Dollard, Doob, Miller, and Mowrer formulated their
frustration-aggression hy- pothesis more than forty years ago. Since
then the progress in theory of and re- search on aggression has been
very slow. Today we know that there are severe li- mitations to their
hypothesis. The development of alternative approaches has been
restricted by the neglect of sociopsychological concepts. Until a few
years ago, social psychology was at the back door of aggression
research, and even this superficial acquaintance contained too many
cognitive ideas to suit many of the influential heroes of the mainstream
of research. There are many reasons for the decline of the old paradigms
in aggression re- search, among them the failure to extrapolate from the
results of artificial experi- ments to the realities of our time. This
book goes much deeper than other texts in the area; it is also a fresh
beginning. It endeavors to reformulate the more tradi- tional topics and
strongly emphasizes the social framework of aggression. Ac- cordingly,
hostile actions must be explained from a sociopsychological perspec-
tive. It has remained for Amelie Mummendey to show the way in which
European and American research can be effectively integrated in a
comprehen- sive reader on aggression.