Anger - What is Anger?
Anger is a normal, biologically "hard wired" emotion that
everyone experiences from time to time. It is a reaction to different
events (such aoccurringness), either occuring at the time, remembered from
our past or anticipated in the future. When we become angry, our
thinking and feelings change, our physical arousal and tension level
increases and we start to behave differently from the time when
we feel relaxed.
Contrary to popular belief, anger is not an
automatically "bad" or destructive emotion. Anger has
positive and negative functions and depending on how we relate to our
anger, we either experience its positive or negative
attributes.
The Positive Functions of Anger
When managed well,
anger will not cause problems or difficulties. In fact, people are
entitled to feel angry and when it is under control it
can provide a positive and informative personal experience.
Consider the following:
-
Anger Provides Energy
- When
anger is under control it can provide physical and mental energy to
deal with difficult circumstances. When anger
is
kept at bay, it can give us the energy
to work though problems and our attention remains
focused.
-
Anger is a Signal
- Anger informs
us that something unjust, abusive or threatening is happening.
It tells us that we need to look for the source
of
our anger, rationally evaluate what is
happening and deal with the situation.
-
Anger can Help Release Tension
-
When used constructively, anger can motivate action to deal with the
tension appropriately. This may include
expressing
emotions to others or taking action to
reduce our tension (e.g., talking to others or going for a
run).
The positive functions of anger largely depend
on our awareness and ability to rationally reflect on the feelings of
anger. In other words, when we are aware of our anger, but we remain
detached from it, than we can select behaviours that are
not driven by our anger, but are based on rational
thinking. We call this "anger surfing". It is a skill that can be
learned through practice. (For more information, read our "anger
management
section.)
The
Negative Functions of Anger
Most people have some negative
experiences with anger and are familiar with some of its
negative functions. When anger takes over our
rational side, we may think and behave in ways that
we later regret. This is not surprising. Anger is a powerful emotion
and it is difficult to deal with its effects. Similarly,
people may get used to relying on the negative functions of
anger and treat anger as an instrument to achieve certain goals.
Consider the following:
-
Anger Disrupts
Thinking
- One of the key elements of anger is "angry
thinking". As we become angry our thinking becomes increasingly
clouded
by anger related thoughts, and in turn
it reduces our ability to evaluate situations clearly. As
the result, we may make
decisions that we
would not make otherwise.
-
Anger Interferes with
Behaviour
- When anger takes over we might act on
impulse without thinking and good judgment. This may feel like being on
"auto pilot",
unable to change the course of our
actions. The more often this anger-impulsive behaviour pairing
occurs, the stronger the
association we
form between anger and automatic behaviour. As a
consequence, the more likely we will repeat
the
behaviour the next time we feel
angry.
-
Anger Promotes Defensiveness
-
Anger is often a response to being hurt by others. Yet, instead
of communicating how we really feel, we use anger to
defend our pride. After all, it is less threatening and
embarrassing to feel angry than to feel hurt.
-
Anger can lead to Aggression
-
Anger may lead to verbal or physical aggression. Most of the
time the aggression is directed towards the source of
our
anger, while other times we take our anger
out on someone (or something) inappropriately.
-
Anger can be used as Social
Control
- Anger may be used to promote an image or a social
role. Individuals who appear to be angry most of the time or have
the
reputation of being "quick tempered" may
maintain their behaviour as a form of authority over others.
Expression of anger
can elicit fear in others,
reducing the likelihood of challenge.
The negative functions of anger are not
always easily detectable. For example, anger maybe regarded as positive
by
someone who uses it instrumentally to achieve
certain goals or to maintain a social status (e.g., control in a
relationship). Similarly, when it becomes frequent and
automatic, anger can be a serious problem. To learn when is
anger a problem, go to the next page.
