What does Alderfer's frustration-regression hypothesis suggest?

Alderfer's frustration-regression hypothesis posits that when individuals experience frustration in their efforts to satisfy higher-level needs, they may regress to focusing on lower-level needs that can provide a sense of fulfillment. This means that if someone is unable to achieve self-actualization or other higher-order needs due to obstacles or frustrations, they might instead seek to satisfy their more basic needs, such as relatedness or existence.

This perspective allows for a more dynamic view of motivation, suggesting that multiple needs can operate concurrently and that fulfilling lower-level needs can provide comfort when higher-level aspirations are unattainable. This theory recognizes the complexity of human motivation, acknowledging that needs are not strictly hierarchical or linear.

The other choices misunderstand the nature of motivation according to Alderfer's theory. For instance, suggesting that people can only focus on one need at a time oversimplifies the complexity of human motivations, while the ideas about needs being genetic and unchangeable or developing independently of life experiences do not align with the flexible and situational nature of needs proposed by Alderfer.