John Dollard

John Dollard was an American psychologist known for his work on the frustration-aggression hypothesis. This theory, developed with colleagues at Yale University, proposed that aggressive behavior stems from the frustration of goals. Initially, it suggested that frustration directly leads to aggression, but later modifications indicated that frustration can lead to various responses, with aggression being only one possibility, often inhibited by fear of punishment. Dollard and his collaborators also applied this hypothesis to understand intergroup relations, particularly in the context of scapegoating, where frustrated groups might direct their aggression toward minority groups. Their work integrated ideas from sociology, anthropology, and psychology, becoming influential in social science research.12