The Effects of Two or More Environmental Stressors on Aggressive Behaviour

The Effects of Two or More Environmental Stressors on Aggressive Behaviour

An environmental stressor is a situation, which causes a negative

emotional experience, accompanied by predictable physiological,

biochemical and behavioural changes that are designed to help us adapt

to the stressor. The three main environmental stressors are heat,

noise and crowding, all of which may result in heightened

physiological and psychological behaviour.

A large number of studies have investigated the possibility of a

connection between temperature and aggressive behaviour. Carlsmith and

Anderson (1979) found that hotter weather gives a higher chance of a

riot when they looked at disturbances in 79 US cities between 1967 and

1971. There appears to be a similar relationship between violent crime

and hot weather. Anderson's (1987) investigation supported this notion

when he found that violent crimes were more common in the hotter

quarters of the year and in hotter years. Baron and Bell invented the

'negative affect theory'. In this theory, they state that as

temperature rises, people experience negative effect that predisposes

them to aggressive behaviour that can be triggered by a frustrating

experience. A rise in temperature leads to a further rise in negative

effect, but to a decline in aggression. This is thought to be because

people reach a stage when they become too tired to of uncomfortable to

react aggressively, and instead just want to get out of the situation.

This makes what appears to be a curvilinear relationship between

temperature and aggression, which shows us that there is a peak

temperature for aggression.

Although the negati...

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...it was tiredness not the noise that caused them to become

stressed. Other experiments have confirmed Evans' conclusions by

showing a direct link.

Donnerstein and Wilson (1976) investigated whether having a sense of

control would decrease aggression. They found that who has some

control over the noise showed lower levels of aggression. This could

be because with control over noise, you can be prepared as you are

controlling it however when noise is out of your control, you cannot

prepare for anything. The experiment showed that noise had to be

combined with another negative stimulus to become aggression.

Environmental stressors (temperature, crowding and noise) can increase

arousal. This may or may not lead to aggressive behaviour, as it

depends on the nature of the situation and how the individual

perceives it.