Published for Advertising & Marketing Research Professionals by Beta Research Corporation

Frustration
by Carl Kossoff
From a February speech To N.O.I.P.

When progress toward a goal is blocked and the underlying tension unresolved, we speak of frustration. The thwarting of needful, goal-directed behavior is a very common occurrence in everyone's social activities especially in times of fiscal crisis and job down-sizing such as we are now facing.

During the course of the past year or two, I've had many questions directed at me which basically ask "What frustrates our motives?" The specific situations that bring about frustrations are, of course, endless, but they can all be traced to four main categories of sources:

1. The Physical Environment - These provide the most obvious types of obstacles to goal achievement, e.g., the thirst or need of a person lost in the desert without water is frustrated by the physical absence of water and the physical distances to the nearest supply.

2. The Biological Limitations - e.g., a man may be ugly and thus not able to win a lover or a mate; one might not have the necessary intelligence to pass through medical school and thereby satisfy the need to be a doctor.

3. Psychological Complexity - Humans are not subject to only one stimulus at a time or required to make only one response at a time. Man (and woman) is remarkably complex existing at every moment in a number of simultaneous overlapping psychological situations. For example, a man may wish to be married and, at the same time, desire not to leave his mother. One may have a need for economic security in a job and not be able to meet a longing for travel and adventure.

4. The Social Environment - This is probably the most important source of deep and persistent frustrations and the most significant for social behavior. They might also be the most resistant to remedy. For example, society sets up an economic system requiring that man satisfy essential needs through money and then make the acquisition of money a difficult, and in times such as these, impossible act.

Therefore, the sources of frustration are many. What are its consequences for the individual? Should you be interested in a further discussion please call or write me.