The effects of failure and depression on subsequent aggression

Two experiments assessed the effects of repeated failure on subsequent aggressive responses to increasing attack. In the first experiment, male subjects who had been assigned randomly to a treatment involving failure at a task evidence smaller increments in aggressive responses to attack than did those who succeeded at the initial task. In the second experiment, prior failure inhibited the aggressive increments to escalating attack on the part of depressed male subjects but faciliated the aggressive increments of nondepressed male subjects. The results are discussed in terms of learned helplessness theory and a belief in the ability to control the consequences one's behavior.