Describe and evaluate research (theories and/or studies) into the effects of two or more environmental stressors on aggressive behaviour.

 The negative affect escape theory suggests at high heat levels aggression is likely to occur if escape in not possible. Baron and Bell did an experiment based on temperature. They put participants who were asked to give electric shook, in rooms of different temperature. They found as the temperature increased so did the amount of electric shocks. Once the temperature reached extreme conditions, shocks decreased. Unlike the RAT this experiment shows a direct link between heat and aggression. Naturalistic observations suggest that temperature and aggression are positively correlated. However these observational studies lack control. There may be a number of other factors that may be responsible for the behaviour.

Intense levels of noise is said to be another source of aggression, either by increasing arousal or decreasing our ability to deal with frustration. Evidence has shown that loud noise makes people more aggressive if they cannot control the noise.  Donnerstein and Wilson found that those with better control over noise were less likely to give shocks (be aggressive). A negative criticism to this experiment is that shocks are not a realistic form of aggression. Just because a person gives shocks might not automatically mean they are being aggressive. Noise may help to ‘trigger’ aggression but does not cause it directly. Glass and Singers experiment showed that participants made the most mistakes when the noise was very loud, was random (unpredictable) and when they had no control over it. Loud noise probably leads to lack of concentration which then turned into frustration when they couldn’t do the task right.

Both noise and heat lead to physiological arousal which leads to aggression. However, this may depend on your interpretation of the arousal, for example, noise such as music can be uplifting, fun and calming. In this case, noise could lead to reducing aggression rather than causing it Ie. classical music. Heat too does not only cause people to be aggressive, during summer people tend to be more content rather than winter. Other studies argue aggression is a biological response to the production of testosterone rather than temperature itself.