Jessie's car had a flat tire in the rain. After she managed to fix it, she arrived home late only to have a parking spot just in front of her apartment taken by a faster driver. Coming home, she kicks her pet cat who is waiting at the door. Jessie's behavior is perhaps most easily explained in terms of

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Jessie's car had a flat tire in the rain. After she managed to fix it, she arrived home late only to have a parking spot just in front of her apartment taken by a faster driver. Coming home, she kicks her pet cat who is waiting at the door. Jessie's behavior is perhaps most easily explained in terms of the frustration-aggression theory.

We are talking about this frustration-aggression theory developed by Dollar, Miller, and Sears in a book called "Frustration and Aggression," written in 1939. They tried the explain the aggressive conduct of people when they get to the extreme of anger and they have to take that frustration through aggressive conduct. It is not a though reaction but an unconscious way to express their anger, as was the case of Jessie's behavior.