Frustration functions like physical pain by signaling problems needing diagnosis.

Evidence

Attribution theory (e.g., Kelley, 1967) posits that people seek to understand the causes of events, especially negative ones. This makes adaptive sense: when bad events happen, people try to diagnose why they occurred, which may indicate how to correct the problem. When goals are blocked, frustration energizes the individual to diagnose and overcome obstacles. Like physical pain, frustration is an aversive state that indicates something is amiss and motivates the individual to attend to the problem. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1579

Categorization

• DEFINE: Elegantly grounds why humans seek attributions for negative events — attribution is a corrective mechanism, not idle curiosity.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1579