Frustration: Definition, Examples, & Principles​

By Charlie Huntington, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.

Frustration is an emotional reaction to being prevented from doing what we’re trying to do. Let’s see where frustration comes from and what can be done about it.​

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I pride myself on being understanding and patient in almost every circumstance. There is one situation where my patience fails me again and again, however, and that is being caught in traffic. There is something absolutely unacceptable to my brain about having to wait on a highway where, at other times, we drive so quickly and with such ease. I am very attached to doing things efficiently, and the loss of time and waste of energy associated with traffic—well, they frustrate me like almost nothing else.​

I’m sure you have your own big and little moments of frustration. Maybe they come when your children start to bicker with each other, when the dessert you baked comes out burnt or underdone, or when that one colleague of yours launches into another monologue during a meeting you didn’t really need to have in the first place. What do all of these situations have in common? What makes a given moment frustrating? Let’s see what the science says.​

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What Is Frustration? (A Definition)​

Frustration is the emotional experience that comes with being blocked in our attempts to reach or achieve goals we believe we should be able to attain (Anderson & Bushman, 2002). When we are frustrated, it is often because there is something in the way that we cannot control or change (Pekrun, 2006). Think of me sitting in traffic on the way home from work. Part of the frustration comes from knowing that I am powerless to make the traffic speed up. Nothing I can do will change how long it takes me to get home; I am at the mercy of forces beyond my control, unable to take action to achieve my goal of getting home on time.
 
Being frustrated is not an experience that anybody enjoys, and with good reason: It is linked to other unpleasant experiences, such as anxiety and depression symptoms (Tindall & Curtis, 2019). This is particularly the case when the things we perceive as needs go unmet despite our efforts to meet them. For example, my frustration with traffic is amplified if I’ve left myself plenty of time to make the trip. Since I believe that I did what I was responsible for—getting out the door with plenty of time—I am more likely to get frustrated if the circumstances then undercut my best-laid plans.

Opposite of Frustration​

If frustration happens when we are not able to achieve what we want, then the opposite of frustration is when we get what we want. This is usually associated with a highly pleasant emotion—perhaps some version of joy, such as euphoria (Munyo & Rossi, 2013).
​
I think words such as satisfaction and gratitude may also be considered potential opposites of frustration. I am usually frustrated by undesirable circumstances, but I am often thankful when circumstances work out better than I expected. And at the very least, we would expect to be satisfied when our goals are met, so in this sense, satisfaction can be considered the opposite of frustration (Tindall & Curtis, 2019).

Causes of Frustration

When we experience frustration, it is because we are perceiving or interpreting the situation we are experiencing in a particular way (Scherer, 2001). To understand how this works, we must consider that we perceive every situation we encounter through our own personal lens: what we value, what our are, our attitudes and opinions, etc. Certain situations, interpreted through our individual lens, will result in certain emotions.
 
In other words, we get frustrated because we react to our environments in certain ways. Let’s look at a more concrete example of this. Another situation in which I can easily get frustrated is when trying to write computer code for statistical analyses. When the test I am trying to run does not work, it is usually because I made an error in writing out the code. When I write in English, I almost never make grammatical mistakes, and I also have a belief about myself that I am an efficient and capable person. That belief is put into question every time I am unsuccessful in writing and implementing computer code. So I become threatened by the situation and start to feel angry. Then I remember that writing code is incredibly precise—any errant keystroke or omitted punctuation will spoil the whole process. This makes me frustrated, because I am working in a system that seems to allow no room for error and has rules that I simply have to follow. In other words, I am powerless within a system I cannot control or change.
 
The likelihood that we will find situations frustrating also seems to vary by our personality traits (Kuppens & Van Mechelen, 2007). If we tend to blame others for things that happen in our lives, we may become frustrated more easily. On the other hand, taking more responsibility for the situations we are in may protect us from getting frustrated. I think this makes sense: If you see yourself as a victim of circumstances, it’s hard not to get disappointed or frustrated. However, if you focus on what you can change about the situation, it may be easier to stay positive and avoid frustration.

Examples of Frustration

There are many situations or contexts that can induce frustration in us (Dow et al., 2012). A common example is when our routines or everyday activities are interrupted or interfered with. A longer line than usual at the café, realizing you forgot something important at home, or having to commute at a less convenient time—all of these changes to your routine can be frustrating.

Another category of frustrations, as we’ve already noted, focuses on when our goals or our roles in life are thwarted. For example, I so enjoy helping other people that I sometimes get just a little bit frustrated when they are entirely self-sufficient! (I’m working on letting go of my “need” to be helpful to others.) Goals we worked hard for, but do not get to achieve, are also common sources of frustration. I think of my friends who have tried to complete long trail races or hikes here in Colorado only to have the events canceled because of dangerous storms. It’s got to be frustrating to train so hard and prepare so thoroughly just to have life circumstances interfere like that.

Another category of frustration that has been studied by psychologists is that of living with chronic pain (Dow et al., 2012). People with chronic pain have often tried many methods to reduce their pain; they may be quite frustrated by a medical system that is unable to cure their pain and just as frustrated by how inconsistent and unpredictable their experiences with their pain are.

To give one example of what it means to act on one’s frustration, many child psychologists have worked hard to identify when and why parents become frustrated enough with their parenting responsibilities that they end up acting aggressively toward their children (Rodriguez et al., 2017). When parents cannot regulate their emotions effectively, whether because they lack the self-regulation skills or because they are experiencing high levels of stress, they may become frustrated enough with their children that they will try using physical or emotional aggression to change their children’s behavior.​

Frustration Emotion

It is often said in the world of psychology that there are just a few basic emotions, such as sadness, fear, and anger (Ekman, 1992). Frustration is a specific type of anger thought to arise when we don’t get the reward or result we were expecting, and we perceive the situation as unjust or beyond our control (Abler et al., 2005).

The meaning we make of a frustrating situation seems to be the determining factor in what happens next. If we are uncertain about why we did not get the outcome we were expecting, we may continue to explore the situation because we remain motivated to see whether we can still achieve our goal (Wong, 1979). However, if we believe the situation is beyond our ability to solve it, we may linger in frustration and not continue trying.

Emotions have a feeling to them—we all know what fear or sadness feels like—but they almost always have thoughts that go with them too. In the case of frustration, the accompanying thought usually involves the belief that the situation cannot be changed and/or that we cannot tolerate the situation as it is (Mahon et al., 2007). When either or both of these thoughts are present, we may become even more stressed out by the situation.

The Frustration Aggression Principle​

Almost a hundred years ago, psychologists proposed that people are aggressive toward each other as a result of being frustrated; they called this the frustration-aggression hypothesis or principle (Dollard et al., 1939). There is evidence from many fields of psychology that aggression is indeed often preceded by some form of anger or frustration. For example, one study found that when Uruguay’s national soccer team unexpectedly lost important games, crimes in the capital city of Montevideo increased significantly in the hour following the loss (Munyo & Rossi, 2013). Sadly, another study found a similar pattern of football team losses in the United States predicting rates of intimate partner violence perpetrated by men against women (Card & Dahl, 2011).
 
At the same time, psychologists have also argued (as might be clear from what we have discussed so far) that there is not simply a direct line from frustration to hurting others. Instead, it is believed that the thoughts we have about frustrating situations—our interpretation of those situations—is what can lead from a feeling of frustration to a violent or aggressive act (Breuer & Elson, 2017).​

Frustration at Work

Industrial and organizational psychologists have studied the impacts of frustration on employee behaviors, finding that frustration at work leads to all sorts of unhelpful and unhealthy behaviors. For example, one study found that the more frustrated employees were with their work environments, the more likely they were to sabotage their company’s work, be aggressive toward other employees, feel apathetic about their jobs, and waste time and materials at work (Spector, 1975). Later research indicated that it is interference with personal goals and organizational goals, leading to reactions of frustration, that predicts these behavioral responses (Fox & Spector, 1999).

Frustration Tolerance

People who are able to tolerate frustration tend to have less stress and more success in their lives (Jonassen & Grabowski, 2012). Frustration tolerance means staying committed to one’s goals and values even as one experiences frustration. People with high levels of frustration intolerance are more likely to experience depressive symptoms (Harrington, 2006). They may have unhelpful or unrealistic beliefs about their own abilities, feel entitled to things, or believe that they cannot endure being frustrated. For example, people who have traits associated with perfectionism may have low frustration tolerance because any moments of struggle suggest that they may fail at a task.​

Quotes on Frustration

• “Frustration is the first step toward improvement. It's only when I face frustration and use it to fuel my dedication that I feel myself moving forward.” — John Bingham
  
• “If you so choose, every mistake can lead to greater understanding and effectiveness. If you so choose, every frustration can help you to be more patient and more persistent.” — Ralph Marston
  
• “People need trouble—a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it.” — William Faulkner
  
• “Success is not built on success. It's built on failure. It's built on frustration. Sometimes it’s built on catastrophe.” — Sumner Redstone
  
• “Frustration is a very positive sign. It means that the solution to your problem is within range, but what you're currently doing isn't working, and you need to change your approach in order to achieve your goal.” — Tony Robbins
  

Articles Related to Frustration

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

• Anger Issues: Definition, Management, and Tips to Control Anger 
• Helplessness: Definition, Theory, & Emotions
• Overwhelm: Definition, Feelings, & Symptoms​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Books Related to Frustration

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

• The Anger Trap: Free Yourself from the Frustrations that Sabotage Your Life
• Good and Angry: Exchanging Frustration for Character in You and Your Kids!
• A More Self-Confident Man: Strengthen your self-confidence by eliminating negative beliefs, fears, and frustrations.

Final Thoughts on Frustration​

It’s worth thinking about frustration, because the better able we are to handle it, the more likely we may be to succeed (Meindl et al., 2019). Indeed, it seems that frustration tolerance could even be as important a predictor of success as things such as intelligence or grit. This means that when we get frustrated, we may be better served by looking for the ways we can continue to keep trying—by focusing on what is still in our control. We can even think of getting frustrated as an opportunity for self-growth! For more on that topic, I recommend watching the following video:

Video: How Frustration Can Make Us More Creative​

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References

• Abler, B., Walter, H., & Erk, S. (2005). Neural correlates of frustration. Neuroreport, 16(7), 669–672.
• Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2002). Human aggression. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 27–51.
• Breuer, J., & Elson, M. (2017). Frustration–Aggression Theory. In P. Sturmey (Ed.), The Wiley handbook of violence and aggression (pp. 2–12). John Wiley and Sons.
• Card, D., & Dahl, G. B. (2011). Family violence and football: The effect of unexpected emotional cues on violent behavior. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(1), 103–143.
• Dollard, J., Doob, L., Miller, N. E., Mowrer, O. H., & Sears, R. (1939). Frustration and aggression. Yale University Press.
• Dow, C. M., Roche, P. A., & Ziebland, S. (2012). Talk of frustration in the narratives of people with chronic pain. Chronic Illness, 8(3), 176–191.
• Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition & Emotion, 6(3–4), 169–200.
• Ellis, A. (1979). Discomfort anxiety: A new cognitive behavioral construct. Part I. Rational Living, 14, 3–8.
• Fox, S., & Spector, P. E. (1999). A model of work frustration–aggression. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20(6), 915–931.
• Harrington, N. (2006). Frustration intolerance beliefs: Their relationship with depression, anxiety, and anger, in a clinical population. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 30, 699–709.
• Jonassen, D. H., & Grabowski, B. L. (2012). Handbook of individual differences, learning and instruction. Routledge.
• Kuppens, P., & Van Mechelen, I. (2007). Interactional appraisal models for the anger appraisals of threatened self-esteem, other-blame, and frustration. Cognition and Emotion, 21(1), 56–77.
• Mahon, N. E., Yarcheski, A., Yarcheski, T. J., & Hanks, M. M. (2007). Relations of low frustration tolerance beliefs with stress, depression, and anxiety in young adolescents. Psychological Reports, 100(1), 98–100.
• Meindl, P., Yu, A., Galla, B. M., Quirk, A., Haeck, C., Goyer, J. P., . . . & Duckworth, A. L. (2019). A brief behavioral measure of frustration tolerance predicts academic achievement immediately and two years later. Emotion, 19(6), 1081.
• Munyo, I., & Rossi, M. A. (2013). Frustration, euphoria, and violent crime. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 89, 136–142.
• Pekrun, R. (2006). The control–value theory of achievement emotions: Assumptions, corollaries, and implications for educational research and practice. Educational Psychology Review, 18, 315–341.
• Rodriguez, C. M., Baker, L. R., Pu, D. F., & Tucker, M. C. (2017). Predicting parent-child aggression risk in mothers and fathers: Role of emotion regulation and frustration tolerance. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 2529–2538.
• Scherer, K. R. (2001). The nature and study of appraisal: A review of the issues. In K. R. Scherer, A. Schorr, & T. Johnstone (Eds.), Appraisal processes in emotion: Theory, methods, research (pp. 369–392). Oxford University Press.
• Spector, P. E. (1975). Relationships of organizational frustration with reported behavioral reactions of employees. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60(5), 635–637.
• Tindall, I. K., & Curtis, G. J. (2019). Validation of the measurement of need frustration. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1742.
• Wong, P. T. (1979). Frustration, exploration, and learning. Canadian Psychological Review/Psychologie Canadienne, 20(3), 133–144.

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