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In psychology, frustration is a common emotional response to opposition, related to
anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, su ...
,
annoyance Annoyance is an unpleasant mental state that is characterized by irritation and distraction from one's conscious thinking. It can lead to emotions such as frustration and anger. The property of being easily annoyed is called irritability. ...
and
disappointment Disappointment is the feeling of dissatisfaction that follows the failure of expectations or hopes to manifest. Similar to regret, it differs in that a person who feels regret focuses primarily on the personal choices that contributed to a ...
. Frustration arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of an individual's will or goal and is likely to increase when a will or goal is denied or blocked. There are two types of frustration: internal and external. Internal frustration may arise from challenges in fulfilling
personal Personal may refer to: Aspects of persons' respective individualities * Privacy * Personality * Personal, personal advertisement, variety of classified advertisement used to find romance or friendship Companies * Personal, Inc., a Washington, ...
goals A goal is an objective that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve. Goal may also refer to: Sport * Goal (sports), a method of scoring in many sports, or the physical structure or area where scoring occurs ** Goals, the goal frame in ...
,
desires Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like "wanting", " wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of aff ...
, instinctual drives and needs, or dealing with perceived deficiencies, such as a lack of
confidence Confidence is a state of being clear-headed either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Confidence comes from a Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having ...
or
fear Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...
of social situations.
Conflict Conflict may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton * ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne * ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...
, such as when one has competing goals that interfere with one another, can also be an internal source of frustration or annoyance and can create
cognitive dissonance In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environmen ...
. External causes of frustration involve conditions outside an individual's control, such as a physical
roadblock A roadblock is a temporary installation set up to control or block traffic along a road. The reasons for one could be: *Roadworks *Temporary road closure during special events *Police chase *Robbery * Sobriety checkpoint In peaceful circumstances ...
, a difficult task, or the perception of wasting time. There are multiple ways individuals
cope The cope (known in Latin as ''pluviale'' 'rain coat' or ''cappa'' 'cape') is a liturgical vestment, more precisely a long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colour. A c ...
with frustration such as
passive–aggressive behavior Passive-aggressive behavior is characterized by a pattern of passive hostility and an avoidance of direct communication. Inaction where some action is socially customary is a typical passive-aggressive strategy (showing up late for functions, st ...
,
anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, su ...
, or violence, although frustration may also propel positive processes via enhanced effort and strive. This broad range of potential outcomes makes it difficult to identify the original cause(s) of frustration, as the responses may be indirect. However, a more direct and common response is a propensity towards aggression.


Causes

Frustration originates from feelings of uncertainty and insecurity which stems from a sense of inability to fulfill needs. If the needs of an individual are blocked, uneasiness and frustration are more likely to occur. When these needs are constantly ignored or unsatisfied, anger, depression, loss of self-confidence, annoyance, aggression, and sometimes violence are likely to follow. Needs can be blocked two different ways; internally and externally. Internal blocking happens within an individual's mind, either through lack of ability, confidence, conflicting goals and desires, and/or fears. External blocking happens to an individual outside their control such as physical roadblocks, difficult tasks, or perceived waste of time, especially when those roadblocks or challenges were unexpected, or if the individual expected the goal to be easy to accomplish. Frustration is usually less when an individual expected, or knew beforehand, that the goal would be "challenging." Some people are predisposed towards feelings of frustration, indexed in terms of
temperament In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes. Some researchers point to association of temperam ...
(frustration) in adolescence, and neuroticism in adulthood. Temperamental frustration is associated with perceptual alterations including changes in perceived relationship affection. Frustration can be classed as a mental health problem–response behavior and can have a number of effects, depending on the mental health of the individual. In positive cases, this frustration will build until a level that is too great for the individual to contain or allow to continue, and thus produce action directed at solving the inherent problem in a disposition that does not cause social or physical harm. In negative cases, however, the individual may perceive the source of frustration to be outside their control, and thus the frustration will continue to build, leading eventually to further problematic behavior (e.g. violent reaction against perceived oppressors or enemies). Stubborn refusal to respond to new conditions affecting the goal, such as removal or modification of the barrier, sometimes occurs. As pointed out by
J.A.C. Brown ''J.A.C.'' is the fourth studio album by the Austrian band Tosca, which was released in 2005 on Studio !K7 !K7 Music is a music company based in Berlin, Germany that focuses mostly on electronic music. The name is an abbreviation of the compa ...
, severe punishment may cause individuals to continue non-adaptive behavior blindly: "Either it may have an effect opposite to that of reward and as such, discourage the repetition of the act, or, by functioning as a frustrating agent, it may lead to fixation and the other symptoms of frustration as well. It follows that punishment is a dangerous tool, since it often has effects which are entirely the opposite of those desired"..


Frustration tolerance

Frustration tolerance is one's ability to resist becoming frustrated when facing difficult tasks. Having a
low frustration tolerance Low frustration tolerance (LFT), or "short-term hedonism," is a concept utilized to describe the inability to tolerate unpleasant feelings or stressful situations. It stems from the feeling that reality should be as wished, and that any frustrati ...
is related to trait anger and a higher level of frustration tolerance is related to lower levels of anger and longer persistence on difficult tasks. For example, a child with a high frustration tolerance may be able to deal with repeated challenges and failures without experiencing significant frustration. The child with a low frustration tolerance can be quick to experience frustration when asked to perform tasks of moderate difficulty.


See also

* Aggression *
Anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, su ...
* Depression *
Disappointment Disappointment is the feeling of dissatisfaction that follows the failure of expectations or hopes to manifest. Similar to regret, it differs in that a person who feels regret focuses primarily on the personal choices that contributed to a ...
*
Frustration–aggression hypothesis The frustration–aggression hypothesis, also known as the frustration–aggression–displacement theory, is a theory of aggression proposed by John Dollard, Neal Miller, Leonard Doob, Orval Mowrer, and Robert Sears in 1939, and further develo ...


References


External links


Frustration
{{Authority control Emotions Human development Interpersonal relationships Personal development Personal life