Psychosomatic Medicine 6:7-16 (1944)
© 1944 American Psychosomatic Society

Dominance, Neurosis, and Aggression

An Experimental Study

¹ Division of Psychiatry, Department of Medicine, and the Otho S. A. Sprague Institute, University of Chicago

Sixteen cats were individually trained to respond to a signal by opening a food box, and were then combined into groups of four until a dominance hierarchy of food-taking was established in each group. Aggressive behavior did not appear in a dominant animal until it had been displaced downward in rank, either by competition with a more dominant cat, or by the development of neurotic inhibitions induced by a motivational conflict. Conversely, aggressivity diminished or disappeared when the group dominance of an animal was re-established by the relief of its neurosis or by the administration of drugs that temporarily disorganized the neurotic apperceptions and associations.

Animals trained to manipulate a switch to secure food on signal showed various patterns of interaction when manipulation of the switch fed another animal: some animals, when paired, alternately worked the switch for each other, while others refused to approach the switch unless each could secure its own feeding after manipulation. In some pairs the submissive animal, after a period of aggressivity, was satisfied to depress the switch a sufficient number of times to feed both its partner and itself. From these experiments and from a review of the literature it is concluded that aggressivity in a goal-competitive situation appears in animals that have once had dominant access to the goal and have then been subjected to social displacement or a motivational conflict that inhibits their goal-directed behavior. These observations may have reference to fundamental reaction-patterns significant alike for individual, comparative and social psychology.

Animals trained to manipulate a switch to secure food on signal showed various patterns of interaction when manipulation of the switch fed another animal: some animals, when paired, alternately worked the switch for each other, while others refused to approach the switch unless each could secure its own feeding after manipulation. In some pairs the submissive animal, after a period of aggressivity, was satisfied to depress the switch a sufficient number of times to feed both its partner and itself. From these experiments and from a review of the literature it is concluded that aggressivity in a goal-competitive situation appears in animals that have once had dominant access to the goal and have then been subjected to social displacement or a motivational conflict that inhibits their goal-directed behavior. These observations may have reference to fundamental reaction-patterns significant alike for individual, comparative and social psychology.

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