Nearly all the statements just made about the usefulness of defence mechanisms can also be reversed to point up their failures. The person who depends upon defence mechanisms for protection may never be forced to learn more mature ways of behaving. The roles adopted through the mechanisms may mature ways of behaving.
The roles adopted through the mechanisms may remain unrealistic, leading to withdrawal from social contacts rather than to improved relationships with people. Rationalizations may take the form of useless rituals instead of creative effort.
Even when behavior based on defence mechanisms is socially useful it may not prove completely satisfying to the individual as long as the motives underlying the behavior remain. Actions based on such defense mechanisms never reach their goals; the drive continues, and the resulting behaviour is not fully tension-reducing
Conflicts :
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We may be unresourceful in coping with problems that is why the circumstances of life inevitably involve stress. Our motives are not and delays tolerated. Each of us develops characteristic ways of responding when our attempts to reach a desired goal are blocked. These responses to frustrating situation determine, to a large extent, the adequacy of our adjustment to life.
In this and the following two chapters we will look at the way people respond to frustration and stress, what happens when inadequate coping techniques pose a threat to mental health, and the methods used to treat abnormal behavior. Because, this area of psychology is not as firmly based on experimental data as some of the topics covered in previous chapters, the material will be more discursive and case histories rather than experiments will be used at times to illustrate points.
1. Frustration:
The term frustration has at least two different connotations in everyday speech. In one sense if refers to the blocking of motive satisfaction. When progress toward desired goals is interfered with or delayed, we say that the person encounters frustration. But “frustration” is also to describe the unpleasant emotional state that results from blocked goal-seeking, rather than the event itself.
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The individual whose car gets a flat tire as he hurries to catch a plane would probably say that he feels frustrated. Here, frustration is equated with an internal state. For our purposes, however, we will hold to the meaning of frustration as the thwarting circumstances the external events, rather than their internal consequences.
2. Environmental Obstacles and Personal Limitations:
There are many barriers to the satisfaction of motives, to the attainment of a goal. The physical environment presents such obstacles as intemperate weather, droughts, and floods. The social environment presents obstacles through the restrictions imposed by other people and the customs of social living.
Offspring are thwarted by parental denials and postponements: Mary must share her tricycle with her brother; Jon’s father will not let him have the car for a camping trip: and Jane’s parents insist that she is not old enough to live in her own apartment. The list is endless. Any society, no matter how simple, places restrictions on its members.
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Sometimes the barriers to goal satisfaction lie within the individual’s own deficiencies or limitations. Some people are handicapped by blindness, deafness, or paralysis. Not everyone can become a great musician or pass the examinations necessary to become a physician or lawyer. If goals are beyond one’s ability, then frustrations will inevitably result.
3. Restlessness and Tension:
In the toy experiment one of the first evidences of frustration shown by the children was an excess of movement; fidgeting about and generally restless behavior. This restlessness was associated with many actions indicating unhappiness whimpering, sighing, complaining etc. Unhappy actions were recorded for less than 20 percent of the children of the free- play situation but, for over 85 percent in the frustrating situation.
An increase in tension and in the level of excitement also occurs when adults are blocked and thwarted. They blush or tremble or clench their fists. Children under tension fall back upon thumb- sucking and nail-biting; adults also turn to nail-biting, as well as to smoking and gum-chewing, as outlets for their restlessness and tensions.