University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga

Psychology 180 - Social Psychology - UPDEPP

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A Study on the Impact of Mental Fatigue on Frustration and Aggressive Behavior

Frustration; Aggression and Violence

Jasmine Anne S. Jarabejo

RATIONALE

Mental fatigue has been one of the few things that affects college students during their

time in University. It has affected their long-term cognitive activities, for example, difficulty in

concentrating, decreased alertness, amplified drowsiness, slow reaction, reduced academic and

work-related efficiency, disordered thinking, and many more (Li et al., 2020). These effects may

lead students into stress, especially those who monitor their academic performance and/or

achievements, which would then lead to frustration and in time, aggression. Studies have shown

that a frustrated student is a danger to, not only himself, but others (Kaur, 2019). It is but a drive

to find an outlet where they let their anger and frustration out. Aggression may be the final

output of both mental fatigue and frustration, as a study suggested that mental fatigue may be a

factor on the increased propensity in terms of outbursts of anger and even violence (Kuo &

Sullivan, 2001), and frustration is one of the main causes of aggressive displays. Thus, it is

important to know how much of an impact mental fatigue has on students to let them understand

what their triggers are, and if triggered, ways of avoiding letting it lead to violence or aggressive

behavior shall be created. This discovery may not only affect college students but also those

who have a complicated environment that involves things not going their way and/or violence.

This study can also help the researcher know more about themselves and come up with ways to

cope with frustration and have an outlet for all the things that have shouldered or are

shouldering.
University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga
Psychology 180 - Social Psychology - UPDEPP
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

● To assess the relationships between mental fatigue, frustration and aggressive behavior.

● To examine how mental fatigue contributes to frustration and aggressive behavior.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

● Does mental fatigue affect a person’s frustration?

● Does mental fatigue affect a person’s aggressive behavior?

● Is there an interaction between the impact of mental fatigue, frustration, and aggressive

behavior?

PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

Experimental Design

The researcher will use a 1x2 between-subjects factorial design for this study and also in

a qualitative design. There will only be one group of participants, with each participant going

through the mental fatigue phase of the study before undergoing the fatigue and aggressive

behavior phases.

Population

Participants of this study will be currently enrolled in one of the three (3) undergraduate

programs in the University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga:

Bachelor of Arts in Applied Psychology, Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics and Bachelor

of Science in Business Management. All students, excluding students from the third year

Bachelor of Arts in Applied Psychology and those who have already completed Social
University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga
Psychology 180 - Social Psychology - UPDEPP
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Psychology as a course, will be eligible to participate in this study. Doing this will ensure that the

study will be done effectively without the students’ awareness of the true nature of this study.

Sampling

The experimenter will make use of random sampling to recruit 20 participants, which will

ensure that each member of the population strata has an equal chance of being selected in the

study, which will also reduce the experimenter’s selection bias. Recruitment will be done online

through the use of surveys created from Google Forms or on ground for a higher probability of

getting participants.

Procedure

The experiment will be conducted through interviews, both online and in person. The

participants will be given a time slot, and it may last through a week. The interview proper will

consist of 3 phases: Phase 1 for Mental Exhaustion, Phase 2 for Fatigue, Phase 3 for Aggressive

Behavior. For the first phase, the participants will be told about the researcher’s aim which is to

determine how mental fatigue impacts both frustration and aggressive behavior in a college

student. First set of questions will be general information to build rapport with the participants.

The researcher will then ask the participants a set of questions that will indicate whether the

patient is undergoing or underwent mental fatigue during their time in college. The participants

will be given enough time to elaborate what they feel in relation to the questions. After, they will

be given a break before moving on to the next phase.

University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga
Psychology 180 - Social Psychology - UPDEPP
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For the second phase, the researcher will now ask questions pertaining to frustration and

their connection with mental exhaustion (e.g. “Do you think that your mental fatigue contributes

to your frustration?”). Then the participants will be given another break before moving on to the

final phase. The last phase will consist of the same procedure as the second phase, however, for

this set of questions, it will ask participants to think whether their mental fatigue and

accumulated frustration will lead to possible aggression or violence.

To end the interviews, the researcher will debrief the participants on what happened and

give short paraphrases and feedback on what they said during the procedure. They will also be

given a choice to withdraw from the study if they experienced any uncomfortability during the

interview and give feedback to the researcher on what they can improve in terms of doing the

study.
University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga
Psychology 180 - Social Psychology - UPDEPP
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

REFERENCES

Cuo, F.E. and Sullivan, W.C. (2024) Aggression and Violence in the Inner City: Effects of

Environment via Mental Fatigue, Water Resources Research Center. Available at:

https://wrrc.arizona.edu/sites/wrrc.arizona.edu/files/aggression%20and%20violence%20i

n%20the%20inner%20city_2001.pdf (Accessed: July 2001).

Kaur, G. (2019). Frustration Among Adolescents in Relation to their Academic Achievement.

Special Issue Sant Darbara Singh College of Education for Women, Lopon (Moga),

Volume 7. https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRTR020005.pdf

Li, G., Huang, S., Xu, W., Jiao, W., Jiang, Y., Gao, Z., & Zhang, J. (2020). The impact of mental

fatigue on brain activity: a comparative study both in resting state and task state using

EEG. BMC Neuroscience, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12868-020-00569-1