ABSTRACT
Competition and aggression, like altruism and interpersonal attraction, in volve social exchange in which the individual’s decisions have substantial effects on the welfare of others. Competition can be studied in the labora tory through use of experimental games, such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma game and the trucking game. These studies point to the importance of com munication, power of the participants, and characteristics of the bar gaining situation as determinants of competition. Many of the principles discovered in this research can then be generalized to instances of bar gaining and negotiation in the real world outside the laboratory. Whether accomplishment of a goal requires negotiation or not, persistence in the face of possible failure is affected by individual differences in achievement motivation. Achievement strivings can be thought of as the result of motives to approach success and to avoid failure, and the attributions a person makes for the causes of success and failure can influence both motives and behavior. Some theoretical explanations of aggression, espe cially those of Freud and Lorenz, also propose the importance of internal motives. But aggression can also be instigated and maintained by external factors, such as frustration, the transfer of arousal from other sources, or the social learning that has established violence as an effective means for dealing with problems.
