The Study Of Behavioral Frustration On The Example Of American Sitcom "Friends"

The behavior I chose to observe was frustration. It came into interest because on a day to day basis, whether you are out in public, at the office, at school or even at the home there are times when one encounters frustration. One encounters or becomes frustrated can because of you, another person or no one in general. No one really takes this behavior into account and really focuses on what it is and how it differentiates from just plain anger or aggression.

Participants

Participants were chosen from the American television sitcom Friends, in which included six friends who were in their 20’s-30’s who all lived in New York, Manhattan. This study was focused on season 6 episode 6: “The One on the Last Night” starring all members Rachel Green, Monica Geller, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing and Ross Geller. Rachel is portrayed as someone who is spoiled, but very caring and likeable. In the show she reunites with her best friend from high school Monica and moves in with her.

Monica is Ross’ younger sister and as mentioned before Rachel’s best friends. She is a chef and works at a various restaurants. She is described as the mother of the group, and is known for being compulsive. Phoebe can be seen as a goofy and sweet masseuse who was homeless and often tells about what it was like to live on the street. Joey is a friendly, but not so bright actor, who struggles with his career. He is also known as a ladies’ man. Chandler is best friends with Joey and throughout the course of the show gets into a relationship with Monica. He has a sarcastic sense of humor and often has a lot of bad luck. Lastly, Ross is a paleontologist and is the smartest out of all his friends. However, also comes off as really clumsy and odd.

Materials

The materials that were used while conducting this observation was a datasheet containing 22 one-minute intervals on one column and another empty column for the tally marks when observing frustration in the participants. Additionally, a laptop was needed and was used to play the episode from Friends on Netflix and next to it a phone with the stopwatch displayed to keep track of the time intervals on the datasheet.

Procedure

In the beginning of this observation, the easiest part was choosing how I was going to conduct it. Would it be observing the behavior in real-life or in a movie/ TV show? When it was decided that the television sitcom, Friends, was being used it was then difficult to decide on a behavior that can be measured overtime. I came up with frustration and defined what it was and what it may look like if someone was to try to observe it. The episode was chosen at random so the data wouldn’t be biased or messed with. In order to measure this behavior, the 22-minute long episode was divided in 22 intervals of one minute. To keep track of the time interval while watching the show a stopwatch was set at the same time the episode started to know when to switch to the next minute. The tally marks were based on when each different cast member showed signs and expressed frustration based on the operational definition that was defined. I created the datasheet on a Word document, and split the screen between the Netflix browser and the document to be able to insert my tallies during my observation.

Measures and Coding

There are many signs of frustration and even many combined together that one may find. A few aspects to look at when determining a person is frustrated and showing signs of frustration: the facial expressions, hands and arms, posture, and even breathing pattern. As someone becomes frustrated, you may first see the effects in their face. There may be uncontrolled expressions of disgust or discontent in their face. The frustration in the face may go as far as biting the lip, compressed lips, or rolling their eyes. In some instances, the person may just shake their head “no” and look at the person or even look away from the person that is the “cause” of the emotion. If they become frustrated you may see their eyes staring hard and long on the one who made them like that or gave them a reason to be that way. In addition, you may see their hands and arms making sharp and fast movements.

The person may push away their frustrations or throw their hands up in the air and raise their voice. The movements that you may see with the arms and hands may seem frantic, in some instances, the frustrated person may not even move their arms and they just may be folded. When you see the posture and the movements of the body of a frustrated person the emotion may cause them to stand straight up. The chest may be puffed up also as their frustration increases and you may see them take deep breathes.

Discussion

In observing frustration as a behavior in the television sitcom Friends there were several patterns I noticed as I went along my data sheet and graph that I created. The frustration in the cast members in this episode was not with themselves, but with each other. In addition, to this I found that the highest point of frustration was developed in a gradual manner and reached its highest peak and then gradually calmed down. In the episode, both Rachel and Monica and Chandler and Joey were both spending their last night together as roommates and obviously in the process of moving problems can arise. In this case, Chandler knew that moving out was going to leave Joey in a fairly tight financial situation. Of course, being his best friend, he was concerned and wanted to lend him a hand, however Joey refused and insisted that he would be alright.

Throughout the episode Chandler tried different ways to try to trick him and somehow be “forced” to pay Joey a certain amount. He found it difficult to put himself in that situation and got frustrated that he couldn’t play him. Chandler showed this by rolling his eyes, changing his breathing pattern by kind of huffing and puffing. In addition, at some points when Joey wasn’t looking he would raise his hands up when he wouldn’t fall for his set ups. Chandlers frustration is depicted as rather low specifically the 5:00-9:00 minute period. While this happened in Joey and Chandlers apartment in Monica and Rachel’s was a different story. Monica and Phoebe help Rachel pack, while moping around about how much they would miss each other, when Phoebe decides to suggest that they talk about things they won’t miss about each other.

Monica and Rachel start going back and forth at each other indirectly calling each other out on their bad habits and pet peeves. As this continues, Monica uses her facial expressions to show her frustration by keeping her eyes locked on Rachel in trying to get her sense of urgency that she leaves while Rachel continues to talk and raise her voice. They began to make quick sudden movements while they “packed” and also stopped in between to keep their eyes on each other and would stand straight in a firm stance and either raised their arms while they bickered back a forth or made grunting noises. Meanwhile, Phoebe is in the middle who also became frustrated because she was trying to calm them down and they weren’t listening to her. She also raised her voice and arms upwards in attempts to get their attention somehow and tell them to stop

The female characters in this episode seemed to express their frustration more openly and obvious to each other than unlike the male characters who subtly and indirectly expressed their frustration.