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Kahn (1966) has done such a study based on the frustration-aggression theory of
aggression. In his study he angered 36 male college students and then randomly assigned
each to either a catharsis or non-catharsis condition. Physiological measures were taken
on heart rates, psychogalvanic response, skin conductance, finger temperature, muscle
tension, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. A baseline of recovery patterns was
obtained for each subject by placing his foot in 4 degree centigrade water for 80 seconds
and then obtaining his particular pattern of recovery from stress. After recovery from this
procedure each subject was angered by an ill-mannered technician who acted very crude
and vulgar but never hostile or threatening.
After a 5-minute period of anger arousal, the experimenter replaced the technician and in
the control condition merely asked the subject to sit quietly for 20 minutes. In the
experimental condition (catharsis), the experimenter expressed surprise that the
physiological measures were so high and questioned the subject about what had taken
place. He kept probing until the subject had revealed a substantial part of the arousal
procedure and had expressed his feelings of anger or annoyance. He offered the subject
vicarious counter-aggression by telling him he would have the technician's supervisor
reprimand him. This procedure took about 5 minutes and the subject was then asked to
wait quietly for 20 minutes.
Physiological measures were taken continuously for all subjects and all subjects were
given a questionnaire at the end of the experiment to determine how they then felt about
the technician. Results showed that the catharsis subjects disliked their annoyer
significantly more than control subjects; the catharsis subjects showed a significantly
slower rate of physiological recovery in all measures except blood pressure which
showed a faster rate of recovery. In general, these findings do not support the catharsis
hypothesis.