Frustration & Cognition

Frustration & Cognition

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the interrelation of frustration in response to environmental challenges and psychology. The present paper similarly attempts to briefly explore the mechanism involved in reaction to stimuli, a discussion naturally involving classical conditioning. Frustration is commonplace in everyday life, particularly in response to stressors and daily hassles. However, individuals differ greatly in their response to stress provoking situations, and in their ability to cope and deal with frustration.

From a social psychology theory perspective, ability to deal with frustration takes form in childhood. For instance, in response to a challenging task, some children may remain calm, while others become frustrated. Clearly, most people have heard the encouraging phrase: “Keep at it!”, but perseverance, while certainly valuable, does not always come easy.

Further, social psychologists note that in order to be interesting and stimulating a task must be difficult so as not to be too easy and boring, but not too difficult so as not to be too challenging and frustrating. Moreover, according to social psychology theory, frustrated need s may lead to aggression, and thus unresolved frustrated states may even predispose one to lash out and respond agressively, which in turn is likely to generate even more frustration in the long run. The same might be said about giving up, perpetuating a negative vicious circle.

Frustration. Illustration by Elena

Further, reactions to stimuli may likewise be learned and conditioned. To illustrate, classical conditioning refers to Pavlov’s experiments with dogs. Ivan pavlov was a Russian physiologist, he discovered that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell. He won the Nobel prize for his discoveries in physiology. Moreover, in the experiment, dogs would salivate (unconditioned response) when presented with food (unconditioned stimulus), then the food would be presented with food paired with the sound of a bell (neutral stimulus). After several pairings, the dogs would salivate upon hearing the bell without the food (conditioned response).

Therefore, classical conditioning is intense and may be even used to install fear of harmless and cute animals, such as white furry rabbits, as was the case with little Albert. Little Albert was a child whom an experimenter conditioned to fear white rabbits by pairing presentation of the animals together with very loud sounds (the experiment was carried out decades before ethics committees gained the power they have today in most civilized societies, luckily; the experimenter’s reputation was further tarnished by an affair with his graduate student, who also contributed to the experiment). Eventually, the fear was transferred to all white animals, and even white fur, such as fur coats and stuffed toys. Fortunately, little Albert’s mother removed him from the experiments, and with the conditioning discontinued, the effects may even have been reversed with subsequent therapy. In fact, rumour has it that Albert eventually retired to a raise farm of chinchillas!

What is more, from a neuroscience perspective, the amygdala is the brain structure most often associated with emotionally salient memories with a negative valence. Thus, emotions deemed negative, such as anxiety and fear, are commonly linked with the amygdala in the literature. The implication of these discoveries are great for disorders described in the DSM-5, such as GDA (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) and phobias. Surprisingly, phobias, such as conscious but persistent, irrational fear of snakes, are treated by a process known as desensitization, discussed in abnormal psychology. In the therapeutical approach, a fear-provoking stimulus is presented gradually, until the incumbent of the phobia stops being afraid.

From an abnormal psychology, perspective, phobias represent irrational fears. individuals with phobias understand that the fears are irrational, but remain anxious nonetheless. In turn, anxiety is unconfirmed fear, while fear is a normal, rational reaction to dangerous and threatening stimuli and events in the environment. Indeed, fearing venomous snakes is warranted. Conversely, in desensitization, a stimulus is presented in a safe environment gradually, in incremental steps. Overtime, under the supervision of a trusted, well-intentioned therapist, a person learns that the stimulus is harmless. Obviously, as stated elsewhere on the present online psychology essay database, balance is key to most life undertakings.

Thus, the essay above discusses frustration and reaction to stimuli, looking at psychological theory, including classical conditioning. Thus, the purpose of the present paper was to examine the interaction of frustration with environmental demands from a theoretical, psychological perspective.