Frustration, meaning the blocking of goal-directed behavior, is an inevitable consequence of learning to adjust to the reality of living with others
There is no single response to frustration. It leads to a number of responses including aggressive ones as well as those that are incompatible with aggression.
Aggression is best understood through the frustration-aggression hypothesis. This hypothesis is based on two complementary assumptions: the occurrence of frustration always leads to a tendency for an organism to respond aggressively. Second, whenever an organism responds aggressively, this in and of itself is evidence of underlying frustration.
Aggressive urges are consequently displaced displaced when the frustration source cannot be directly attacked… an organism may broaden its reaction to include all sorts of situations not originally involved.
An adult male extremely frustrated by his wife and unable to express aggression directly against her may find satisfaction in being hostile to his secretary. Since these aggressive responses are unrestrained, he may learn to generalize them to all his employees and others who are subordinate to him.
Directions of aggression:
Extrapunitive: individual blames the external world, reacts with anger and hostility toward others, and strikes out against them.
Intropunitive: individual blames himself, reacts with feelings of remorse and guilt, or otherwise tries to correct his own behavior
Impunity: individual passes over frustrating situations making light of the fact as if they were accidents and no one or anything is to blame
Anxiety should be distinguished from the simple word fear. Fear connotes fright attached to a specific stimulus or event. Anxiety is more diffuse and vague. Often it is difficult to pinpoint or name the source of the serious uneasiness an individual may be experiencing
Fear is immediate whereas anxiety is an anticipatory feeling. One fears something now. Anxiety is a vague foreboding, like being extremely worried about one’s ability to successfully complete college long before one is actually enrolled.
Anxiety is typically accompanied by physical symptoms. All the autonomic responses activated by emotion produce symptoms that are typical of prolonged and chronic apprehension.
Anxiety is a motivator in that the person will do nearly anything to relieve anxiety. Hence anxiety is often an effective drive to stimulate learning. But very high anxiety, like other extremes of emotion or motivation, may interfere with adjustment or learning.
As long as the defense mechanisms function adequately, helping the person adjust to anxiety, the individual is considered healthy. When the mechanisms themselves break down or dominate behavior, the person may be seriously ill
defense mechanisms intended to facilitate adjustment:
Compensation: When the personality is made anxious by a real or imagined inadequacy, an attempt may be made to overcome or make up for the shortcoming.
A short, unimpressive man may smoke big cigars, and cultivate a loud voice and bragging manner to make up for what he regards as his deficient stature. Alcoholics or addicts may be using their habits to make up for feelings of inferiority
Fantasy: to relieve the continual anxiety generated by such longings, individuals commonly “make belive” that they have attained what in reality cannot be had.
Identification: The individual torn with feelings of unworthiness, insecurity, and anxiety may seek to take on the characteristics of someone who seems more impressive or successful
Projection: the individual hides his own weaknesses, undesirable impulses, and anxieties by attributing them to others
The smoker says he cannot stop smoking because others constantly offer him cigarettes