ANGER

• Anger is an emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or

something which has done something wrong to the individual
deliberately.
• Anger is a natural adaptive response to a situation where the
individuals perceive some threat.certain amount of anger is essential
for the survival of all living beings. Anger essentially helps us to fight
and back and to defend ourselves when we are attacked.
• While understanding the nature of anger ,it is essentially to
understand the various definitions of anger depend on different
perspectives of perceiving anger.
The most significant ideas that are
associated with anger are:
• 1) Anger is the emotional state associated with a wish to hurt
someone
• 2) As per the functional view,anger is related to self-defense or to the
overcoming of obstacles that stand in the way of reaching a goal.
• 3) Anger is experienced when the individual feels he or she can still
influence the situation or cope with it.
• 4)Stimulus response viewpoints specifies that it is typically a response
to an unpleasant real or imagined stimulus
• Anger is a drive it is associated with a compulsion to respond to
whatever caused it.It is related to one’s psychological interpretation
of having been offended,wronged or denied and is a tendency to
react through retaliation.
• It is a strong emotional response to perceived provocation.
• It is an emotion characterizied by antagonism towards someone or
something which has done something wrong to the individual
deliberately.
• There are different ways in which anger is classified.It depends upon
the intensity,causes style of expression and individual’s personality
related to anger.
Three types of anger are recognised by
psychologist .First two are episodic
• 1) Hasty and sudden anger----It is connected to the impulse for self-
preservation.Humans and animals show it when trapped.

• 2)settled and deliberate anger-----It is a reaction perceived

intentional harm or unfair treatment by others.

• 3) Dispositional----It is related more to character traits like

irritability,sullness and churlishness.
• Some other experts have given passive and aggressive anger.in passive anger
the person is aloof,blames oneself, and expects failure.Agrressive anger leads
to forceful fast action to harm others.
• These individuals blame others and neglects others rights.
• With refrence to intention there are three types of anger.
• 1) when anger is reaction
• 2)Second when anger is utilized for for self-perseveration
• 3) third when the intention is dispositional
• As far as expressions are concerned ,anger in and anger out are distinguished
by researchers.In anger out the expressed anger is oriented towards others
and in anger in it is turned inside the individual.
Causes of anger
• Why is it that some people become more angrier more easily and
more frequentely?
• There are individual differences regarding the causes of anger.it is
provided in scientific research that there are individual differences
even among young children regarding anger.
• some are more irritable and get angry very easily while in the same or
similar situations others may not.it is concluded that there are some
genetic and physiological causes for anger.
CAUSES OF ANGER
• 1)Internal events---It involves thinking and worrying about personal setbacks or
rethinking about injustice done by others.even memories of events when one
was angry result in anger.Anger and blame generally accompany each
other .However blaming an individual is not necessary for anger.we may blame
the environment as well.
• 2)EXTERNAL EVENTS----for example a bus conductor who refused to return your
change even when it is available,delayed metro train,or blocked roads due to
heavy rain.
• 3) GENDER----In Indian culture male members are expected and accepted to be
very prone to anger.It is a socially approved behaviour pattern of males.According
to them,it is the best way to control family members and subordinate staff.the
expression of anger can be used as manipulation strategy for social influence.
TYPES OF ANGER EXPRESSION
• 1)LOW FRUSTRATION TOLERANCE----Low frustration tolerance or low inconvenience
tolerance or annoyance tolerance are basic reasons for anger.if the situation is somewhat
unjust,individulas get furious.

• 2)REMOTE EVENTS---Anger can be of multicausal origin,some of which may be due to

remote events;we generally find out only one cause for our anger.Anger experiences are
interrelated to environment stimulin and temporal context.

• 3) PERCEIVED INTENTION OF OTHERS--- Angry persons usually find the causes of their
anger in an intentional,personal and controllable aspect of another person’s behaviour.this
explaniation is based on the intuitions.these intuitions and interpretation of cause effect
relations of angry person may not be accurate as he or she can’t objectively analyze and
evaluate these things.in a way,the angry individual also loses the self-monitoring capacity.
• One leading theory regarding the causes of anger is Berkowitz’s
(1969) coginitive neoassociationistic model of anger generation.It
states that either pain/discomfort or believing that someone has
hostile intent towards the individual causes anger.
• However,generally situations that are unpleasant,unfair and
intentionally caused by someone else also leads to anger.
• ACCORDING to the appraisal theory of aggression the appraisal of
hostile intent is necessary for anger and adding pain or discomfort will
increase the anger.
• Sara was upset from the morning.She was very angry because of
mother’s behaviour.Her mother had brought a sweator for her which
was slightly short.Sara never wanted a short sweator.She started
blaming her mother and accusing that she has intentionally brought
such a sweator for her.Sara told she can’t understand today’s fashion
and is not bothered about her.Mother also got angry and blamed Sara
as she is not sharing any responsibility of household chores.Both of
them started quarrelling.
• Children especially infants become frustrated and then angry then
perhaps aggressive without any appraisal of hostile intent.Most
researchers believe that very young children do not attributing
blame.However,adults are more likely to add coginitive component to
their experiences of anger and more often attribute blame.
• 4)ANGERS EXPRESSED BY OTHERS---As is commonly observed in day to
day life anger precipitates anger,it spreads like action and reaction.For
example road rage or quarrels when one is standing in a queue and an
individuals tries to go ahead.

• 5) BIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS----Some biological mechanisms are

responsible for excessing anger and aggression.Damage to the prefrontal
cortex of the brain is linked with increased aggression.It is also reported
that imbalance of the hormone of testosterone and the neurotransmitter
serotonin also causes excessive anger.The part of the brain that is
activated due to anger is the lateral orbitofrontal cortex.
CONSEQUENCES OF ANGER
• 1)PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES—Like other emotions anger is also accompanied by
physiological and biological changes.physiological response to an anger include an
increase in the heart rate,preparing the person to move and increase of blood flow to
the hands,preparing them to strike.perspiration increase when anger is intense.the
relese of glucose stored in liver and muscles as glycogen results due to anger.In
anger,the pituitary gland also influences testosterone levels which in turn affects
anger again.
• Hormonal problems also results in anger and aggression.Excess testosterone among
male members lead to anger and aggression.prenenstual hormonal disturbances in
females also lead to irritation,anger,aggression and anxiety as well as mood
swings.imbalance of the neurotransmitter serotonin is also reported to anger and
aggression.as far as physiological correlates of aggression are concerned,it is reported
that consumption of alcohol,amphetamines and cocaine eads to aggression.
COGINITIVE EFFECTS
• We generally describe a person who is very angry as being “blind with anger”
which obviously means that his or her perceptions are distorted and he or
she cannot process the information properly.Anger makes it difficult to think
appropriately and is detrimental to one’s physical and mental health.
• There are harmful effects of suppressing anger.An angry person can very well
be mistaken because anger causes a loss in the self-monitoring capacity and
the capacity to observe objectively.
• Anger in it’s strong form impairs one’s ability to process information and to
exert coginitive control over one’s behaviour.an angry person may lose his or
her objectivity,empathy,prudence or thoughtfulness and may cause harm to
other’s
• An angry person focusses attention only on anger-causing events.Anger
leads to the anticipation of more things which lead to anger.For example
even if your friend always help if he or she fails to do so recently,you may
forget about what he or she had been doing but just concentrate on what
he or she has done just now.
• Anger also affects trust negatively and less positive qualities are seen in the
person who is blamed for anger.Correspondence bias or the tendency to
blame a person’s behaviour more on his or her nature than on his or
circumstances results from anger.you may blame your brother for coming
late and think he is irresponsible,when actually it is due to punctured tyre
of his two wheeler that he is late.anger generates more negative opinions
and prejudices about others.
• Angry individuals process information in such a way that sterotypes
become prominent.
• In anger superficial impression is focussed on and analysis of details is
not done.an angry person tends to place more blame on another
person for his or her own misery.once he or she accepts that idea,it
again generates more blame on that person.this goes on and on.
BEHAVIOURAL CHANGES
• Body language,facial expressions,physiological response and at times
as aggression and violence ,loud sounds.
• Anger is not equal to aggression.there is a sharp distinction between
anger and aggression.however excessive anger directly leads to
aggressive behaviour.
• The pain or discomfort resulting from an specific event or evaluation
of someone’s behaviour as hostile may lead to aggressive behaviour.