Experiencing disappointment among young people aged 17–25 years

Background. The relevance of the work is due to insufficient knowledge of adolescents’ understanding disappointment, its causes and ways of its overcoming. Objective. The study had purpose to investigate into ideas about disappointment among the young people aged 17–25 years. Study Participants. The study involved 285 people (180 girls and 105 boys) aged 17–25 years. Methods. The study implemented content analysis of mini-essays on the topic: “My idea of disappointment” including answers to the following questions: “What is disappointment?”, “What feelings did you experience when disappointed?”, “The greatest disappointment in my life.” Results. The study allowed to analyze the concepts of disappointment among young people, to identify its different types and describe the specifics of experiencing disappointment in the selected age groups. All subjects understand disappointment as a manifestation of negative emotions in response to an expected result. The study has identified three types of disappointment: in oneself, in others, in activities. When describing feelings associated with disappointment, negative emotions predominated in the 17–20-year-old group. In the 21–25-year-old group, in addition to negative ones, there were also positive feelings as grounds for revising plans and their implementation. Conclusions. In the young people aged 17–25 experiencing disappointment, the negative emotions reinforce their negative self-affirmation and destroy their confidence in the truth of their feelings towards themselves and others. Only a small number of young people can see the possibility of positive changes in a situation of disappointment, which makes it difficult to correct behavior and attitudes towards others in the process of overcoming disappointment. The results obtained allow for introducing the concept of disappointment, which affects interpersonal relationships, into the social psychology. The proposed recommendations can be used by educators and psychologists practicing support to the people of different ages aimed at overcoming frustration of disappointments.