− | Frustration results when a situation fails to produce an outcome that is line with the individual’s expectations. It is believed that frustration has the same emotional basis as fear, with the difference that in humans there is an ability to label the emotional experience differently according to the kinds of events that precede the emotional state. In other words, we are able to label frustration differently from fear only because we are able to rationalise the circumstances leading up to the frustration. '''Frustration is also able to evoke the same kinds of behavioural responses as fear, including escape and aggression'''. | + | Frustration results when a situation fails to produce an outcome that is line with the individual’s expectations. It is believed that frustration has the same emotional basis as fear. '''Frustration also evokes the same kinds of behavioural responses as fear, including escape and aggression'''. Being more cognitively complex, humans perceive frustration differently from fear because we are able to rationalise the circumstances leading up to the emotional response. |
− | Expectations are conditioned by previous experience, with the heaviest emphasis on experience gained during the [[Feline Socialisation|sensitive period]]. Anecdotally, there is an association between hand rearing and frustration-related aggression. This presumably results from '''inappropriate expectations''' about human contact and some deficiency during the weaning process in terms of teaching kittens to cope with the withholding of potential reward. The process of transferring from a liquid to a solid diet is successfully accomplished during hand rearing but the behavioural component of the weaning process, which is designed to teach the kitten to be an independent adult, is often lacking. | + | Expectations are conditioned by previous experience, with the strongest emphasis on experience gained during the [[Feline Socialisation|sensitive period]]. Anecdotally, there is an association between hand rearing and frustration-related aggression. During weaning, mothers progressively withhold an increasing proportion of milk, leaving the offspring frustrated and driven to seek other sources of food. Hand fed kittens are often fed to satiation, so that this early experience of frustration does not occur. This type of feeding may lead to '''inappropriate expectations''' about feeding and human contact. |