Psychology Chapter: Frustration, Conflict, Stress, and Adjustment

Frustration, Conflict, Stress, and Adjustment

• Frustration occurs when an individual seeks to attain a goal and finds that their way to the goal is blocked by a barrier.
• Barriers to goal attainment can be classified into:
  • Physical barriers (environmental obstacles): external barriers in the environment that prevent progress toward a goal.
  • Biological barriers (personal obstacles): limitations within the individual himself, such as physical unattractiveness, handicaps, intellectual limitations, and lack of strength, energy, and skill.
  • Psychological barriers: feelings of guilt that make it impossible for some men and women to do the things they would like to do.
  • Socio-cultural barriers: restrictions imposed by other people in the social environment and the customs of social living.

Conflict

• Conflict refers to a situation or condition where two or more incompatible needs, goals, or courses of action compete.
• Types of conflicts:
  • Approach-approach conflict: occurs when two positive goals are presented at the same time, making it difficult to choose between them.
  • Avoidance-avoidance conflict: occurs when an individual must choose between two undesirable alternatives.
  • Approach-avoidance conflict: occurs when an individual is both attracted and repelled by the same goal object.
  • Double approach-avoidance conflict: occurs when there are two goals involved, each with both positive and negative valences.

Stress

• Stress is a state of tension or distress caused by a mentally or emotionally disruptive or disquieting influence.
• Sources of stress:
  • Biological deprivation: extreme hunger, for example, can cause deep physical and emotional disturbances.
  • Danger (real or imagined): such as "combat exhaustion" which is a breakdown in behavior resulting from danger experiences.
  • Threats to self-esteem: often affected by age and personality factors.
  • Overload: too much stimulation, which can lead to stress.
  • Crises and stress that accompany normal social and personal development.

Coping and Defense Mechanisms

• Coping is an active effort to eliminate or get rid of stress.
• Defense mechanisms are behavior patterns that protect an individual from pain, shame, or guilt.
• Types of defense mechanisms:
  • Withdrawal reactions:
    • Fantasy: defensive behavior used to escape from frustrations by retreating into a world of fantasy or make-believe.
    • Nomadism: continually wandering from place to place or situation to avoid a frustrating condition.
    • Repression: a defense mechanism in which certain painful thoughts or feelings are unconsciously withdrawn from awareness.
    • Regression: a form of defense coping strategy whereby a person confronts threat or anxiety by returning to an earlier stage of behavior.
    • Reaction formation: an individual adopts an attitude that is the opposite of his true feelings.
    • Apathy: a consequence of frustration characterized by listlessness, inattention, withdrawal, or indifference.
  • Aggressive reactions:
    • Direct aggression: the individual expresses hostility by an overt display of anger toward the object or person that causes the frustration.
    • Displaced aggression: involves a transfer of hostility so that a person or object other than the source of frustration bears the brunt of the individual's hostility.
    • Scapegoating: blaming another person or object directly for one's own fault or failure.
    • Free-floating anger: a prolonged reaction of extreme anger in which the hostility becomes so generalized that even neutral conditions or situations are regarded as hostile.
  • Compromise reactions:
    • Sublimation: a defense mechanism characterized by the redirection or rechanneling of urges (most libidinal or sexual) toward more socially acceptable forms of expression.
    • Compensation: a defense mechanism whereby a person endeavors to make up for a weakness in one function or area by excelling in another.

Dealing with Stress

• Direct approach: aimed at dealing with stress on the basis of reality.
• Learn to:
  • Talk it out
  • Escape for a while
  • Work off your anger
  • Give in occasionally
  • Do something for others
  • Take one thing at a time
  • Shun the superman urge
  • Go easy with criticism
  • Give the other fellow a break
  • Make yourself available