Frustration and Regression: An Experiment with Young Children: By Roger Barker, Tamara Dembo, Kurt Lewin. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1941. 314 pp.

This monograph reports an attempt to create regression in children by means of frustration: to 'clarify the nature of regression and the condition leading to it by testing certain theoretical assumptions about regression. Second, it can be viewed as a contribution to the study of frustration.'

The experiment is based on the following assumptions: that emotional stress of which frustration is an example may lead to regression; that regression can be limited to behavior, or be a regression of the person as a whole ([B], the behavior is a function of the person [P] and the environment [E], i.e., B = F[P, E]). This makes it necessary to distinguish the directly observable 'symptoms' (B) from the underlying 'state of the person' (P). Further, regression may be temporary or permanent; may be limited to certain situations (situational) or may be established so that the person is unable to return to a previously higher level of behavior. Regression may also be partial, affecting only certain functions, or may be general, although 'any regression of specific areas does, to some degree, affect all behavior of the individual'. The authors distinguish between retrogression, 'the return to a type of behavior characteristic of a previous stage of the life history of the individual', and regression, 'a change to a more primitive behavior, regardless of whether such behavior has actually occurred within the life history of the individual'. This constitutes the main difference