A survey of psychologists' perspectives on catharsis.
A questionnaire assessing endorsement of the hostility catharsis hypothesis was developed and administered to 102 undergraduate students and 131 American and Canadian psychologists (randomly selected from 4 divisions of APA). Results indicated that students scored higher on endorsement of the catharsis hypothesis than did psychologists; females in general scored higher than males; psychologists not recently involved in research scored higher than psychologists who were so involved; and Freudian and Humanistic theorists scored higher than Behavioral theorists.
D000035:Abreaction; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D002399:Catharsis; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011584:Psychology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires