What is Frustration?
Frustration is the feeling arising from the non-fulfillment of a desire or tendency, that is, it is the reaction to an unrequited expectation. To understand it better, we can say that it is what we feel when something we want or expect does not happen. This unfulfillment of desire generates a kind of internal tension, usually experienced as a feeling of sadness and annoyance or, in some cases, despair.
How to differentiate sadness and frustration?
It is important, especially in childhood, that parents, caregivers and educators are able to notice when the child is sad and when he feels frustrated. In adult life, this distinction is also relevant. This is because, despite having very similar symptoms, the two feelings have very different origins and consequences. When an expectation is frustrated, feelings of sadness lead to attitudes of change and a better adaptation of the subject, which is completely different from cases of Depression, for example, in which sadness is also a symptom. characteristic.
As an example, let's take the situation of a person who doesn't get the job he wanted. When there is frustration, this feeling is linked to that specific situation and can generate the desire to improve to try other jobs. In the case of a Depression, this event would be just one more reason for discouragement, since sadness is not linked to specific causes and can immobilize the subject.
Is frustration important?
Despite seeming to be a feeling arising from situations of failure, frustration is extremely important for the psychological constitution of individuals. Some authors describe frustration as necessary for child development. At bearable levels, lack, lack or disillusionment are associated with the development of the ability to postpone gratification, which is fundamental for life in society. In this sense, avoiding frustration can be one of the factors of poor adaptive training: a child who is very protected or whose desires were always immediately satisfied people may have difficulties in understanding the reality of adult existence, in which desire and satisfaction are increasingly distant and require more and more work and dedication. A child who is unprepared to endure frustration can grow into an adult who develops emotional crises for minor reasons or who is constantly feeling dissatisfied.
However, it is not possible to summarize the adaptive difficulty of adults to the overprotection of parents, since there are other factors that influence this deficient training, such as the culture and forms of organization of the society.
In the society we live in, pleasure and satisfaction are constantly worshiped and frustration appears as the worst experience. All efforts are aimed at avoiding it. Medicine strives to avoid pain, numbing its patients. Schools strive to satisfy the wishes of children and their parents. Public policies strive to produce psychological comfort, offering a sense of security that people need to not think about uncomfortable situations, like the reality in which live. In this sense, maladjustment is widespread: adults and children, unable to experience frustration, because they were unprepared for this, they are flooded with false realizations and cling to the comfort provided artificially by they. Talking about frustration is far from being reduced to the feeling of sadness or annoyance, before that, it is important to to emphasize that the ability to postpone the reward is an adaptive capacity that is being lost by most of the people.
Juliana Spinelli Ferrari
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Psychology from UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista
Brief psychotherapy course by FUNDEB - Foundation for the Development of Bauru
Master's Student in School Psychology and Human Development at USP - University of São Paulo
