Outline and evaluate research relating to the effects of two environmental stressors on aggression

Authors Avatar

Kirsty Dunlop

Outline and evaluate research relating to the effects of two environmental stressors on aggression

On environmental stressor on aggression is temperature. It has been found that high temperature causes an increase in a person’s level of arousal. High temperature can make a person agitated or irritable, thus when they encounter a situation that causes stress their levels of arousal increase which consequently increases their levels of aggression. Palmarek and Rule (1979) conducted a study in which they asked participants to do tasks in either a high temperature or a comfortable temperature. It was found that greater aggression occurred when there was moderate arousal. When there was low or high arousal, aggressive behaviour was reduced. When the temperatures became exceptionally high, the participants became more interested in finishing the task rather than prolonging the situation with aggressive altercations.

However, a problem is that Anderson and Anderson blamed demand characteristics for the findings observed in Palmarek’s study. This means that the findings may have been influenced by the fact that the study was conducted in a laboratory environment, therefore the participants would not be reacting in the same way as they would if they were in a natural environment. This is problematic as the findings may not be valid as they did not measure what they intended to measure.

Join now!

In contrast to this, Palmarek’s study is supported by Baron and Bell (1976). They studied how the heat affects the willingness to give electric shocks to another person. They found that the level of aggression increased between 92F and 95F, and any temperature higher than this resulted in a decrease of aggression. The reason for this may be down to the extreme stress caused by the temperature as the participants could not cope with the reactions of the person receiving the shocks in addition to the extreme heat. This supports Palmarek’s study as it gives scientific evidence to back ...

This is a preview of the whole essay