Term of Award

Spring 1996

Degree Name

Master of Science

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Edward W. L. Smith

Committee Member 1

Richard L. Rogers

Committee Member 2

Daniel G. Webster

Abstract

Research has indicated that when frustrated individuals are given the opportunity either to aggress physically or verbally against their source of frustration, their physiological arousal, which resulted from frustration, decreases to a level comparable to a pre-frustrated level. The current investigation sought to test the hypothesis that fantasy behaviors including fantasizing about the source of frustration and enacted fantasy of talking to the source of frustration would lead to significant decreases in psychophysio1ogica1 arousal when compared to a no fantasy control group. The results of a 2 (time: post-frustration, post-treatment) X 4 (treatment: control, "talking about," fantasy, "talking to" enacted fantasy) mixed factorial ANOVA indicated a significant decline in heart rate from the postfrustration to post-treatment times, as evidenced by a main effect for time on heart rate, £(1, 28) = 14.23, £ = .001. No other significant differences were obtained between any of the treatment groups in their level of psychophysio1ogica1 arousal. However, there was a significant reduction in the amount of frustration felt by the participants from the post-frustration to the posttreatment times, F(1, 28) = 44.40, £ = .001, as measured by the Satisfaction Questionnaire.

Copyright

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