The following is the abstract of the recent regional science fair project winner, Arpita Gulati, who was awarded the 2018 DAPA Behavioral Science Award ($100). The event was at the West District Science Fair held at Central State University on March 17, 2018
The Old and the Angry
Frustration is prevalent in everyone’s life on a daily basis no matter what field they are in or who they work with. It does not manifest in one definite form throughout one’s life; how frustration appears tends to change with the person exhibiting it. Understanding it will help people comprehend how to manage frustration however it manifests. The investigated hypothesis was if an equal amount of nine/ten and thirteen/fourteen-year-old students attempt to complete a frustration-stimulus test, then 80% of the thirteen/fourteen-year-olds will show extreme, externalized frustration, whereas 80% of the nine/ten-year olds will show mild or internalized reactions to frustration. To observe how each group displayed frustration and how their heart rate is affected (dependent variables), fifty students of each age group were individually gathered (independent variable) and instructed to complete a digital task in ninety seconds (control variables). On average, the younger group displayed frustration twenty-one times, whereas the teens externally displayed frustration only eleven times during the test. In addition, the average increase in heart rate of the younger group was 22.21%, whereas the average increase of heart rate in teens was 36.56%. Contrary to the hypothesis, this shows children tend to react externally, but after their brain develops on a massive level for the second time in their life, they switch gears to introverted tendencies. Utilizing this data to comprehend how children change as they age could revolutionize how teachers and parents approach their students and children.