A model for computer frustration: the role of instrumental and dispositional factors on incident, session, and post-session frustration and mood

Frustration is almost universally accepted as the emotional outcome of a negative computing experience. Despite the wide use of the term, however, it has not been rigorously conceptualized as a factor in the study of the human–computer interface. This project sets out to explicate frustration as a pre-emotional state generated by the user’s appraisal of the interface as an impediment to goal attainment, and looks at how user characteristics, such as self-efficacy, relate to it. This project employed episode report methodology to capture data from 144 computer users’ reports of actual frustrating events as they took place. Diaries taken as users worked at their everyday tasks yield detailed data about the problems they encountered and included information about session length and an estimate of the time lost due to the experiences. Outcomes were measured as either situational or dispositional factors. Situational factors, having to do with specific events, predicted incident frustration. However, disposition variables, especially user self-efficacy, were much stronger, predicting incident and session frustration, and post-session mood. One surprising outcome was the failure of demographic variables as predictors of frustration.