousal. When this happens, older individuals will be less able to employ their emotion regulation strategy due to high physiological cues. After physiological symptoms are normalized, older individuals will report higher levels of well-being again, as their emotional states will be less influenced by their physiological states and more affected by their appraisal of an event. Thus, although the motivation to regulate well-being exists, certain circumstances such as chronic stress and neurological dysregulation may interfere with its efficacy on maintaining well-being (Almeida et al., 2011 ; Charles, 2010 ; Charles & Piazza, 2009 ).

There are mixed results regarding the association between coping strategies and age (Aldwin & Yancura, 2011 ). Folkman et al. ( 1987 ) found that older individuals reported less frequent use of problem-focused coping compared to younger individuals. Similarly, Aldwin et al. ( 1996 ) found a negative association between age and self-reported use of coping strategies. However, when information about coping was administered using semistructured interviews rather than self-report questionnaires, no age differences were found (Aldwin et al., 1996 ). Even when older individuals used fewer coping strategies, their approaches to cope with a problem were as effective as those of younger individuals (Hobfoll, 2001 ). Except among those who suffer from chronic illness, coping efficacy decreases as individuals get older (Barry et al., 2004 ; Logan, Pelletier-Hibbert, & Hodgins, 2006 ). Thus, in addition to the frequency of coping strategies, it is important to incorporate the analysis of coping efficacy when studying stress, coping, and aging (Aldwin & Yancura, 2011 ).

Biological Stress Perspective

This article ends by briefly describing the biological stress perspective, which focuses on the acute and long-term physiological changes that result from social stressors and their associated psychological appraisals. This perspective highlights the activation of physiological systems that are sensitive to stressful situations, especially the sympathetic-adrenal medullary system (SAM) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis (HPA) (Cohen et al., 1997 , 2007 ; Koolhaas et al., 2011 ). Repeated or prolonged activation of these physiological systems is referred to as allostatic load , and it can lead to pathogenesis and disease (McEwen, 2013 ).

Activation of the Sympathetic-Adrenal Medullary System and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis

The experience of stress activates physiological changes that reflect the body’s adaptation to meet the demands. Quick, short-term activation is governed by the SAM system. Activation of SAM releases catecholamines, which work with the autonomic nervous system to regulate cardiovascular, pulmonary, hepatic, skeletal muscle, and immune systems (Cohen et al., 2007 ). Longer-term adaptations are met by the HPA system. HPA activation leads to the secretion of the hormone cortisol, which regulates anti-inflammatory responses; metabolism of carbohydrate, fat, and protein; and gluconeogenesis (Cohen et al., 2007 ). Continued and repeated activation of the HPA and SAM systems can disrupt their control over other physiological systems, leading to an increased risk of physical and psychological conditions (Cohen et al., 1997 ; McEwen, 1998 ).

Age, Exposure to Stressors, Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis, and the Sympathetic-Adrenal Medullary System

There is evidence that the SAM system changes as individuals get older (Crimmins, Vasunilashorn, Kim, & Alley, 2008 ). The association between age and the SAM system is moderated by exposure to stressors (Almeida et al., 2011 ). Blood pressure is a good example of the change in the SAM system as individuals get older. After the age of 60, systolic blood pressure tends to be higher, whereas diastolic blood pressure tends to be lower (Franklin et al., 2001 ). Elevated systolic blood pressure among older adults is moderated by acute psychosocial stressors (Uchino, Uno, Holt-Lunstad, & Flinders, 1999 ). The increase in age is also associated with depleted epinephrine (Esler et al., 1995 ) and increased levels of norepinephrine (Barnes, Raskind, Gumbrecht, & Halter, 1982 ). The age-related changes in epinephrine and norepinephrine are also moderated by stressor exposure (Esler et al., 1995 ; Barnes et al., 1982 ), although these results were not replicated in other studies, such as Lindheim et al. ( 1992 ). Finally, the association between age and the SAM system may be stronger among people with physical problems, such as among older adults with cardiovascular disease (Almeida et al., 2011 ; Gillum, Makuc, & Feldman, 1991 ).

The age-related changes in the HPA axis are associated with an altered diurnal pattern and a disruption of the negative feedback loop, which leads to the overproduction of cortisol (Almeida et al., 2011 ). Older age is associated with an attenuated cortisol awakening (Almeida, Piazza, & Stawski, 2009 ) and a higher lowest point of evening cortisol (van Cauter, Leproult, & Kupfer, 1996 ). Similar to the SAM system, exposure to stressors moderates the association between age and the HPA axis (Almeida et al., 2011 ). The association between age and the HPA axis function is also stronger among people with worse health (McEwen, 1998 ).

Allostatic Load

One mechanism that might explain how continued and repeated activation of stress hormones influence health risk is deterioration of brain function. This hypothesis, known as the glucocorticoid cascade hypothesis , refers to the cascade effect of stress hormones on health (McEwen, 1998 , 2013 ; Sapolsky, Krey, & McEwen, 1986 ). Continuous activation of stress hormones gradually deteriorates brain function, leads to a higher level of cortisol, and in turn jeopardizes health. Discussion of the impact of stress on the brain involves two concepts: allostasis and allostatic load (McEwen, 1998 ). Allostasis refers to adapting to a stressful situation and bringing the body back to homeostasis, whereas allostatic load is the cost of frequent or prolonged adaptations on the body and brain. The release of stress hormones is an example of an adaptive physiological response to a stressful experience. However, prolonged exposure to stressful experiences might lead to wear and tear on the HPA axis.

According to McEwen ( 1998 ), there are three types of physiological responses that lead to allostatic load: frequent stress, failed shutdown, and inadequate response. Frequent stress refers to the magnitude and frequency of responses or the frequency and intensity of the hits that lead to allostatic load (McEwen, 1998 ). Failed shutdown refers to chronic activity and failure to shut off this activity, such as with type II diabetes (McEwen, 1998 ). Finally, inadequate response refers to the failure to respond to a challenge, such as autoimmunity and inflammation (McEwen, 1998 ). In general, studies have found that indicators of physiological capacity and physiological reserve decrease as individuals get older, although the rate of decline varies across individuals (Crimmins, Johnston, Hayward, & Seeman, 2003 ; Lipsitz & Goldberger, 1992 ; Manton, Woodbury, & Stallard, 1995 ). Allostatic load index, a composite measure of multiphysical systems related to wear and tear due to stress (for details, see Juster, McEwen, & Lupien, 2010 ), increases with age (Crimmins et al., 2003 ). A higher allostatic load index indicates more physical systems that are in the high-risk category.

Stress and Health: Integrating the Social, Psychological, and Biological Stress Perspectives

One significant development in the study of stress over the past several decades is an increased emphasis on multilevel analysis of stress, which stretches from cells to society (Contrada, 2011 ). Relevant to the discussion in this article, the current trend in this field is the integration of the social, psychological, and biological stress perspectives to better understand the influence of stress on health and well-being. In turn, this knowledge can be utilized to design better intervention programs to improve health and quality of life in general.

Miller, Chen, and Parker ( 2011 ), for example, developed a framework known as biological embedding of the childhood adversity model , which links early-life, chronic stressors to chronic diseases in adulthood. According to this model, chronic stressors during childhood, such as living in poverty, are hypothesized to dysregulate physiological systems (e.g., establishing a pro-inflammatory phenotype in the immune system). Across the life course, this physiological dysregulation is amplified by hormonal dysregulation and behavioral proclivities due to the ongoing chronic stressors, causing chronic inflammation, which in turn is associated with accelerated aging, frailty, and chronic diseases. This model is an excellent example of integrating multiple levels of stress to better understand the etiology of chronic diseases associated with aging.

Another example of a study in this area is Surachman et al. ( 2018 ), which investigates the interaction between structural factors, such as life-course SES and daily stressors, and daily well-being. The results show that childhood SES is directly and indirectly (through adult SES and daily stressor severity) associated with daily well-being in adulthood, especially daily negative affect and daily physical symptoms. These results may have significant public health implications, given that previous empirical findings have shown that higher daily physical symptoms and negative affect due to daily stressors are associated with long-term health outcomes, such as chronic physical and psychological distress (Charles et al., 2013 ; Piazza et al., 2013 ), functional impairment (Leger et al., 2015 ), and mortality risk (Chiang et al., 2018 ). In addition, research on the influence of childhood SES on biological functioning in later life has shown the significance of daily stress processes and daily well-being as potential mechanisms of disparities in chronic diseases (Carroll, Cohen, & Marsland, 2011 ; Desantis, Kuzawa, & Adam, 2015 ; Miller et al., 2011 ).

Stress is a broad and complex phenomenon that links three components: environmental demands, internal psychological processes, and physical outcomes. Each of these components are reflected in three theoretical perspectives of stress. The social perspective is likely to emphasize stressful events (i.e., stressors) and the social context of these events; the psychological perspective focuses on internal evaluations and appraisals; and the biological perspective highlights physiological adaptions to these events and appraisals. To understand the role of stress in aging, it is necessary to appreciate each of these perspectives.

As we age, our social roles direct us to be exposed to a variety of life events, chronic stress, and daily hassles. In addition, the way that we appraise and cope with stress is likely to change as we accumulate a lifetime of experience. Finally, it appears obvious that biological changes accompany age, and such changes will likely be accelerated by the stress we experience. We hope that this article has provided the reader with some guidance on the theory of stress and coping across the adult life course.

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Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

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The frustration-aggression hypothesis is one of the earliest aggression theories. It was first proposed by a group of Yale psychologists in 1939. The original theory made two bold claims: (1) aggression is always preceded by frustration, and (2) frustration always leads to aggression. The original theory has undergone two important revisions: one by Neal Miller in 1941, (Psychol Rev 48(4):337–342, 1941) and one by Leonard Berkowitz in 1989 (Psychol Bull 106(1):59, 1989). Although the 1939 and 1941 versions of the theory were controversial and heavily criticized, the 1989 version has been better received and is commonly used as a theoretical basis for modern aggression research.

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Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis . Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

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Berkowitz, L. (1989). Frustration-aggression hypothesis: Examination and reformulation. Psychological Bulletin, 106 (1), 59.

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Breuer, J., Scharkow, M., & Quandt, T. (2015). Sore losers? A reexamination of the frustration–aggression hypothesis for colocated video game play. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 4 (2), 126–137.

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Bushman, B. J., & Huesmann, L. R. (2010). Aggression. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology . New York: Wiley.

Dollard, J., Miller, N. E., Doob, L. W., Mowrer, O. H., & Sears, R. R. (1939). Frustration and aggression . New Haven: Yale Press.

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Zillmann, D. (1979). Hostility and aggression . Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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Gilbert, M.A., Bushman, B.J. (2017). Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_816-1

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Catharsis Definition

According to catharsis theory, acting aggressively or even viewing aggression is an effective way to reduce angry feelings and aggressive impulses. The word catharsis comes from the Greek word katharsis , which, literally translated, means “a cleansing or purging.” The first recorded mention of catharsis occurred in Aristotle’s Poetics. Aristotle taught that viewing tragic plays gave people emotional release ( katharsis ) from negative feelings such as pity and fear. In Greek drama, the tragic hero didn’t just grow old and retire—he often suffered a violent demise. By watching the characters in the play experience tragic events, the viewer’s own negative feelings were presumably purged and cleansed. This emotional cleansing was believed to benefit both the individual and society.

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The ancient notion of catharsis was revived by Sigmund Freud, who believed that repressed negative emotions could build up inside an individual and cause psychological symptoms, such as hysteria (nervous outbursts). Freud believed that expressing hostility was much better than bottling it up inside.

Freud’s therapeutic ideas on emotional catharsis form the basis of the so-called hydraulic model of anger, based on the idea of water pressure (hydraulic means “water-related”). The hydraulic model suggests that frustrations lead to anger and that anger, in turn, builds up inside an individual, like hydraulic pressure inside a closed environment, until it is released in some way. If you don’t let your anger out but try to keep it bottled up inside, it will eventually cause you to explode in an aggressive rage. The modern theories of catharsis are based on this hydraulic model.

The entry on Media Violence and Aggression discusses whether viewing violence increases aggression. This entry will therefore focus on whether acting aggressively (e.g., screaming, yelling, hitting, kicking) increases aggression.

Belief in Catharsis Is Widespread

The belief in the value of venting is widespread around the world. For example, for over 20 years Tokyo residents have been venting their frustrations at an annual screaming contest. The use of a concept in the popular press is a sign of how widespread it is. Catharsis messages frequently appear in plays, films, television programs, radio programs, magazines, and newspapers.

You can even buy products to vent your anger. For example, the “Tension Shooter” is a wood gun that shoots up to six rubber bands per round at targets that can be personally labeled (e.g., Boss, Mother-in-Law). Another product is “Wham-It,” an inflatable punching bag. Products such as these are based on the hydraulic model of anger. The companies that make them count on customers who believe that venting anger against inanimate objects is safe, healthy, and effective. If there were no such customers, such products would not exist.

The concept of catharsis even infiltrates everyday language. In the English language, a pressure cooker is often used as a metaphor for anger. (A pressure cooker is a pot used to cook food under pressure, which reduces cooking time. The pot has a locking lid and valve that can be used to reduce pressure.) People are like pressure cookers, and their anger is like the fluid inside the cooker. As the anger increases, the fluid rises. People talk about anger “welling up inside” a person. If people are very angry, their “blood boils” or they reach the “boiling point.” If the anger becomes too intense, people “explode,” or “blow up.” To prevent the explosion, people are encouraged to “vent their anger,” “blow off steam,” “let it out,” and “get it off their chest.”

Research Evidence for Catharsis

If catharsis theory is true, then venting anger should decrease aggression because people should get rid of the anger. Almost as soon as psychology researchers began conducting scientific tests of catharsis theory, they ran into trouble. In one of the first experiments on the topic, published in 1959, participants received an insulting remark from someone who pretended to be another participant (a confederate). Then some of the insulted participants were set to work pounding nails for 10 minutes—an activity that resembles many of the “venting” techniques that people who believe in catharsis continue to recommend even today. The act of pounding nails should reduce subsequent aggression (if catharsis theory is true). Participants in the control group received the same insult but did not pound any nails. Participants were then given a chance to criticize the person who had insulted them. The results showed that people who had hammered the nails were more hostile toward the accomplice afterward than were the ones who didn’t get to pound any nails. Apparently, venting anger against those nails made people more willing to vent anger against another person. Numerous other studies have found similar findings. In 1973, Albert Bandura, a famous social psychologist, issued a statement calling for a moratorium on catharsis theory and the use of venting in therapy. A comprehensive review of the research published in 1977 found that venting anger does not reduce aggression; if anything, it makes people more aggressive afterward. The authors also concluded that venting anger can reduce physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure), but only if people express their anger directly against the person who angered them and that person cannot retaliate. Venting against substitute targets does not reduce arousal. More recent research has shown that venting doesn’t work even among people who believe in the value of venting and even among people who report feeling better after venting. Aggression breeds further aggression.

One variation of venting is intense physical exercise, such as running. Although physical exercise is good for your heart, it is not very good for reducing anger. Angry people are highly aroused, and the goal is to decrease arousal levels. Exercise increases rather than decreases arousal levels. Also, if someone provokes you after exercising, the arousal from the exercise might transfer to the provocation, making you even angrier.

In summary, venting anger is like using gasoline to put out a fire: It just makes things worse. Venting keeps arousal levels high and keeps aggressive thoughts and angry feelings alive—it is merely practicing how to behave more aggressively.

If Venting Doesn’t Work, What Does?

If the metaphor of a pressure cooker is used to describe anger, there are three ways to deal with buildup of steam. The first approach is to try to contain the pressure. The problem with this approach is that it might cause the pressure cooker to explode when it can no longer contain the pressure. Stuffing anger inside and ruminating about it continually can lead to heart disease later in life. A second approach is to periodically siphon off some of the steam. This approach of venting anger or blowing off steam sounds good in theory, but it doesn’t work. A third approach is to turn down the flame and reduce the heat! With the heat down, the pressure will go down as well. This third approach is much more effective than the other two approaches at reducing anger.

All emotions, including anger, consist of bodily states (such as arousal) and mental meanings. To get rid of anger you can work on either of those. Anger can be reduced by reducing arousal levels, such as by relaxing. Anger can also be reduced by mental tactics, such as by reframing the problem or conflict, or by distracting oneself and turning attention to other, more pleasant topics. Certain behaviors can also help get rid of anger. For example, doing something such as kissing your lover, watching a comedy, petting a puppy, or performing a good deed can help, because those acts are incompatible with anger and so the angry state becomes impossible to sustain.

References:

• Bushman, B. J. (2002). Does venting anger feed or extinguish the flame? Catharsis, rumination, distraction, anger, and aggressive responding. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 724-731.
• Bushman, B. J., Baumeister, R. F., & Stack, A. D. (1999). Catharsis, aggression, and persuasive influence: Self-fulfilling or self-defeating prophecies? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 367-376.
• Geen, R. G., & Quanty, M. B. (1977). The catharsis of aggression: An evaluation of a hypothesis. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 10, pp. 1-37). New York: Academic Press.

Aggression Psychology Revision Notes

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You MUST revise everything – because the exam board could choose any question. However, it does make sense to spend more time on those topics which have not appeared for a while.

With these particular questions, there is a sizeable risk that people don’t understand the difference between the questions and then write about the wrong thing.

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Neural and Hormonal causes of aggression.

The limbic system.

• The Limbic System (including the Hypothalamus and Amygdala) tends to act as an alarm system triggering an aggressive response to certain types of threats.

• Giving testosterone to newborn female mice made them act like males with increased aggression when given testosterone as adults. However, control females given testosterone as adults did not react in this way (Edwards,1968).

This suggests that testosterone masculinizes androgen-sensitive neural circuits underlying aggression in the brain.

When the amygdala is stimulated electrically, animals show aggressive behavior, and when it’s removed, they no longer show aggressive behavior.

Research in Greece found that removing the amygdala reduced aggressive incidents by between 33% and 100%, although the sample was small – 13 patients.

The Phineas Gage study provides evidence that brain damage may have an effect on personality, including aggression.

Serotonin Research

• The PET-1 Gene is linked to the production of the hormone serotonin , which inhibits (i.e., stops) aggression. Damage to the gene in mice raises aggression. [sometimes referred to as “Knockout Mice] (Deneris, 2003).

• Drugs increasing serotonin production lead to reduced levels of aggression, suggesting that low levels of serotonin are linked to increased aggression (Delville et al., 1997).

• Low levels of serotonin result in reduced self-control and increased aggression. The serotonin deficiency hypothesis states that decreased serotonin disturbs the OFC and, therefore, reduces the inhibitory effect (of normal serotonin levels) with the consequence that individuals are less able to control impulsive and aggressive behavior.

• Research shows a relationship between low levels of serotonin and violent behaviors, suggesting that a lack of serotonin is linked to aggression (Linnoila & Virkunen, 1992).

• Lidberg et al. (1985) compared the serotonin levels of violent criminals with non-violent controls, finding the lowest levels of serotonin among violent criminals.

Rats selected for reduced aggression levels had higher serotonin and greater levels of serotonin-related activity than wild, more aggressive counterparts (Popova et al., 1991).

Most evidence linking low levels of serotonin and aggression is only correlational and does not indicate causality. Research shows a correlation between serotonin and aggression risks oversimplifying the true mechanisms involved as other factors which influence or even cause aggression is overlooked – The neural and hormonal regulation of aggression is almost certainly more complex than our current understanding.

Research support for the role of serotonin – Berman et al. found that participants given a serotonin-enhancing drug gave fewer and less intense electric shocks to a confederate than people in a placebo group – This gives evidence of a link between serotonin function and aggression that goes beyond correlational findings.

If the role of biochemistry can be understood, it can then be treated and managed – But it is unethical to give drugs to humans to alleviate aggression as it could lead to social control – This could be treated more ethically through diet and exercise which acts on neural mechanisms.

Biological reductionism – We cannot consider that such a complex phenomenon can be explained by the levels of biochemical, we must consider genetic factors and the contribution of environmental factors such as the role of learning – Peoples’s actions can be blamed on the mechanisms which is immoral as they should be taking responsibility for their own actions.

Testosterone Research

•Giving the hormone testosterone to newborn female mice made them act like males with increased aggression when given testosterone as adults.

However, control females given testosterone as adults did not react in this way, suggesting that testosterone masculinizes androgen-sensitive neural circuits underlying aggression in the brain (Edwards,1968).

• Testosterone affects certain types of aggression in animals, such as intermale aggression as a defense response to intruders, while predatory aggression is not affected (Bermond et al., 1982).

• Van Goozen (1997) conducted a natural experiment on trans-gender sex-change patients. This is one of the few cases where research was actually carried out on humans.

Findings revealed testosterone levels governed aggression. Males receiving testosterone suppressants became less aggressive. Females receiving testosterone became more aggressive.

• Aggressive Boys, violent criminals, and military offenders all had high levels of testosterone (Dabbs, 1996).

Individuals with elevated testosterone levels exhibit signs of aggression but rarely commit aggressive acts, suggesting that social and cognitive factors play a mediating role (Higley et al., 1996).

Dabbs and Morris (1990) “Blocked pathways to success” study: When a rich boy with high testosterone came home from the army, he was less likely to get into trouble, but when a poor boy with high testosterone came home, he was more likely to get into trouble.

This suggests testosterone doesn’t simply cause aggression, but it makes aggression more likely as a response to frustration.

Cortisol Research

• The fearlessness Theory: Stress, caused by the hormone cortisol, may inhibit aggression through fear. So individuals with lower levels of cortisol are less inhibited, more inclined to take risks, and act impulsively (Raine, 2002).

•Low cortisol leads to Sensation seeking behavior, especially in males (Zuckerman, 2010).

•Low levels of Cortisol in delinquent teenagers with conduct disorder (Fairchild, 2008)

General Criticisms of Neural and Hormonal Research

Much of the evidence is only correlational and may not prove causation. It isn’t clear whether hormones promote aggression or aggressive behavior stimulates hormone production.

Comparative – much of the work on hormones and neurotransmitters have been done on animals and may not apply to humans so easily.

Reductionist: Sees only biological factors, overlooking social issues such as de-individuation

Heredity / Environment: Biological theories tend to overlook the effects of socialization and other environmental issues, such as environmental stressors.

Deterministic: Assumes humans have no choice and will follow primitive behavior patterns.

Genetical Origins of Aggression.

Genes alone do not control aggression. Rather, they affect the production of hormones and neurotransmitters, which in turn affects aggression. So you will also draw upon your knowledge of biological factors, but you MUST show a link to genetics for each one.

Basic Evidence of Genetic Influences on Aggression

• Animal studies show instinctive patterns of behavior, including aggressive behavior. If a whole species has a similar level of aggression, then it must have a genetic basis.

• Twin studies have shown that twins have similar levels of aggression.

Using old Danish police records, Christiansen (1977) demonstrated that levels of criminality showed a stronger correlation between identical twins – with the same genes than between dizygotic twins.

However, criminality is not always the same as aggression.

Genetical Research on Serotonin

• PET-1 Gene is linked to serotonin production, which inhibits aggression. Damage to the gene in so-called “knockout mice” raises aggression. Mutations in humans can have the same effect (Deneris, 2003).

• Acts of impulsive aggression, such as domestic violence, have a genetic link to the serotonergic system, suggesting that many genes may be involved in aggression (New et al., 2003).

Genetical Research on MAOa – The Warrior Gene

• The MAOA gene codes for the production of the enzyme MAOA, involved in breaking down neurotransmitters in the synapse, especially serotonin. Aggressive people with variants of this gene produce lower levels of the enzyme, causing certain neurotransmitters to remain longer in the synapse, causing brain dysfunction.

• When researchers found the MAOA gene present in 56% of New Zealand Maori men, it was nicknamed “The Warrior Gene.” Poa {2006] criticized this term as unethical – i.e., racist.

•It was later found that the gene is present in 58% of African American men and 36% of European men, so it is actually a mainstream genetic variation with adaptive advantages associated with risk-taking.

If we know that a person’s genes can predispose them to aggressive behavior, then genetic engineering can be used to remove the gene and reduce this risk; more extreme measures like chemical castration can be used but can pose serious ethical questions as individuals are labeled as dangerous based on their genes.

Brunner (1993) looked at a very large Dutch family with 28 males who had a history of rape, violence, and impulsive aggression associated with low levels of the MAOA gene.

Deterministic – Argues that our aggression is pre-programmed and ignores the human characteristic of free will – Can have serious implications on the justice system as people may not take responsibility for their actions and blame it on their biology.

Caspi et al. (2002): Interaction of MAOA problem AND abusive childhood led to aggression. If boys with the MAOa gene suffered abuse in childhood, they were 3 times more likely to be aggressive when they reached adulthood.

Genetic and environmental factors are impossible to isolate – McDermott et al. found that people with the low activity MAOA gene behaved aggressively in a lab-based game but only when provoked – We should study aggression using a more interactionist approach.

Genetical Research on Testosterone

• Bogaert et al. (2008) established that variations in male testosterone levels are inherited – and, therefore, genetic.

• Giving testosterone to newborn female mice made them act like males with increased aggression when later given testosterone as adults. Females given testosterone as adults did not react in this way, suggesting that testosterone masculinizes aggression systems in the brain at birth. It’s not just an environmental issue (Edwards, 1968).

• Rissman et al. (2006) investigated Sry, a gene leading to the development of testes and high androgen levels in males. Male and female mice with and without the gene were tested. The Sry gene was associated with high levels of aggression, suggesting that genes and hormones interact and that sex chromosome genes also have a role.

Gender and Aggression

• The Super-Male hypothesis (Sandberg, 1961) suggested the XYY Gene led to aggression. Later research by Alice Theilgard [1984] did show that 16 men out of 30,000 sampled had the XYY gene and that these were slightly more aggressive and slightly less intelligent, but this is such a rare mutation that it does not explain aggression in the general population.

General Criticisms of Genetic Research

Comparative – much of the work on genes has been done on animals and may not apply to humans so easily. However, the experiments which have been done on mice relate to chemicals and genes which are very similar.

Reductionist: Danger of seeing only biological and overlooking social psychology issues such as de-individuation. Tends to overlook the effects of socialization and other environmental issues, such as environmental stressors. Genetic factors do not work in isolation but interact with environmental factors as well.

Deterministic: Assumes that humans have no choice and will follow quite primitive behavior patterns.

Ethological Explanations of Aggression.

What is etholgy.

Ethology is where we learn about human psychology from studying other animals.

• Konrad Lorenz believed that aggression was an innate adaptive response – something which had evolved in humans and animals to help them survive.
• To see off predators: For example, a group of hissing geese can drive off a fox, even though the fox would probably win a straight fight. If the geese survive, then the gene which led to that aggressive response will be passed on.
• To get resources: Lorenz also suggested that much aggression was aimed at members of the same species when competing for territory or sexual partners, but some animals are so fierce they could easily damage each other when fighting for dominance, Eg. Wolves, Stags, and Lions.

This would be maladaptive – bad for the species. Therefore they fight until one backs down, not to the death, just to establish who is stronger and who is weaker. Lorenz observed that most intra-species aggression consisted mainly of ritualistic signaling (e.g., displaying teeth) and rarely became physical.

This creates a society in which each individual knows their place. They have evolved ways of warning others to back off: Dogs bark and snarl, cats hiss, apes beat their chest, or wave sticks about.

Niko Tinbergen called these Fixed Action Patterns [FAP]

Fixed Action Patterns [FAP]

Lea [1984] analyzed FAPs and identified five features:

• Stereotyped: behavior follows a certain pattern each time.
• Universal: all the animals in that species use the same type of threat.
• Innate: all the animals in that species seem to be born with it and don’t have to learn it.
• Ballistic: Once it starts, it cannot simply be stopped.
• Specific triggers seem to set it off.

Tinbergen presented male sticklebacks with a series of wooden models of different shapes. The red on the competing males’ underbelly is the stimulus that triggers the IRM that, in turn, leads to the aggressive FAP.

He found that if the model had a red underside, the stickleback would aggressively display and attack it, but no red meant no aggression. Once triggered, the FAP always ran its course to completion without any further stimulus.

Breland and Breland found that animals tend to revert to instinctive behavior regardless of training. This would support the FAP theory.

It could be argued that some behaviors are learned in the environment – but maybe not all. Dogs can be trained by hunters, the army, and the police to act in particular ways.

Fixed action patterns are not that fixed – Hunt points out that sequences of behaviors that appear to be fixed and unchanging are greatly influenced by environmental factors and learning experiences – Lowers the validity of the theory as it suggests aggressive behaviors are affected by environmental influences.

Eibesfeldt (1972) tried to identify human FAPS, such as smiling, to show non-aggression. However, he found that our culture changes so quickly that cultural differences in signs can change more quickly than evolutionary patterns. Rude words and hand signs can change, so not evolutionary. Humans are certainly capable of developing new ways of expressing aggression – such as cyber bullying!

Innate Releasing Mechanisms [IRM]

• Creatures have evolved an instinctive response to certain signs. [Like a red rag to a bull!]

E.g. Male sticklebacks will respond aggressively to the red underbelly of a rival male – but not to a female who does not have the red underbelly.

Cannot generalize to humans – We should be cautious about making such generalizations, especially to complex behavior like aggression, because humans can act upon free will, unlike animals – Human aggression is extremely destructive, but we seem to have an element of control (our processing might not be automatic/innate) – Aggression cannot truly be measured in animals because the intent is not known and cannot be communicated (may be an act of survival, not aggression).

The Hydraulic Model of instinctive behavior [Lorenz 1950]

It may be easier to understand and remember the hydraulic model if you compare it to a toilet! The water level gradually fills up till you flush it – then it has to be filled up again.

• Lorenz said that all creatures build up a reservoir of Action Specific Energy – you could call it “pent-up aggression.” When the Innate releasing mechanisms [IRM] trigger the Fixed Action Pattern [FAP] all the aggression is fired off.

Once it is out of the system, the animal is less aggressive again till the level of Action Specific Energy has built up again.

This explanation was probably an example of Lorenz trying to adapt Freudian ideas to animals! Freud wrote about the build-up of sexual energy [Libido], and Lorenz applied a similar idea here.

This theory fails to explain premeditated aggression and bearing grudges.

Holst [1954] found that instead of getting it out of the system, aggressive action could feed back to make the person angrier and increasingly more aggressive.

Arms et al. [1979] found that watching violent sports did not flush aggression out of the system but tended to increase it.

Bushman does not agree with the idea of Catharsis – that aggression may lead to more aggression.

Evolutionary Explanations of Human Aggression.

Explains aggression through natural selection (survival of the fittest, aggressive genes are passed on to subsequent generations as aggressive individuals more able to compete for resources)

The central idea of this topic is that for aggression to be an adaptive feature, it has to serve a purpose.

Aggression is Adaptive

David Buss has identified 7 adaptations of aggression in humans:

• Self Defence

• Reputation to ward off future aggression

• To achieve status – more allies, fewer enemies

• Get and keep a better share of resources. Pinker (1997) states aggression evolved in men to compete for women. This may have been the MAIN reason for aggression, as there was no other property worth fighting over as we evolved.

• Deny own resources to children of rivals

• To prevent other males from sharing the prime females

• Prevent a partner from being unfaithful. For example, sexual jealousy may have evolved to ensure that men pass on their own genes rather than allowing other males access to their mate.

Inter-Group Aggression

This is aggression between different groups, such as warfare and gangs.

• Buss states human males have evolved cognitive bias towards organized aggression: E.g.

• Cognitive bias to expect an attack

• Cultivating a tough reputation

• Use of vengeance as a deterrent

• Strategies for planning and timing an attack

• Deception and the ability to detect deception

• Cosmides and Tooby, the Military Contract: Men will only fight if those who share the rewards also share the danger. Other animals are not bright enough to work this out.

Intra-Group Aggression

This is aggression within a single group, mainly linked to male rivalry and sexual jealousy.

• Daly and Wilson: Male – Male aggression among young men is common in all human cultures – suggesting it is evolutionary.

• Pinker (1997) suggests aggression evolved in men to compete for women. This may have been the MAIN reason for aggression, as there was no other property worth fighting over as we evolved. Throughout most of evolution, there was no money, and no real property, so women were the only target of aggression.

• Potts and Hayden (2008): War and aggression aimed to control women’s mating habits since the development of farming made the inheritance of land important. Jealousy has evolved as a male response to the threat of infidelity. Jealous males are determined to pass on their OWN genes.

• Daley and Wilson (1988): Men may use jealousy and violence to control partners’ sexual behavior Violence is not intended to kill but may have that result. E.g., Fertile young women 10 times at risk of domestic violence.

General Criticisms of Evolutionary Research

Ethics: Waller says: Violence, Xenophobia , and even genocide are adaptive, but this is very deterministic and unethical.

Ethics and Gender : Critics feel this theory could be used to justify violence against women. Buss himself always points out that we are not controlled by our genes; we have inherited the ability to learn and to choose.

Reductionist : Is this an over-simplification? Are there other issues that promote aggression, such as cultural or individual differences in testosterone and cortisol?

Heredity & Environment : Are environmental factors a greater cause of aggression?

• Environmental stressors, heat, noise, etc

• Cortisol levels in pregnant mother

• Childhood abuse and neglect

Deterministic : Evolutionary explanations may seem to suggest that aggression is natural, but Figuerdo [1995] suggests jealousy and domestic violence are context-specific, not inherent. Women are less likely to be victims of domestic violence if they have several brothers in town, so aggression can be controlled.

Socially sensitive – It suggests that aggression is somewhat excusable and out of the control of the individual committing the behavior – This has important consequences within the legal system – Brings into question the credibility of the theory and makes it imperative that such socially sensitive research is not released into the public domain.

Social-Psychological Explanations of Aggression.

Social learning theory.

In the 1960s, social learning theory, seen as a challenge to behaviorists, suggested children learn things even without doing them through observational learning and modeling.

Exam Tip : If the question asks about Social Learning Theory, it is not enough only to write about the Bobo Doll experiment . That was only one experiment – not the whole theory.

Children learn aggressive behaviors through observing aggressive models. These may be live models, such as parents, or symbolic models, such as characters in the media.

• Behaviorists believe learning occurs through experience followed by either punishment or reward. “Social Learning Theory” challenges that approach.

• The central idea of social learning theory is that people do not need rewards to learn aggression, they may copy the behavior of others, but this is less likely if they see the other people being punished.

Bandura states children learn by imitation and are more likely to copy depending on the following:

• The actual behavior of the role model
• The status of the person copied
• The closeness/immediacy of the person
• How well we understand what is happening

Bobo Doll experiments : Children copied adults

Contributory factors:

• Similarity: boys will copy boys, family links and groups, etc.
• Presentation: How close, live, and immediate the violence was
• Warmth: If the model was more friendly toward the subject
• Prestige: If the model had high status
• Appropriateness: If the behavior was “appropriate.

• Vicarious reinforcement : (i) Adult was rewarded, children were slightly more likely to copy; (ii) adult was punished, children were much less likely to copy.

• Disinhibition : People are more willing to do things if they see that others are already doing them.

• Bandura’s conclusions : Aggression is not inevitable. Children observe aggressive behavior in others, but how they act may depend on what the consequences of aggression are, particularly for those they use as role models.

Positive Criticisms of Bandura

Huge implications for society -provides the key to understanding the causes of good and bad behavior.

Based on clear research in the lab and followed up by many studies into TV violence, video games, etc.

Negative Criticisms of Bandura

The experiment was in a lab – which may lack ecological validity.

Children may have known that the Bobo Doll was designed for punching and, therefore, more open to suggestion. Also, they may have been aware of the experiment from other children in the group.

These are both examples of demand characteristics.

Media Implications

Viewing violence may cause children to develop cognitive scripts which involve violence in dealing with situations.

A danger is that media violence makes children more desensitized and more hardened to acts of violence in real life.

Social Theory: De-Individuation

• The central idea of this theory is that humans have a natural tendency to be aggressive if they think they can get away with it. Being disguised or part of a crowd will therefore lead to increased aggression.

• Festinger (1952) invented the term “ Deindividuation ,” defined by Fraser and Burchell (2001) as “A process whereby normal constraints on behavior are weakened as persons lose their sense of individuality.”

• LeBon suggested that when in a crowd, the combination of anonymity, suggestibility, and contagion (likelihood of a behavior being copied) mean that a ‘collective mind’ take control of the individual.

• Contagion Theory : Starting point for deindividuation

• Le Bon 1896: People in groups become infected with a kind of group hysteria and act in ways they would not do on their own.
• Blumer 1939: Circular reaction where the people add to the crowd, and the crowd fires up the people.

Gergen 1973: Deindividuated persons in dark areas became more affectionate. Therefore de-individuation need not always lead to aggression

Postmes & Spears (1988): Deindividuated people are not necessarily aggressive – Crowds may be happy and good-natured – as at pop festivals

Research support for anonymity – Zimbardo found that when asking females to elicit electric shocks to each other, more severe shocks were given in the deindividuated condition (participants wore hoods that hid their faces) than in the controlled condition (participants were introduced to each other and wore nametags) – There is support for anonymity as a factor of de-individuation, causing aggression.

Deiner et al. (1976) Studied 1300 American children “trick or treating” on Halloween. Children in disguise or in a large group behaved worse. Supports deindividuation theory.

Mullen (1986) studied lynch mobs. The greater the number of people tended to correlate with the level of violence.

Emergent Norm Theory & convergence theory

These ideas can be used as criticisms of de-individuation. They suggest that groups or sub-cultures come together because they have some sort of similarity (convergence) and then establish their own norms (emergent norms).

Often one person or a few people will behave in a certain way that others like – so they copy. This argues against de-individuation and the faceless crowd. It does not imply aggression will result. A very good example would be the hippy culture of the 1960s.

The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

• Aggression is a result of frustration. Frustration is any event or stimulus that prevents an individual from attaining a goal and its accompanying reinforcement quality (Dollard & Miller, 1939).

• When people are frustrated, they experience a drive (links to the psychodynamic approach) to be aggressive towards the object of their frustration, but this is often impossible or inappropriate, so the source of their aggression is displaced on something or someone else. (The cause may be abstract, too powerful, or unavailable.)

• Displaced Aggression [Dollard 1939] ‘You can’t kick the boss, so you kick the cat.’ Like Lornez, Dollard thought that getting aggressive cleared the mind of frustrations [a Catharsis], and life could then go on as normal.

• Berkowitz (1989 ) updated version is known as “Negative – affect theory.” Frustration is just one factor. Others may include feeling uncomfortable [eg. Heat, Reifmann [1991]] – but could also be noise or loud music. Certain cues may increase the tendency towards aggression, such as seeing a weapon on the table – Berkowitz used a baseball bat in experiments. Also, if the problem is unexpected, the individual is less likely to control their aggression.

• So, the level of aggression will depend on the following:

• How much you really want to achieve the goal
• Whether you understand that there is a good reason for the problem
• How expected / unexpected the frustration was

Real-world application to explain mass killings – Staub suggests that mass killings are often rooted in the frustration caused by social and economic difficulties within a society, leading to aggression against this group – Can be applied to the Germans blaming the Jews for the loss of the war and the severe economic problems following it which suggests that widespread frustration, when manipulated by a propaganda machine, can have violent consequences for a scapegoat group .

Bandura (1973) Frustration may lead to aggression if that has worked for someone in the past and they have internalized that way of dealing with problems.

Harris (1974) Found that people at the front of a cue were less aggressive if someone pushed in, whereas people at the back of a long cue felt a greater sense of frustration and, therefore, made a bigger fuss.

Wright and Klee (1999): Societies will be more stable and peaceful if they have systems that allow clever or hardworking people to rise to the top. Otherwise, a strong but angry working class will develop, filled with people who resent being “kept down.”

Brown (2001) – holidaymakers became more aggressive when frustrated by delays.

Priks (2010) has tried to explain football violence this way. Supporters seem much more likely to misbehave when their team is losing.

Mallick and McCandles found that people were much less aggressive when given a reason for their frustration. Doob and Sears [1939]: people felt angry when a bus went by without stopping. But people were less angry if the bus had a sign saying out of service [Pastore 1952]

The danger is that it justifies deviant behavior: Plenty of people suffer injustice or unfairness and do not turn to violence. Therefore there must be some additional factor, such as a biological dimension, to explain why some people turn to violence or aggression when faced with problems and others don’t.

Contradictory evidence – Bushman found that participants who vented their anger using a punch bag actually became more angry and aggressive, and doing nothing was actually more effective in reducing aggression – The study casts doubt on the validity of the hypothesis: that aggression reduces arousal and one is then less likely to continue to be angry and aggressive and suggests that aggression may not be cathartic.

Cause and effect – Berkowitz argued that frustration is just one of many stimuli that cause negative feelings. Others may be jealousy, pain, and loneliness. Furthermore, the outcome of frustration can be a range of responses, e.g., anxiety, and may not always be aggression – The theory is inadequate. However, Berkowitz addressed these inadequacies by developing his negative affect theory.

Institutional Theories of Aggression.

The situational approach: prisons make people aggressive – it’s the situation to blame.

The dispositional approach: prisoners are aggressive people who make the prison violent.

The Situational Approach: Sykes’ (1958) Deprivation Model

• Some institutions have harsh living conditions, such as prisons, army camps, and refugee camps This is less of a problem if the deprivation is for a good reason; if you were on a “round the world yacht race” or a mountaineering trip you have positive attitudes to keep you going.

• Some institutions deprive people of things they want, which reinforces the feelings of rejection from society, causing them to become more aggressive. E.g.

• goods and services,
• sexual relationships,
• communication with loved ones

• This deprivation causes stress and frustration, which leads to an aggressive sub-culture. But this only applies to places with harsh conditions: E.g., in prisons, the army, refugee camps, etc. Less likely to be a problem if the deprivation is for a good reason, Eg. fitness & diet camp.

• The general environment becomes dangerous and aggressive.
• Some people retreat, back down, and hide in their cells.
• Others compete in order to get what they want.
• Getting a tough reputation is very important in order to get respect and not be a victim.

Support for Situational Model

McCorkle (1995) In a study of 317 United States prisons, poor facilities, and overcrowding were found to influence levels of violence.

Franklin (2006): Age and overcrowding led to aggression, with younger inmates (18-30) being most aggressive in conditions of overcrowding. Her Majesty’s Prison Woodhill: Major improvements at this prison included less noise, better ventilation, attractive views, and especially less crowding. This led to a massive improvement in behavior in the 1990s.

Harer and Steffensmeir (1996) found that age, race, and criminal background were the only variables that affected levels of aggression. This strongly argues for the importation model, not the deprivation model.

The Situational Approach: Dysfunctional Institutions

Another situational argument is that the prisons themselves are dysfunctional.

Milgram believed that people are loyal to the hierarchy of the organization, but sometimes the hierarchy encourages cruel behavior.

Much of Milgram’s thinking was influenced by events of the holocaust in Germany. Here the institutional aggression was on the part of the guards rather than the prisoners.

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Zimbardo found that ordinary students became aggressive and cruel when they took on the role of prison guard. At the time of the Zimbardo experiment , there were many prisons in the united states where conditions were extremely poor, violent, and overcrowded. Some even used the prisoners as slave labor on prison farms. Zimbardo’s experiment strongly supports the situational approach.

Historical Context

At the time of the Zimbardo experiment , there were many prisons in the united states where conditions were extremely poor, violent, and overcrowded. Some even used the prisoners as slave labor on prison farms. Zimbardo’s experiment strongly supports the situational approach.

Features of dysfunctional Power Systems (Zimbardo)

• Isolated from the outside world
• Own set of values
• Cohesive group; guards don’t question orders
• Under pressure to act quickly
• A difficult situation to manage
• Out-group seen as troublemakers

Dispositional Explanation: The Importation Model

The Importation Model focuses on the characteristics of the individual.

Irwin and Cressey argue that the prisoners import their aggressive tendencies into prison with them, and this is why the rate of violence is high.

A prison is a violent place because aggressive people are in there. Their aggressive attitudes become part of their nature. It’s a dispositional approach because everything depends on the attitudes of the prisoners. This may also apply to other groups and institutions; The army / Extreme political groups, / Street gangs.

Irwin and Cressy 1962: People who are sent to prison already have well-established criminal behavior patterns. Prisoners were often gang members before going to prison, and their loyalties and relationships are continued in the prison environment.

They also have certain learned patterns of behavior – “The code of the Streets.”

They may also have problems that cause problems with relationships. E.g., Lack of self-control – Delisi (2011); Impulsive, anti-social – Wang & Diamond (2003).

Support for Irwin and Cressy/importation model

Men who were members of gangs before they went to prison are more likely to be involved in violent offenses whilst in prison. Drury and Delisi (2011)

Mears (2013) believed that the code of the street is imported into prison and is the fundamental cause of aggression.

Poole and Regoli 1983: Violence before the prison was the best indicator of violence inside prison. This supports the importation model.

Fischer (2001) Segregating gang members inside prison so that they did not come into conflicts with other gangs led to a 50% reduction in assaults.

Criticism of the Importation Model

Delisi (2004) found that gang members were NOT more violent than other prisoners. However, this is a rather weak piece of research as it does not allow for the fact that those gang members had already been segregated away from other gang members.

The importation model does not really explain why some organizations act aggressively when they are made up of good people who are supposed to act sensibly. Police officers, school teachers, traffic wardens, psychiatric nurses, and salesmen are all members of organizations that have sometimes been accused of acting in an aggressive way, and yet these are very law-abiding people who joined those organizations willingly and for good reasons.

In January 2012, there was a short question (4 marks) that just said;

Describe one experiment which investigated Institutional Aggression.

A short summary of Zimbardo was all that was needed.

Media influences on aggression.

Exam Tip: Many criticisms can be made of the methodologies used in studying the link between Media and Aggression. Click here for AO3 suggestions on this unit.

Computer Games

In recent years computer games have replaced film as the target of claims that children are taking on immoral attitudes and copying violence. Especially those involving violence, especially first-person “shoot-em-ups,” “Grand Theft Auto” is a very good example.

Five psychological theories could be mentioned to support the view that repeated exposure to video game violence may lead to real-life aggression:

1. Learning theory [Skinner]

Everything you have ever learned about Operant Conditioning can be beautifully applied to this argument. The computer game is the world’s most effective “ Skinner Box .”

The human is conditioned to think in patterns that have been pre-programmed into the machine. Basic ideas are taught at the basic levels, and behavior is constantly shaped to conform to the rules of the game. Every act, every single click on the mouse, is instantly rewarded by the computer’s response. Mistakes are instantly punished.

2. Learning theory [Bandura]

Attention  retention  production  motivation

Individuals model aggressive acts in the game. Some characters, and some types of behavior, are more likely to be copied because they are seen as attractive and appropriate, etc. There is no sense of real punishment for making mistakes – just game over and start again. This creates disinhibition, and individuals unconsciously feel that if they commit aggression, they will not be punished.

3. Social Cognitive Observational Learning Theory [an updated version of Bandura]

Psychologists have identified certain mechanisms which explain why we learn and copy behavior:

• Schemas: Models which help us understand the world [Grebner 1994]
• Normative beliefs: social rules and explanations [Guerra Et. Al.]
• Cognitive Priming: What connects to what in the brain [Berkowitz, Huesmann]
• Cognitive Scripts: A pattern of behavior we have ready to deal with certain situations

So the films don’t suddenly turn a person violent, but they might slowly cause the development of anti-social attitudes. This could be more effective in certain types of people [not very intelligent, have no positive role model, feel hard done by in life].

4. The General Aggression Model [Anderson and Dill]

This model brings together elements of Social learning and Cognitive Priming Theory and suggests that if we live in a violent environment – such as a war zone, we will adapt to it; our thoughts, feelings, and actions will be based around violence, and that is how we will survive. But could over-exposure to gaming have the same effects?

Evidence for General Aggression Model: Meta-Analysis Findings: Anderson et al. [2004] 35 studies examined Found that video game violence exposure is related to increases in aggressive affect, cognition, and behavior increases in physiological arousal; decreases in helping behavior.

5. Neurological Effects

Ritterfield and Mathiak [2006] –

Participants were subjected to a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan whilst playing a violent video game. It appeared to suggest that emotional areas of the cortex are to some extent “switched off” during the game, perhaps an adaptive mechanism that permits an animal to focus on survival. This is the same as happens when engaged in real acts of violence.

Strength – RWA – We can show more non-aggressive models and promote more prosocial behavior that is rewarded in the media. Aggressive behavior should always be shown to be punished – Research can be used to reduce the effect of computer games on aggression.

Weakness – Measures of aggression are artificial – Experimental studies compare participants who play a violent computer game with those who play a non-violent computer game, but it is difficult to be certain that the two are equivalent in terms of game dimensions and the complexity of keys used – Casts doubt on the validity of experimental studies and the link between media violence and aggression.

Weakness – Confounding variables in longitudinal studies – Over lengthy periods of time, many sources of aggression interact with media influences such as role models; therefore, it is difficult to separate them and assess contributions to aggressive behavior – It is impossible to conclude that violent media rather than confounding variables have affected aggression.

Weakness – Publication bias – There is a tendency for only statistically significant findings to be published, which is a particular problem for meta-analyses because they generally only include published studies – This creates a false impression that the effects of violent media on aggression are greater than they actually are.

Cognitive Priming

• Cognitive priming is based on the idea that memory works through association.

It, therefore, contends that events and media images can stimulate related thoughts in the minds of audience members. For example, if we have often seen clowns throwing custard pies at one another, then when we encounter a custard pie in real life, we may think about throwing it at someone.

• A schema is a model of what we think normally happens. We assume that our parents will feed us and our friends will be pleased to see us because that is what normally happens.

• A cognitive script is a way of dealing with a situation. We have learned that in a hotel restaurant, we sit down and wait to be served, but in a burger bar, we line up at the counter.

• Berkowitz thinks watching violent movies could lead to storing schemas and cognitive scripts which involve aggression, e.g., the students in the Stanford Prison experiment had never been in a real prison but they may have had a schema based on movies they had seen.

E.g., Students who play “Grand Theft Auto” might develop a cognitive script for what to do when traffic lights turn amber. This may be different from the way their Grandma drives!

• Priming means that a particular event, image, or even word may be associated with these thoughts. We call that a trigger. When we encounter the trigger, we may respond in the way we have been primed.

E.g., if a football comes bouncing towards me – without thinking, I put out my foot to stop it or kick it back, but if it’s a cricket ball, I would pick it up and throw it back. I am primed to respond differently to the cricket ball. So Berkowitz argues that we learn anti-social attitudes from the media, and these are associated with certain triggers.

Steve Berkowitz [1984] did an experiment involving an argument in an office. In condition A, there was a baseball bat on the side of the desk. In condition B, there was a badminton racquet. Berkowitz found the presence of the baseball bat led to more aggressive responses.

Bushman [1998] Participants who had watched a violent film responded more quickly to aggressive words than those who had watched a non-violent film.

Anderson and Dill [2000] Found that playing a violent computer game led to more aggressive thoughts. They claimed that even playing the game just once could have this effect, although the effect might only be short-term.

Zelli [1995] found that cognitive priming could be used to make people suspicious of the intentions of others. This, in turn, led the people who had been primed to act in a more aggressive manner.

Murray [2007] – used fMRI scans to study children’s brains when watching violent and non-violent TV programs. Violent films led to increased activity in those areas which deal with emotion, arousal, and attention – not surprisingly – but also in the areas used to store episodic memory . This supports the suggestion that children can store scripts.

Atkin [2003] found that priming was more pronounced when the media was more realistic.

However, this may not simply mean it “looked better”. It might relate to how much the participant believed it was realistic.

Desensitization

• Media violence leads to aggressive behavior by removing the anxiety about violence. Someone who becomes desensitized to violence may therefore perceive it as more ‘normal’ and be more likely to engage in violence themselves.
• Effects may involve a reduction in physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate) when exposed to real violence or a psychological response (e.g., having less sympathy for a victim).
• In the natural world, a certain level of natural fear should make people hold back from violent situations. The desensitization argument suggests that if children watch too much violence on TV, they will be less scared and, therefore, more open to aggressive activity.
• People become less likely to notice violence in real life. They have less sympathy for victims of violence. They have less negative attitudes towards violence. [Mullin and Linz 1995]

Measuring desensitization

• Desensitisation can be monitored by physical indicators of stress, such as heartbeat and galvanic skin response. [Linz 1989]

• Carnagey [2007] found that experienced computer gamers show less of a reaction to a film of real-life violence.

Effects of Desensitisation

• Bushman and Anderson [2009] found that desensitization made people less likely to help others in unpleasant situations.

• Dolf Zillman suggested that if we survive the real-life danger, we feel good afterward [winners]

During an action movie, we feel excited and stimulated. Later we want that excitement again, but we become de-sensitized, so we need more scary films to get us excited. This could transfer to seeking violence in real life.

Disinhibition

• Disinhibition explains that watching or playing violent media may change the standards of what is considered acceptable behavior. The media gives aggressive behavior social approval, especially where effects on victims are minimized and appear justified.

• Normally, we act in certain ways because we have been socialized to know what is right and wrong. We get aroused and excited by a film or a game, and this causes us to lose our inhibitions, acting in a more extreme manner till the excitement dies down.

• Long-term Disinhibition: Too much violent TV can change our actual moral values so that we see more violent standards of behavior as acceptable. One aspect of this is that we often see acts of violence going unpunished in movies or games, and this could lead to disinhibition.

Individual factors [Collins 1989] make disinhibition more or less likely:

• Violent home background
• Physical punishment of children
• Younger viewers
• Children with low intelligence
• Children who believe their heroes are realistic
• Children who believe the media reflects real life

• Disinhibition is less likely if Strong family norms against violence or when adults discuss issues from the film with their children.

• Research support for disinhibition – Berkowitz found that participants who saw a film depicting aggression as vengeance gave more fake electric shocks to a confederate – The media disinhibited aggression by presenting it as justified and removing social constraints.

• Disinhibition can explain the effect of cartoon violence – Children learn social norms through cartoon characters as the aggression they carry out is socially normative, especially when it goes unpunished – Children learn that aggression is rewarding and achieves goals in a socially acceptable way, therefore, are more prone to copy it.

The main criterion is that benefits must outweigh costs.

Animal research also raises the issue of extrapolation. Can we generalize from studies on animals to humans as their anatomy & physiology is different from humans?

General criticisms and/or strengths of theories and studies.E.g., ‘Bandura’s Bobo Doll studies are laboratory experiments and therefore criticizable on the grounds of lacking ecological validity.’

To gain marks for criticizing the study’s methodologies, the criticism must be contextualized: i.e., say why this is a problem in this particular study.

‘Therefore, the violence the children witnessed was on television and was against a doll, not a human.

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How to Write a Great Hypothesis

Hypothesis Format, Examples, and Tips

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Amy Morin, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international bestselling author. Her books, including "13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do," have been translated into more than 40 languages. Her TEDx talk,  "The Secret of Becoming Mentally Strong," is one of the most viewed talks of all time.

Verywell / Alex Dos Diaz

• The Scientific Method

Hypothesis Format

Falsifiability of a hypothesis, operational definitions, types of hypotheses, hypotheses examples.

• Collecting Data

Frequently Asked Questions

A hypothesis is a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more  variables. It is a specific, testable prediction about what you expect to happen in a study.

One hypothesis example would be a study designed to look at the relationship between sleep deprivation and test performance might have a hypothesis that states: "This study is designed to assess the hypothesis that sleep-deprived people will perform worse on a test than individuals who are not sleep-deprived."

This article explores how a hypothesis is used in psychology research, how to write a good hypothesis, and the different types of hypotheses you might use.

The Hypothesis in the Scientific Method

In the scientific method , whether it involves research in psychology, biology, or some other area, a hypothesis represents what the researchers think will happen in an experiment. The scientific method involves the following steps:

• Forming a question
• Performing background research
• Creating a hypothesis
• Designing an experiment
• Collecting data
• Analyzing the results
• Drawing conclusions
• Communicating the results

The hypothesis is a prediction, but it involves more than a guess. Most of the time, the hypothesis begins with a question which is then explored through background research. It is only at this point that researchers begin to develop a testable hypothesis. Unless you are creating an exploratory study, your hypothesis should always explain what you  expect  to happen.

In a study exploring the effects of a particular drug, the hypothesis might be that researchers expect the drug to have some type of effect on the symptoms of a specific illness. In psychology, the hypothesis might focus on how a certain aspect of the environment might influence a particular behavior.

Remember, a hypothesis does not have to be correct. While the hypothesis predicts what the researchers expect to see, the goal of the research is to determine whether this guess is right or wrong. When conducting an experiment, researchers might explore a number of factors to determine which ones might contribute to the ultimate outcome.

In many cases, researchers may find that the results of an experiment  do not  support the original hypothesis. When writing up these results, the researchers might suggest other options that should be explored in future studies.

In many cases, researchers might draw a hypothesis from a specific theory or build on previous research. For example, prior research has shown that stress can impact the immune system. So a researcher might hypothesize: "People with high-stress levels will be more likely to contract a common cold after being exposed to the virus than people who have low-stress levels."

In other instances, researchers might look at commonly held beliefs or folk wisdom. "Birds of a feather flock together" is one example of folk wisdom that a psychologist might try to investigate. The researcher might pose a specific hypothesis that "People tend to select romantic partners who are similar to them in interests and educational level."

Elements of a Good Hypothesis

So how do you write a good hypothesis? When trying to come up with a hypothesis for your research or experiments, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is your hypothesis based on your research on a topic?
• Can your hypothesis be tested?
• Does your hypothesis include independent and dependent variables?

Before you come up with a specific hypothesis, spend some time doing background research. Once you have completed a literature review, start thinking about potential questions you still have. Pay attention to the discussion section in the  journal articles you read . Many authors will suggest questions that still need to be explored.

To form a hypothesis, you should take these steps:

• Collect as many observations about a topic or problem as you can.
• Evaluate these observations and look for possible causes of the problem.
• Create a list of possible explanations that you might want to explore.
• After you have developed some possible hypotheses, think of ways that you could confirm or disprove each hypothesis through experimentation. This is known as falsifiability.

In the scientific method ,  falsifiability is an important part of any valid hypothesis.   In order to test a claim scientifically, it must be possible that the claim could be proven false.

Students sometimes confuse the idea of falsifiability with the idea that it means that something is false, which is not the case. What falsifiability means is that  if  something was false, then it is possible to demonstrate that it is false.

One of the hallmarks of pseudoscience is that it makes claims that cannot be refuted or proven false.

A variable is a factor or element that can be changed and manipulated in ways that are observable and measurable. However, the researcher must also define how the variable will be manipulated and measured in the study.

For example, a researcher might operationally define the variable " test anxiety " as the results of a self-report measure of anxiety experienced during an exam. A "study habits" variable might be defined by the amount of studying that actually occurs as measured by time.

These precise descriptions are important because many things can be measured in a number of different ways. One of the basic principles of any type of scientific research is that the results must be replicable.   By clearly detailing the specifics of how the variables were measured and manipulated, other researchers can better understand the results and repeat the study if needed.

Some variables are more difficult than others to define. How would you operationally define a variable such as aggression ? For obvious ethical reasons, researchers cannot create a situation in which a person behaves aggressively toward others.

In order to measure this variable, the researcher must devise a measurement that assesses aggressive behavior without harming other people. In this situation, the researcher might utilize a simulated task to measure aggressiveness.

Hypothesis Checklist

• Does your hypothesis focus on something that you can actually test?
• Does your hypothesis include both an independent and dependent variable?
• Can you manipulate the variables?
• Can your hypothesis be tested without violating ethical standards?

The hypothesis you use will depend on what you are investigating and hoping to find. Some of the main types of hypotheses that you might use include:

• Simple hypothesis : This type of hypothesis suggests that there is a relationship between one independent variable and one dependent variable.
• Complex hypothesis : This type of hypothesis suggests a relationship between three or more variables, such as two independent variables and a dependent variable.
• Null hypothesis : This hypothesis suggests no relationship exists between two or more variables.
• Alternative hypothesis : This hypothesis states the opposite of the null hypothesis.
• Statistical hypothesis : This hypothesis uses statistical analysis to evaluate a representative sample of the population and then generalizes the findings to the larger group.
• Logical hypothesis : This hypothesis assumes a relationship between variables without collecting data or evidence.

A hypothesis often follows a basic format of "If {this happens} then {this will happen}." One way to structure your hypothesis is to describe what will happen to the  dependent variable  if you change the  independent variable .

The basic format might be: "If {these changes are made to a certain independent variable}, then we will observe {a change in a specific dependent variable}."

A few examples of simple hypotheses:

• "Students who eat breakfast will perform better on a math exam than students who do not eat breakfast."
• Complex hypothesis: "Students who experience test anxiety before an English exam will get lower scores than students who do not experience test anxiety."​
• "Motorists who talk on the phone while driving will be more likely to make errors on a driving course than those who do not talk on the phone."

Examples of a complex hypothesis include:

• "People with high-sugar diets and sedentary activity levels are more likely to develop depression."
• "Younger people who are regularly exposed to green, outdoor areas have better subjective well-being than older adults who have limited exposure to green spaces."

Examples of a null hypothesis include:

• "Children who receive a new reading intervention will have scores different than students who do not receive the intervention."
• "There will be no difference in scores on a memory recall task between children and adults."

Examples of an alternative hypothesis:

• "Children who receive a new reading intervention will perform better than students who did not receive the intervention."
• "Adults will perform better on a memory task than children." 

Collecting Data on Your Hypothesis

Once a researcher has formed a testable hypothesis, the next step is to select a research design and start collecting data. The research method depends largely on exactly what they are studying. There are two basic types of research methods: descriptive research and experimental research.

Descriptive Research Methods

Descriptive research such as  case studies ,  naturalistic observations , and surveys are often used when it would be impossible or difficult to  conduct an experiment . These methods are best used to describe different aspects of a behavior or psychological phenomenon.

Once a researcher has collected data using descriptive methods, a correlational study can then be used to look at how the variables are related. This type of research method might be used to investigate a hypothesis that is difficult to test experimentally.

Experimental Research Methods

Experimental methods  are used to demonstrate causal relationships between variables. In an experiment, the researcher systematically manipulates a variable of interest (known as the independent variable) and measures the effect on another variable (known as the dependent variable).

Unlike correlational studies, which can only be used to determine if there is a relationship between two variables, experimental methods can be used to determine the actual nature of the relationship—whether changes in one variable actually  cause  another to change.

A Word From Verywell

The hypothesis is a critical part of any scientific exploration. It represents what researchers expect to find in a study or experiment. In situations where the hypothesis is unsupported by the research, the research still has value. Such research helps us better understand how different aspects of the natural world relate to one another. It also helps us develop new hypotheses that can then be tested in the future.

Some examples of how to write a hypothesis include:

• "Staying up late will lead to worse test performance the next day."
• "People who consume one apple each day will visit the doctor fewer times each year."
• "Breaking study sessions up into three 20-minute sessions will lead to better test results than a single 60-minute study session."

The four parts of a hypothesis are:

• The research question
• The independent variable (IV)
• The dependent variable (DV)
• The proposed relationship between the IV and DV

Castillo M. The scientific method: a need for something better? . AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2013;34(9):1669-71. doi:10.3174/ajnr.A3401

Nevid J. Psychology: Concepts and Applications. Wadworth, 2013.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

The Hydraulic Hypothesis and the End of Civilization

OK, I admit the title of this post is possibly a bit extreme but I could not resist the symmetry. Here, I refer to both ends of civilization, the start and the finish.

I'd like to talk about a recent review published in Science, titled " Systems integration for global sustainability " written by my colleague Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute together with Jiangou Liu, Harold Mooney, Vanessa Hull, Steven Davis, Joane Gaskell, Thomas Hertel, Jane Lubchenco, Karent Seto, Claire Kremen and Shuxin Li. But I want to put this paper in a broader perspective, dipping into my training as an archaeologist. But first a relevant digression.

The so called "Hydraulic Hypothesis" is an idea first fully characterized by the historian Karl Wittfogel. His original idea was part of a larger model for the origin of civilization that we see today as having several problematic aspects, but the key idea is still valid. If agriculture is the basis for a society, and it is carried out in a semi-arid region, then the management of water through various forms of irrigation and the centralized control of the agricultural cycle lends itself to centralized despotic leadership. or at least, some kid of cultural and social change allowing for organized effort to predominate over individual self interest. (In fact irrigation based systems have emerged without despotic leadership, and complex society has emerged absent a hydraulic beginning, so this is an oversimplification, just so you know.) But in its simplest form we can correctly say that the emergence of stratified, hierarchic, complexly organized societies was often linked in no small part to the emergence of organizational (and technological) solutions to growing food where there is not enough rain at the right time of year. There is a great advantage to growing food in this manner. The crops become, in essence, invasive species, because human activity provides the crops with a leg up on all the other plants in the region. A plant that in wild form is found primarily in limited microhabitats, out competed everywhere else by more arid-adapted plants, suddenly has a free ride across a vast landscape. Despite the fact that the Hydraulic Hypothesis is an oversimplification, we can appreciate the fact that the beginnings of human "civilization" (as a social and economic system, which we retain today by and large) is linked partially but importantly to managing water to grow food.

At present the news story that never fails to occupy the front page is ISIS, the Islamic State, making a nuisance of itself in Syria and Iraq. It is generally thought that ISIS emerged in large part because of the quasi-failure of Syria. Syria transited from being a run of the mill Middle Eastern Kingdom with some powerful connections to a quasi-failed state for a number of reasons, but one of the big factors turns out to be water. Or, really, lack thereof. In a recently published paper (not the one in Science mentioned above), Peter Gleick made this point:

The Syrian conflict that began in 2012 has many roots, including long-standing political, religious, and social ideological disputes; economic dislocations from both global and regional factors; and worsening environmental conditions. ... key environmental factors include both direct and indirect consequences of water shortages, ineffective watershed management, and the impacts of climate variability and change on regional hydrology. Severe multiyear drought beginning in the mid-2000s, combined with inefficient and often unmodernized irrigation systems and water abstractions by other parties in the eastern Mediterranean, including especially Syria, contributed to the displacement of large populations from rural to urban centers, food insecurity for more than a million people, and increased unemployment—with subsequent effects on political stability. There is some evidence that the recent drought is an early indicator of the climatic changes that are expected for the region, including higher temperature, decreased basin rainfall and runoff, and increased water scarcity. Absent any efforts to address population growth rates, these water-related factors are likely to produce even greater risks of local and regional political instability, unless other mechanisms for reducing water insecurity can be identified and implemented.

Two key graphics from Gleick's paper demonstrate the role of climate change. First, the drop in available water due to decreased rainfall and, probably, increased evaporation:

Second, the decrease in annual average discharge of a key river in the region:

Adaptation to an arid environment allowed the development of agriculture, and required the development of complex states, thousands of years ago, in this region. Subsequent increases and decreases in aridity and other natural climate factors have been recognized as creating local collapses around the Mediterranean during subsequent millennia. But now, climate change (together with the other factors Gleick mentions) has pushed the system over the edge. Thousands of years of technological adaptation and cultural evolution to address the problem of growing grains and orchards in dry country together with modern technology to the extent it has been applied have been insufficient to allow the system to continue in some localities, and everything we know about climate change strongly suggests that this is going to get worse, eventually encompassing the entire region. Expect most of the Middle East to become a client region for global agricultural production over the next decade or two. The term Arab Spring is deeply ironic; the spring is running dry.

So this is how the Hydraulic Hypothesis bookends civilization. Cultural technological management of limited or badly timed natural water were adaptations to semi-arid climate conditions and contributed to the development of what we call civilization. As climate conditions shift to the point where these adaptations become unreliable, the system fails. And, the failure is in part because of prior success. As a highly integrated but organic system it is unable to manage deep and causative change. If Vulcans ran the Earth, the Syrian farmers would have been, logically, put on some sort of dole and eventually retasked, and there would not have been a civil war. But since we rely so much on organic system evolution (which includes in part the much vaunted "free market") that is not what happened.

The review in Science addresses the large scale system dynamics. From the paper:

Global sustainability challenges, from maintaining biodiversity to providing clean air and water, are closely interconnected yet often separately studied and managed. Systems integration—holistic approaches to integrating various components of coupled human and natural systems—is critical to understand socioeconomic and environmental interconnections and to create sustainability solutions. Recent advances include the development and quantification of integrated frameworks that incorporate ecosystem services, environmental footprints, planetary boundaries, human-nature nexuses, and telecoupling. Although systems integration has led to fundamental discoveries and practical applications, further efforts are needed to incorporate more human and natural components simultaneously, quantify spillover systems and feedbacks, integrate multiple spatial and temporal scales, develop new tools, and translate findings into policy and practice. Such efforts can help address important knowledge gaps, link seemingly unconnected challenges, and inform policy and management decisions.

The study focuses on biofuels and "virtual water" to illustrate the broader concepts. Since we're talking about Hydraulic adaptation at the beginning and end (maybe) of human civilization, let's look more closely at the virtual water.

What is virtual water, you ask? Let's say you and I are the farmers (there are no other farmers) and together we produce all of the food. We live in different places and the food gets traded back and forth. You may be surprised to hear that for every liter of water the people who live in our hypothetical two-farm world drink as refreshment, we farmers require something like 100 liters of water to match that in food (that is a very rough estimate). But the water requirement varies tremendously by the kind of food. Let's say I grow wheat and you grow eggs. That means that every person-year of food (in terms of calories) that I grow requires a very small fraction of the water that you need to grow one person-year of calories. Plants generally require a fraction of the water that animal products require. Even among plants the differences are rather large.

So, if we trade wheat and eggs (I give you wheat and you give me eggs) evenly by calorie, than we are simultaneously trading water, but very unevenly. When I give you 1000 calories of wheat, I'm giving you something like 1000 liters of water, virtually. When you give me 1000 calories of eggs, you are giving me perhaps a million liters of water, virtually. If you are farming in a water rich region and I'm farming in a water poor region, that makes sense and it may even be the reason I grow wheat and you grow egg chickens. Or, if we started out with plentiful water relative to production in both regions, but your farms experience increasing aridity, there is now a pressure for us to change our virtual water trading practices. You should be growing some wheat and I should be growing some chickens.

Alternatively we could eat less animal product. Or, if you like you can experience a regional civil war in your part of the world and create a religious state that everybody hates. Whatever.

In real life, virtual water is quite complex. From the review:

The main virtual water exporters (sending systems) are water-rich regions in North and South America and Australia, whereas Mexico, Japan, China, and water-poor regions in Europe are the main importers (receiving systems)... Asia recently switched its virtual water imports from North America to South America. On the other hand, North America has engaged in an increased diversification of intraregional water trade while trading with distant countries in Asia. China has undergone a dramatic increase in virtual water imports since 2000, via products such as soybeans from Brazil (nearly doubling from 2001 to 2007 and amounting to 13% of the total global world water trade). The spatial shift in the use of soybean products in Brazil from domestic to international has led to water savings in other countries, but at the cost of deforestation in Brazilian Amazon. Within-country virtual water transfer is also common. For example, virtual water flow through grain trade from North China to South China goes in the opposite direction of real water transfer through large projects, such as the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, that aim to alleviate water shortages in North China.

Or, in the form of a picture, from the review:

To me one of the key issues raised when taking a system level look, and this refers back directly to the Hydraulic Hypothesis, is the role of regulatory process and government. After all, we created these governments (as part of civilization) for the exact reason of managing the emerging complex system of agriculture (oversimplified again ... and there were other reasons of course). So I asked Peter Gleick what he thought about the relationship between free market economics, regulation, and government (or higher level) involvement. He told me, "Free markets are both a solution and a problem. There is growing evidence that for a number of critical global challenges, government oversight and regulatory institutions are critically important to correct the failure of free markets. We encourage trade in goods and services worldwide, which has led to a remarkable trade in "virtual water" -- the water required to make those goods and services. This is a good thing, in my opinion, because it permits countries that could never possibly be self sufficient in food because of insufficient water (most of the Middle East and North Africa) to use their limited water for higher valued economic activities and then buy food on the market. But the market failure here is that natural ecosystems do not compete or play a role in such "markets" -- permitting the complete extinction of endemic fish from the Aral Sea to grow cotton in the Central Asian republics for export. I could give other examples of gross free market failures with global consequences (ozone hole, climate change). So, yes, balance markets with strong government regulatory oversight to protect public goods."

This makes sense because of one of the things people almost always forget when it comes to market forces. The free market model assumes that the system is made up of "ideal free actors." Ideal free does not mean free of ideals! (Maybe there should be a comma there.) The actors in the market are "ideal" in that they are identical in their access to information and ability to act on it, and they are free in the sense that there are no external constraints on those actions. So, ideal actors regulated (not free) do not make up a free market (that is the point usually made by Libertarians) but more often than not, the actors are not "ideal." It is a major failure of integration of economics theory and social theory to place the non-ideal parts in the category of "external costs" and ignore them. One actor's external costs is another actor's non-idealness.

I also asked Gleick to elaborate on the relationship between regional collapse and the global system, as a means of integrating the two studies I cover above. He responded, "... can regional collapses influence or perturb global systems, rather than the other way around? I would argue for example that perturbed global systems are influencing regional collapses (for example, climate, drought, and Syria). A functioning global systems approach would have to be able to handle regional perturbations. Could you argue that the political collapse in the US Congress is a major barrier to a global systems approach to cut greenhouse gas emissions? Yes. But that US government failure can be bypassed by other mechanisms, as we're seeing now with California's cap/trade system; collaborative state efforts; federal efforts that bypass congressional constraints using other mechanisms."

Peter Gleick has written up his own comments on the Science review, on his blog, here .

______________________________________________________

Citation: Liu, J. H. Mooney, V. Hull, S.J. Davis, J. Gaskell, T.Hertel, J. Lubchenco, K.C. Seto, P.H. Gleick, C. Kremen, S. Li. 2015. Systems Integration for Global Sustainability. Science, Vol. 347, No. 6225. 27 February 2015. DOI: 10.1126/science.1258832

Other posts of interest:

• New Research Suggests Global Warming Is About To Heat Up
• New Research Demonstrates Link Between Greenhouse Gas Pollution and Global Warming
• Has Global Warming stopped?

Also of interest: In Search of Sungudogo: A novel of adventure and mystery , set in the Congo.

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The concept of virtual water transfer is fascinating - thanks for posting this. Question is though as the Middle East continues to dry up and suffer economic (never mind civil) turmoil how are they, in a capitalist world, going to be able to afford to buy their food/virtual water?

As real water rationing gets increasingly strict in those regions, the countries with the better supply of real water will be inundated first with refugees then by militaries/rebels/terrorists from the less advantageous countries. The international community will be limited by armed conflict in how much help they can give.

The future bodes very poorly for that area.

The IPCC has been derelict in failing to warn the world of how severely dry mediterranean winters could degrade the quality of both Sobranie and Yenidje tobacco.

Now wonder tempers are frayed in the Levant !

Virtual water: most interesting, I'll be keeping my eyes open for more on this subject.

What you also illustrate is that economics as presently taught and practiced, is like physics based on the Four Elements or medicine based on the Four Humors. It's disconnected from empirical reality, thus it's essentially quackery. The cures for which are to require a thorough grounding in the sciences as a prerequisite to any degree in economics, and to start hiring physical scientists into economic policy roles in government.

But in the end, all this tinkering around the edges, with markets this and regulatory that, isn't sufficient. The bottom line is the necessity for _steady-state economics_, and the sooner we start addressing that, the better.

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Aims and Hypotheses

Last updated 22 Mar 2021

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Observations of events or behaviour in our surroundings provoke questions as to why they occur. In turn, one or multiple theories might attempt to explain a phenomenon, and investigations are consequently conducted to test them. One observation could be that athletes tend to perform better when they have a training partner, and a theory might propose that this is because athletes are more motivated with peers around them.

The aim of an investigation, driven by a theory to explain a given observation, states the intent of the study in general terms. Continuing the above example, the consequent aim might be “to investigate the effect of having a training partner on athletes’ motivation levels”.

The theory attempting to explain an observation will help to inform hypotheses - predictions of an investigation’s outcome that make specific reference to the independent variables (IVs) manipulated and dependent variables (DVs) measured by the researchers.

There are two types of hypothesis:

• - H 1 – Research hypothesis
• - H 0 – Null hypothesis

H 1 – The Research Hypothesis

This predicts a statistically significant effect of an IV on a DV (i.e. an experiment), or a significant relationship between variables (i.e. a correlation study), e.g.

• In an experiment: “Athletes who have a training partner are likely to score higher on a questionnaire measuring motivation levels than athletes who train alone.”
• In a correlation study: ‘There will be a significant positive correlation between athletes’ motivation questionnaire scores and the number of partners athletes train with.”

The research hypothesis will be directional (one-tailed) if theory or existing evidence argues a particular ‘direction’ of the predicted results, as demonstrated in the two hypothesis examples above.

Non-directional (two-tailed) research hypotheses do not predict a direction, so here would simply predict “a significant difference” between questionnaire scores in athletes who train alone and with a training partner (in an experiment), or “a significant relationship” between questionnaire scores and number of training partners (in a correlation study).

H 0 – The Null Hypothesis

This predicts that a statistically significant effect or relationship will not be found, e.g.

• In an experiment: “There will be no significant difference in motivation questionnaire scores between athletes who train with and without a training partner.”
• In a correlation study: “There will be no significant relationship between motivation questionnaire scores and the number of partners athletes train with.”

When the investigation concludes, analysis of results will suggest that either the research hypothesis or null hypothesis can be retained, with the other rejected. Ultimately this will either provide evidence to support of refute the theory driving a hypothesis, and may lead to further research in the field.

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An Academic Look at the Hydraulic Hypothesis

As promised in my review of Water: the Epic Struggle by Steven Solomon , here is a more scholarly look at the hydraulic hypothesis.

As I wrote before, "The hydraulic hypothesis says that large-scale irrigation works that supported the land-based empires of the ancient world required a certain type of government—an absolute monarch/emperor supported by an elite caste of technocrats or priests—to implement, and that this exploitation of water resources also provided legitimacy to such governments." The academic definition is more rigorous, considering hydraulic works as a significant cause of the origin of states.

The paper that I found to read is: Michael J. Harrower. 2009. Is the hydraulic hypothesis dead yet? Irrigation and social change in ancient Yemen. World Archaeology 41(1):58-72. (It comes from a special issue on the archaeology of water ).

The paper is summarized (in the abstract) as follows:

Irrigation played an important role throughout ancient Southwest Arabian histories. Irrigation structures provide some of the earliest evidence of crop agriculture and large-scale flash floodwater irrigation systems sustained ancient states; the region thus offers important potential for reconsidering links between irrigation and social change. This paper examines millennia-long connections between social relations and the increasing technological and organizational complexity of irrigation in ancient Yemen. While the hydraulic hypothesis in its original deterministic formulation does not adequately account for the complexity and diversity of regional histories, large centrally managed irrigation systems played an indisputably significant role in Southwest Arabian state formation. Irrigation not only generated the food to sustain burgeoning populations but, just as importantly, afforded ancient kings the ideological prestige of commanding transformation of hyperarid areas into lush, bountiful oases.

The author describes the purpose of the study as follows:

[This study] challenges the view that centrally coordinated irrigation was necessary to provision states in Southwest Arabia and argues that large-scale irrigation was not agriculturally required but played a vital social role as a source of ideological magnetism and religiosity that attracted hinterland peoples towards state polities.

Dr. Harrower discusses the following points:

• Social logistics of irrigation: that is, how much centralization is required and how activities are coordinated
• Taking a task-based view of social logistics by examining job titles and the perks that went with them
• Interestingly, some operation and maintenance positions for traditional irrigation were elected and represented a power base distinct from tribal hierarchies
• Using GIS (i.e. digital elevation models, DEMs) to model water flow for archaeological applications; this allowed the watershed size (which impacts the available flow) to be determined
• Sayl ( سيل ) (torrent/flood flow) irrigation systems
• There was a 16 m high dam at Sabaean capital of Ma'rib that redirected flash floods to sluice gates. There are records of it being repaired more than once (including by an Ethiopian viceroy) but eventually it fell into ruin shortly before the rise of Islam.
• Size of watershed (which corresponds with water availability in arid environments—except different regions of Yemen get quite different levels of precipitation, so it's not an exact proxy) was not the only factor in the location of capitals (e.g. also want access/control over trade routes for incense)
• Ideological significance of irrigation: this society had gods of thunderstorms and irrigation works
• An Ethiopian viceroy (i.e. a foreign ruler) repaired the Ma'rib dam as mentioned above to boost his legitimacy

These points are discussed within the context of the two main aspects to this paper:

• social logistics (task-based perspective -> job titles), and
• spatial dimensions (using GIS to get size of watersheds)

In the end, the author has these conclusions:

Intriguingly, however, states in Yemen first developed not in Yemen’s moist western highlands, where dry-farming was possible, but instead along the hyper-arid margins of the desert, where irrigation was necessary. By harnessing vast water flows, and transforming hyper-arid deserts into lush, bountiful oases with the blessing of revered gods, states’ leaders not only benefited economically but claimed enormous ideological credit. But these large-scale systems were not agriculturally necessary to provision Southwest Arabian states; dry-farming, terrace agriculture, and smaller-scale community-managed irrigation could have provided the food necessary to sustain large populations. Indeed, these alternatives likely provided much of the food for the later highland state of Himyar and they continue to provide most of the agricultural production in Yemen today. For the earliest states, however, massive irrigation works indentured farmers to complex polities through largely state-contrived dependence on irrigation water from restricted access sources and such impressive hydraulic installations were arguably as important ideologically as they were economically. Understanding irrigation’s role in the societal trajectories of ancient Southwest Arabia requires attention to a variety of influencing factors, including hydrology, economy and ideology. While emphasis is often placed on the chronological, technological and economic dimensions of irrigation, it was not only that large watersheds offered productive capacity, but that access could be restricted at these locations allowing elites to dominate and position themselves as cosmological authorities of food production.

So, in the point of view propounded in this paper, large-scale irrigation works seem to be about prestige and control more than being driven as a food-supply necessity.

Overall, I found this paper to be very well-written and well-organized, making it easy to follow and understand even though archaeology/anthropology/history is not my speciality. As someone with an engineering background, I missed having more quantitative data and statistical analysis, but I guess that probably reflects the amount of effort that has to go into finding each clue about the past. Harrower includes a lengthy bibliography, which includes a couple of items that interest me to read further.

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Left Brain - Right Brain

Developing extraordinary abilities through savant syndrome, personal perspective: a hypothesis regarding the etiology of savant abilities..

Posted April 8, 2024 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina

• Types of savant syndrome include congenital, acquired as a result of brain dysfunction, and sudden-onset.
• Savant abilities include five areas: art, calendar computation, mathematics, music, and visuospatial skills.
• The skills of prodigious savants are so outstanding that they would be spectacular in a non-impaired person.

The savant syndrome is a rare psychological phenomenon in which people manifest extraordinary skills beyond their usual abilities (Rudzinski et al., 2023). Here, we will discuss possible causes of this phenomenon, as well as how savant abilities might be elicited.

There are three recognized types of this syndrome:

Congenital. Affected individuals typically have an associated developmental mental disability, and approximately half of these have a diagnosis of autism . In 2015, there were 287 known cases of this type (Treffert & Rebedew, 2015).

Acquired. In 2015, there were 32 known cases of neurotypical individuals who developed savant abilities following a head injury , stroke, onset of dementia , or other central nervous system disorder (Treffert & Rebedew, 2015).

Sudden onset. In 2021 there were 11 reports of neurotypical individuals without developmental disabilities or a central nervous system disorder who suddenly developed transient or permanent savant abilities (Treffert & Ries, 2021).

Savant abilities usually relate to five general areas (Rudzinski et al., 2023; Treffert, 2009):

Art. This has usually involved drawing, painting, or sculpting.

Calendar computation. Savants can quickly calculate the day of the week of any date in history.

Mathematics. Involves lightning calculation or the ability to compute prime numbers, sometimes in the absence of simple mathematical abilities.

Music. Usually, this has involved the performance of music, most often with the piano. Some have developed perfect pitch, and some have composed music once they have honed their abilities to perform.

Visuospatial/mechanical skills. These include the ability to measure distances precisely without instruments, to accurately construct complex structures, or to make maps.

Less commonly reported savant abilities include sudden extensive mastery of one or more foreign languages, unusual sensory discrimination in smell, perfect appreciation of passing time without access to a clock, and outstanding knowledge in specific fields such as neurophysiology, statistics, history, or navigation (Treffert, 2009).

Savant syndrome is typically associated with a single extraordinary ability in affected individuals.

Talented savants are considered those whose savant abilities are highly developed in comparison to the individual’s abilities in other areas of their life.

Prodigious savants are those whose skills are so outstanding that they would be spectacular even in a non-impaired person. In 2009, there were fewer than 100 known such people in the world. (Treffert, 2009).

Etiology of Savant Abilities

Speculated mechanisms for developing savant syndrome include that left brain dysfunction leads to the right brain developing new abilities to compensate for a loss of function on the left, or uncovering of pre-existing right brain abilities that had been suppressed by the left brain (Treffert, 2009). Evidence for these mechanisms include:

• The reporting of a child who developed savant abilities after a left brain injury (Brink, 1980).
• The painting skills of an artist improved dramatically after a left occipital stroke (Rudzinski et al., 2023).
• The loss of function in the left anterior frontal lobe or left temporal lobe in frontotemporal lobe dementia has been associated with the development of savant syndrome (Hou et al., 2000; Miller et al., 2000).
• Males outnumber females 6:1 in savant syndrome, as compared to a 4:1 ratio in autism spectrum disorders. Since the prenatal left brain hemisphere develops later than the right hemisphere, it is speculated that it is more likely to be exposed to detrimental prenatal influences. For instance, in male fetuses, testosterone can slow growth and impair neuronal development, which likely has a greater effect on the left brain (Geschwind & Galaburda, 2003).
• Stimulation of the left frontotemporal area with transcranial magnetic pulses can block left hemispheric function and has been demonstrated to be associated with developing skills similar to those seen in savant syndrome (Young et al., 2004).

My Hypothesis

From an evolutionary perspective, it never made sense to me that individuals would possess a latent extraordinary right-brain ability that would rarely be expressed in the absence of brain damage. What evolutionary advantage would be gained by the resource expenditure required to develop such an ability were it unlikely ever to manifest?

If the right brain acts to compensate for left brain dysfunction, why would this lead to the development of extraordinary abilities rather than the resumption of usual abilities?

Experiences from my work with hypnosis have helped shape a new hypothesis regarding the nature of the right brain ability that is usually suppressed by an intact left brain.

• With hypnosis , when the conscious mind is calmed, one of my 14-year-old patients has demonstrated a savant-like ability to communicate in writing in a foreign language that he had never studied. This patient told me that he did not understand the language, but rather that his subconscious transmitted the language from “God.”
• A 13-year-old patient demonstrated the ability to write sophisticated poetry while in hypnosis (Anbar, 2021), which his subconscious stated was the result of channeling the poetry from “muses.”
• Some of my school-age patients have reported, with or without hypnosis, that they saw “visions” of people who were not from this world and yet seemed “real.” I have discussed with them that when preschool children often talk about “imaginary friends” perhaps they are similarly seeing “visions.”
• In most people, the left brain hemisphere is dominant for language (Knecht, et al., 2000). Thus, when we talk about how we consciously think or feel, it is the left brain that is speaking.
• Some studies from people whose connection between the brain hemispheres is disrupted appear to demonstrate that each brain hemisphere can think independently, although this conclusion recently has been doubted (de Haan, 2020).
• When I have taught patients’ subconscious to speak with me, after returning to conscious awareness, patients often say they do not recall the interactions with their subconscious. Perhaps this is because the left brain is not fully aware of right brain content during a state of hypnosis.
• The subconscious of one of my 13-year-old patients said it was left-handed while the patient was right-handed. (Note that the left hand is controlled by the right brain.) This subconscious said that during sports, the patient played left-handed because it was better at sports than the conscious (Anbar, 2001).

From these observations, I formed the following hypothesis about an ability of the right brain that can be activated through hypnosis or because of savant syndrome: The right brain can serve as a conduit to information from outside of the individual brain, similar to psychologist Carl Jung’s concept of how we tap into a collective unconscious (Doyle, 2018).

I speculate that in neurotypical individuals the left brain suppresses the right brain conduit ability to prevent confusion between reality and information from outside of our usual reality. Such suppression may, in part, be the result of how preschoolers in the Western world are taught to think of “imaginary friends” (which may represent images from outside of our reality) as “pretend.”

When the left brain is damaged, perhaps the conduit activity is restored, which allows individuals access to extraordinary information including that leading to savant abilities.

The existence of savants pushes us to ask whether it is possible for neurotypical individuals to tap into extraordinary abilities. The use of hypnosis may be one such route for some individuals.

Anbar RD. (2001). Automatic word processing: A new forum for hypnotic expression. Am J Clin Hypnosis . 44:27-36.

Anbar RD. (2021). Changing Children’s Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Brink T. (1980). Idiot savant with unusual mechanical ability. Am J Psychiatry. 137:250-251.

de Haan EHF, Corballis PM, Hillyard SA, et al. (2020). Split brain: What we know now and why is it important for understanding consciousness. Neuropsychol Rev. 30:224-233.

Doyle, DJ. (2018). What Does it Mean to be Human? Life, Death, Personhood and the Transhumanist Movement. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Geschwind N, Galaburda AM. (2003). Cerebral Lateralization: Biological Mechanisms, Associations, and Pathology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hou C, Miller BL, Cummings JL, Goldberg M, Mychack P, Bottino V, Benson DF. (2000). Autistic savants. Neuropsychiatry Neuropsychol Behav Neurol . 13:29-38.

Knecht S, Drager B, Deppe M, Lobe L, Lohmann H, Floel A, Ringelstein EB, Henningsen H. (2000). Handedness and hemispheric dominance in healthy humans. Brain. 123 pt. 12:2512-2518.

Rudzinkski G, Pozarowska K, Brzuszkiewicz K, Soroka E. (2023). Psychiatr Pol. Jun 17:1-11.

Treffert DA. (2009). The savant syndrome: an extraordinary condition. A synopsis: past, present, future. Phil Trans Soc B . 364:1351-1357.

Treffert DA, Rebedew DL. (2015). The savant syndrome registry: a preliminary report. WMJ . 114:158-162.

Treffert DA, Ries HJ. (2021). The sudden savant: a new form of extraordinary abilities. WMJ . 120:69-73.

Young RL, Ridding MC, Morrell TL. (2004). Switching skills on by turning off part of the brain. Neurocase . 10:215-222.

Ran D. Anbar, M.D., FAAP, is board-certified in both pediatric pulmonology and general pediatrics. He is the author of the new book Changing Children’s Lives with Hypnosis: A Journey to the Center .

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