There are different ways how people respond to frustration. These responses are called coping behaviors and are in the three major categories namely; the Withdrawal Reactions; the Aggressive Reactions; and the Compromise Reactions.
Responses to frustration are varied; a failing grade for example; upon receiving a failing grade some individual work harder, others give up, others blame their selves, and others blame the instructor, while the others are unconcerned.
People respond to frustration in different ways, some perform withdrawal reactions; some performs aggressive reactions while others have a compromise reactions.
In the withdrawal reaction, an individual that is suffering from frustration simply
retreat from the source of frustration either the source is a threatening obstacles or a painful dangerous situation.These retreats in frustration will manifest maybe in the form of fantasy, nomadism, repression, regression or reaction formation. A fantasy is a wishful daydreaming. Frustrated individual might escape from boredom through the use of imaginative thought.
Fantasy is a defense reaction that provides harmless respites from the sometimes conflict realities of life.
Nomadism is another withdrawal reaction wherein in an individual who suffered from frustration has a tendency to wander from place to place as the individual desires to escape from a certain frustrating condition.
Repression is another withdrawal reaction wherein an individual tends to forget one’s frustrating experience. It is motivated by forgetting and consists of a failure to recognize or remember negative experiences.
The next form of withdrawal reaction is the Regression. In Regression, an individual that suffers from frustration shows some childish quality in an attempt to revert once effective form of coping behavior.
The last form of withdrawal reaction is the reaction formation. In reaction formation an individual acts in a way that is opposite to his/her motivation. An example is an individual proving to one’s self and to others that he/she is independent rather than dependent, fearless rather than fearful or nice rather than hostile.
In the Aggressive Reaction, an individual that is suffering from frustration might attack upon people or things. These might be done by expressing it verbally as in chastisements and physically as in assault. It can be involved in a direct or indirect attack in another individual’s character or possessions, or can be expressed in passive ways such as obstructing the works of others through inattention, inaction or uncooperative behavior.
There are many forms of aggressive reactions namely; displaced aggression, scapegoating, free- floating anger, suicide and projection.
Displaced Aggression is a kind of defense mechanism from where a frustrated individual transfer his/her aggressive behavior against other person, him/herself or to the objects that may be
the cause of frustration.Scapegoating is also a kind of an aggressive behavior characterize by blaming another person or object for the own failure or fault.
The Free-Floating Anger is another aggressive behavior wherein there is a prolong reaction of extreme anger.
Suicide is a kind of aggressive behavior wherein an individual kills him/herself because of frustration. It is a self-directed displacement of aggression.
Another kind of aggressive behavior is projection. It is characterized by projecting or assigning individual’s problem, impulses, desires or thoughts to other people in order to reduce the feeling of anxiety.
There are also two types of defense mechanism that are also considered as part of aggressive reactions the “identification” and “introjection”.
In identification, an individual who is threatened merges into own self the qualities of the aggressor. In the Introjection, and individual incorporates into his/her personality the achievements as well as the qualities of the aggressor.
The last major response to frustration is the Compromise Reaction. It involves acceptance of a substitution for one that is desired. An individual might give in to the frustrating obstacles but it is only partial. An individual does not give up completely to his/her original goal.
There are different kinds of compromise reactions namely; the Sublimation and Substitution, the Compensation, the Rationalization and the Undoing.
Sublimation is considered as redirection of unacceptable impulses to socially acceptable patterns while Substitution is considered as a form of defensive mechanism where frustrated impulses are indirectly satisfied, that is without changing the quality of the desires.
Compensation is considered as defensive mechanism. In a compensation reaction, a frustrated individual can overcome what he/she feels are personal limitations through emphasizing desirable ones.
Rationalization is a kind of compromise reaction that disguises the real motives to another one.
Another kind of compromise reaction to frustration is called as Undoing. In this coping behavior, the individual makes use of cleansing rituals to be able to divert the painful feeling after doing something that makes him/her feel guilty.