Thoughts on Anger

In 1979, I introduced my dissertation with the statement “anger is one of the least researched and least understood of all human emotions.”  Since that time there has been a significant amount of studies dealing with anger.  I, too, have had the opportunity to research anger with a variety of populations.  My most formal and challenging study took place in the federal prison system.  I worked with three large groups of federal inmates who acknowledged significant problems with anger, hostility and aggression and who achieved significantly high scores on tests of hostility and personality disturbance.  Since those challenging days I have worked with other men accused of committing violent crimes against others.  I have used the data collected from these extreme groups to compare to some more recent less formal studies among corporate executives and managers, unmarried men and women, married and unmarried couples, and children.  As suspected, I found expressions of angry feelings in all groups, from the angry inmate to the twenty-four-month-old child.

Anger is defined as a negative, subjective feeling response that includes a negative evaluation (thoughts) and a related physiological arousal, regarding some external event and/or memory or image that is created internally.  Anger is an emotive feeling response, not an opinion.  Angry thoughts lead to angry feelings.  Anger is always valid; however the thoughts and images that create the anger might be very invalid and irrational.  To prevent, alter or eliminate angry feelings, it is recommended that we challenge the validity of our thoughts and beliefs.

Below are some points that might be interesting and useful:

• The physiological components of anger are highly associated with many physical illnesses as well as sudden cardiac arrest (in some patients).

• Anger reduces attention and concentration abilities on various tasks.

• Anger negatively impacts judgment and abilities for effective problem solving.

• Individuals who learn to rely upon expressions of anger to make their point or to motivate others, tend to rely more frequently on anger and less on other interpersonal skills or methods of articulation and persuasion.

• Anger creates a deceptive and erroneous sense of power and potency in many individuals who learn to enjoy certain aspects of the anger experience while it is occurring.

• Relative to most other emotive feeling states, anger is very “cost” ineffective.  It creates deficits in physical health, emotional health and in interpersonal relationships.

• Many individuals hold sacred various erroneous and invalid concepts about anger, its effects and methods to control it.  For example, “others make me angry”; “if I hold my anger in, it will hurt me or come out later”; “it is better to express my anger at all costs because that’s how I truly feel”; “if I do some sort of physical exercise or aggressive act, I will deal with my anger effectively”.

D. Jerome Meers, Ph.D.

Consulting Psychologist