The Influence Of Frustration And Ego-depletion On College Student Athletes’ Aggressive Behavior:Provocation As The Moderator

The behavior of professional athletes is receiving extensive attention as the sport competition is highly professionalism and popularized, as well as developed-level broadcast skill. The athletes’ aggressive behavior not only influences participants on the court, but also brings negative effect among broader groups, such as the TV spectators, young people and admirers of certain sport stars. This thesis mainly designed two psychological experiments to investigated college student athletes’ aggressive behavior under some specific circumstances, and analyzed corresponding influential factors. What’s more, I hope the results can provide empirical supports in understanding and decreasing aggressive behaviors.Study 1 is based on the reformulated frustration-aggression theory firstly put forward by Berkowitz. I used a 2×2 between group design to trigger participants’ frustration and provocation, then observe their aggressive behavior in the laboratory context. The results showed: Provocation played a main effect significantly, F(1,56)=21.041, p=.000, partial η2=.273, and that went same with the interaction between frustration and provocation which was a marginal significant effect, F(1,56)=3.843, p=.055, partial η2=.064. Its implication meant that when provoked, frustrated college student athletes behave more aggressively than non-frustrated one. The results supported Berkowitz’s theory that frustration can’t agitate aggressive behaviors by itself.In study 2, I did a survey about the relationship between self-control and aggressiveness among college student athletes, the result showed that the two factors’ relationship was significantly positive(r= –.387, p<.01), moreover participants’ self-control could predict 15.0% of their aggressiveness(p=.000). Next, I used a 2×2 between group design to investigate the influence of ego-depletion and provocation on college student athletes’ aggressive behavior. The results told that provocation played a main effect significantly, F(1, 58)=11.058, p=.002, partial η2=.160; ego-depletion’s main effect on aggressive behavior was not significant, F(1, 58)=3.282, p=.075, partial η2=.054; the interaction effect was statistically reliable, F(1, 58)=6.139, p=.016, partial η2=.906, namely, when the participants were provoked by others, the ego-depletion group would generate aggravated aggressive behavior than non ego-depletion group, F(1, 58)=9.509, p=.003.According to the two studies below and previous research, I drew a conclusion that provocation act as moderator upon the relationship between frustration/ego-depletion and aggressive behavior. As we can see, there are many different factors that have something to do with athletes’ aggressive behavior, so in the future researchers need to consider them from multiple sides. However, researchers should keep in mind that we must follow the principle that combines diversity and consistency while doing research, and grasp one or two core factors to dig deeply.