Problem Anger in Psychotherapy: An Emotion-Focused Perspective on Hate, Rage, and Rejecting Anger

This paper explores applies emotion-focused theory, for the first time, to the emotions of hate, rage, and destructive anger. The general case formulation proposed in this paper is that these emotions are always an elaboration of secondary anger. The body of the paper describes three clinical case formulations. First, problem anger is described in terms of an individual’s self-criticism. Second, we present a form of secondary anger, in which hostility and rage are reactive feelings to avoid more vulnerable (primary) experiences. An unfortunate example of this is has been described as a common underlying process in domestic violence. A alternate manifestation of secondary anger results from the deterioration of what may have initially been adaptive anger; thus, excessive arousal and the loss of meaning or focus that one’s anger embodied also leads to rage or destructive anger. Finally, the experience and expression of hate is described as a primary maladaptive and/or instrumental anger. This appears in-session particularly among those with certain personality disorders. The paper highlights implications for research and practice.     

Indirect Assessment of Anger Dispositions

Individual differences in aggressive motivation in frustration situations were conceptualized in terms of a frustration-anger association. The strength of this association was seen as being influenced by learning in the individual's frustration history and related to the individual's readiness to respond with anger. Several hypotheses were derived and tested with two groups, institutionalized delinquents and normal high school boys, using an indirect assessment technique. The technique, a set of items in story form, allowed for systematic variations of situational frustration and objective scoring of judged anger responses, but was indirect in that the subject's anger was inferred from his judgment of an imaginary boy's anger in the situation. The hypotheses received strong support from the data and the implications of these results both for the assessment technique and the theoretical statement were discussed.     

Anger Can Help: Clinical Representation of Three Pathways of Anger

Anger is a powerful emotion prevalent in therapy. An integrative model situating varied manifestations of anger within a purposive context of healing and repair following relationship trauma is needed. A first paper (Butler, Meloy-Miller, Seedall, & Dicus, 2017) approached anger as a psychological and relational construction of diffuse physiological arousal and provided a conceptual model of how the experience of offense interacts with a person's view of self in relation to other (VSIRO) in the formation of anger. Three resulting trajectories and pathways of anger were outlined. Here we provide clinical representations of these pathways—two pathways of hostile anger arising from pathogenic VSIROs (inflated, with accompanying externalizing anger, and collapsed, with accompanying internalizing anger), and a third pathway of benevolent anger, arising from a balanced VSIRO. Clinical application of the model through several vignettes illuminates its use in discriminating helpful from harmful pathways of anger and developing interventions for reshaping pathogenic anger to beneficent anger.     

Deterring Anger and Anger-Motivated Behaviors

Two experiments were carried out to explore an anger-reducing strategy based on Brehm's emotional intensity theory. According to this theory, anger can be reduced indirectly by interfering with the feeling of anger rather than by dealing directly with the source of anger. One strategy involves providing the angered person with a reason for feeling happy. We predicted that anger intensity would be reduced not only by a large reason for feeling happy, such as a large gift, but also by a small reason, like a tiny gift. A medium-size gift was expected to maintain anger at approximately its instigated level. Both experiments instigated anger by personal insult and then measured the intensity of felt anger and retaliation after either no further treatment, or a small, a moderate, or large irrelevant gift was presented. The results for felt anger and retaliation confirmed our theoretical expectations.     

The Anatomy of Anger: An Integrative Cognitive Model of Trait Anger and Reactive Aggression

ABSTRACT This paper presents an integrative cognitive model, according to which individual differences in 3 cognitive processes jointly contribute to a person's level of trait anger and reactive aggression. An automatic tendency to attribute hostile traits to others is the first of these cognitive processes, and this process is proposed to be responsible for the more frequent elicitation of anger, particularly when hostile intent is ambiguous. Rumination on hostile thoughts is the second cognitive process proposed, which is likely to be responsible for prolonging and intensifying angry emotional states. The authors finally propose that low trait anger individuals use effortful control resources to self-regulate the influence of their hostile thoughts, whereas those high in trait anger do not. A particular emphasis of this review is implicit cognitive sources of evidence for the proposed mechanisms. The authors conclude with a discussion of important future directions, including how the proposed model can be further verified, broadened to take into account motivational factors, and applied to help understand anger-related social problems.     

Toward Forgiveness: The Role of Shame,Guilt Anger,and Empathy

This research explored forgiving and its relationship to adaptive moral emotional processes: proneness to shame, guilt, anger, and empathic responsiveness. Gender differences associated with forgiving were analyzed. Participants were 138 graduate students in a large northeastern urban university. Results revealed that guilt‐proneness was positively related to Total Forgiveness, as were Empathetic Concern and Perspective Taking. A positive relationship between anger reduction and Overall Forgiveness was found. Guilt‐proneness, anger reduction, and detachment informed the process of forgiveness for women. For men, age, shame‐proneness, and pride in behavior informed the process of forgiveness. Implications and possible research are discussed.     

状态自恋与攻击行为——知觉到的威胁、愤怒情绪和敌意归因偏差的多重中介作用

采用2(自恋故事vs.中性故事)×2(威胁情境vs.表扬情境)的被试间设计对162名大学生的状态自恋与攻击行为的关系及其机制进行考察。结果发现:(1)与中性故事组相比,自恋故事能够显著激活被试的状态自恋水平;(2)与表扬情境相比,威胁情境中自恋激活组个体的攻击意向显著高于中性故事组,说明状态自恋激活能够显著增加个体的攻击行为;(3)状态自恋通过知觉到的威胁、愤怒情绪和敌意归因偏差间接预测攻击行为;(4)从总体上来说,知觉到的威胁既可显著直接预测攻击行为,也可通过愤怒情绪间接预测攻击行为。对自恋激活组,状态自恋可以通过影响愤怒情绪和敌意归因偏差间接影响攻击行为;对中性控制组来说,这种关系则不存在。本研究结果证实,状态自恋的激活能够显著增加个体面对消极反馈时攻击行为产生的认知情绪机制。     

Development of the Juvenile Justice Anger Management Treatment for Girls

Female juvenile offenders exhibit high levels of anger, relational aggression, and physical aggression, but the population has long been ignored in research and practice. No anger management treatments have been developed specifically for this population, and no established anger management treatments are empirically supported for use with delinquent girls. Thus, to alleviate anger and reduce the frequency and severity of aggressive behaviors in this underserved population, we developed the gender-specific, Juvenile Justice Anger Management (JJAM) Treatment for Girls. This cognitive-behavioral intervention was adapted from the Coping Power Program (Lochman & Wells, 2002), a school-based anger management treatment for younger children that has established efficacy and effectiveness findings with its target populations. This paper describes how the content of JJAM was developed to meet the unique needs of adolescent girls in residential juvenile justice placements. It also traces the process of developing a manualized treatment and the steps taken to enhance efficacy and clinical utility. An overview of the treatment, a session-by-session outline, an example session activity, and an example homework assignment are provided. A randomized controlled trial is currently being conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the JJAM Treatment for Girls.     

Anger style, psychopathology, and regional brain activity

Depression and anxiety often involve high levels of trait anger and disturbances in anger expression. Reported anger experience and outward anger expression have recently been associated with left-biased asymmetry of frontal cortical activity, assumed to reflect approach motivation. However, different styles of anger expression could presumably involve different brain mechanisms and/or interact with psychopathology to produce various patterns of brain asymmetry. The present study explored these issues by comparing resting regional electroencephalographic activity in participants high in trait anger who differed in anger expression style (high anger-in, high anger-out, both) and participants low in trait anger, with depression and anxiety systematically assessed. Trait anger, not anger-in or anger-out, predicted left-biased asymmetry at medial frontal EEG sites. The anger-in group reported higher levels of anxious apprehension than did the anger-out group. Furthermore, anxious apprehension moderated the relationship between trait anger, anger-in, and asymmetry in favor of the left hemisphere. Results suggest that motivational direction is not always the driving force behind the relationship of anger and left frontal asymmetry. Findings also support a distinction between anxious apprehension and anxious arousal.     

Anger, frustration, and aversiveness

The review of the literature on anger by L. Berkowitz and E. Harmon-Jones (2004) evaluates leading theories of anger for which they offer their own theory of aggression as an integration. Their article leads to a number of empirical questions.     

Anger Can Help: A Transactional Model and Three Pathways of the Experience and Expression of Anger

Anger is a significant human emotion with far‐reaching implications for individuals and relationships. We propose a transactional model of anger that highlights its relational relevance and potentially positive function, in addition to problematic malformations. By evolutionary design, physical, self‐concept, or attachment threats all similarly trigger diffuse physiological arousal, psychologically experienced as anger‐emotion. Anger is first a signaling and motivational system. Anger is then formed to affirming, productive use or malformed to destructive ends. A functional, prosocial approach to anger organizes it for protective and corrective personal and relational adaptation. In our model, threat perception interacts with a person's view of self in relation to other to produce helpful or harmful anger. Inflated or collapsed views of self in relation to other produce distinct manifestations of destructive anger that are harmful to self, other, and relationship. Conversely, a balanced view of self in relation to other promotes constructive anger and catalyzes self, other, and relationship healing. Clinical use of the model to shape healing personal and relational contact with anger is explored.     

Aristotle's Account of Anger: Narcissism and Illusions of Self-Sufficiency

This paper considers an allegation by M. Stocker and E. Hegeman that Aristotle's account of anger yields a narcissistic passion bedevilled by illusions of self-sufficiency. The paper argues on behalf of Aristotle's valuing of anger within a virtuous and flourishing life, showing that and why Aristotle's account is neither narcissistic nor involves illusions of self-sufficiency. In so arguing a deeper appreciation of Aristotle's understanding of a self-sufficient life is reached, as are some interesting contrasts between Aristotle's understanding of anger, its connections to value and our own understanding of these matters.     

愤怒有度:领导表达愤怒情绪对领导绩效的影响

领导表达愤怒情绪一定不好吗?最近研究发现,领导表达愤怒情绪对领导绩效(任务绩效和关系绩效)存在积极影响与消极影响的不一致结论。文章尝试使用双阈限模型揭示领导的愤怒情绪产生积极影响或消极影响的边界条件。进一步明确领导表达愤怒情绪的阈限是影响领导绩效的关键因素,拓展了双阈限模型对领导愤怒情绪影响其领导绩效的理论解释。     

Anger in lineup identification and creation

As an approach-oriented emotion, anger appears to affect behavioral thresholds in a range of contexts. The current work consists of three experiments examining this in the context of eyewitness identification procedures. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the relationship between a witness' anger and identification reliability, and Experiment 3 examined the relationship between a lineup creator's anger and the quality of selected lineup fillers. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that anger during an identification procedure is associated with increased risk of false identifications and reduced confidence-accuracy calibration. Experiment 3 showed that anger is associated with lower quality of fillers selected by lineup creators. Together, these experiments suggest that anger may undermine the quality of eyewitness evidence, even when the witnesses themselves are not the ones experiencing anger and even when anger is not directed at the perpetrator or suspect.     

The Relation Between Anger Coping Strategies,Anger Mood and Somatic Complaints in Children and Adolescents

Attempts to explain the experience of somatic complaints among children and adolescents suggest that they may in part result from the influence of particular strategies for coping with anger on the longevity of negative emotions. To explore these relationships British (n = 393) and Dutch (n = 299) children completed a modified version of the Behavioral Anger Response Questionnaire (BARQ), and two additional questionnaires assessing anger mood and somatic complaints. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that for both the UK and Dutch samples two coping styles, Social support-seeking and Rumination, made a significant contribution to somatic complaints, over and above the variance explained by anger mood. A tendency to repeatedly think or talk about an angering event as a way of coping seems to underlie the observed negative health effects. In addition, tentative support is given for a broader range of strategies to cope with anger than just the traditionally studied anger-out and anger-in styles.     

Anger Management

Many occupational therapy techniques and theories addressing anger have been incluenced by general misconceptions about anger within the field of psychology and the general public. Until occupational therapists develop a unique perspective for defining anger and understanding how anger affects one's ability to function in one's occupational roles, they will continue to depend upon other professions to provide information on addressing anger problems. Part one of this two-part series on anger management formulates a construct of normal anger pertinent to occupational therapy practice and identifies complexities and misconceptions which have obscured the nature of anger. The second article presents basic concepts of anger management and mismanagement, provides clinical applications of these concepts, and delineates how anger affects human occupation. To accomplish this purpose, the Model of Human Occupation was used as a framework for integrating information on anger from the social sciences into a perspective of anger useful for the occupational therapist.     

Anger,aggression, risky behavior,and crash-related outcomes in three groups of drivers

High anger drivers who acknowledged problems with driving anger and were interested in treatment were compared to high and low anger drivers who did not acknowledge problems with driving anger or want treatment. Although high anger drivers who acknowledged problems reported greater anger on two measures than high anger drivers who did not acknowledge problems, both high anger groups tended not to differ from one another and were more frequently and intensely angered when driving, reported more aggressive and less adaptive/constructive forms of expressing anger while driving, engaged in more aggressive and risky behavior on the road, and experienced more of some accident-related outcomes than low anger drivers. High anger groups did not differ from each other, but reported more trait anxiety and anger and more outward negative and less controlled general anger expression than the low anger group. The two groups of high anger drivers, however, require different types of interventions given their state of readiness for driving anger reduction. Results were also interpreted as supportive of the state-trait model of anger and construct validity of the Driving Anger Scale.     

Trait Anger and Music Perception

The Spielberger Trait Anger test was administered to 287 undergraduate college students enrolled in courses in jazz appreciation. The recording of a jazz saxophone improvisation was played for the students, and they were asked to rate its emotion. The mean trait anger score for listeners who rated the music as angry was significantly higher than the mean trait anger score of those who rated it as friendly. A small but significant correlation was found between perceptions of anger in the music and listener scores on the trait anger test. Results suggest that personality may influence perception of emotion in music and that jazz improvisation may not be reliable for communicating emotions because of wide individual differences in how its emotional content is perceived.