Anger Matters
OLLI Spring 2008
University of Pittsburgh
Sam Cho, Ph D
An Overview



A Brief look at the history of anger
Anger as phenomenonological experience
Historical accounts, oral traditions and
recorded examples
What is Anger?


The feeling of anger is a phenomenological
or subjective or internal experience that
rests on the emotional state.
In literature anger is described as feeling or
emotion, interchangeably
Subjective Experience

Anger is associated with specific perceptual event.
Perception is a response to a stimulus or a set of
stimuli. The stimulus may be endogenous or
exogenous. For example, you can get angry by
recalling some past indignities you experienced, or
by someone insulting you for no cause.
Shaping of experience

Perception may be culturally determined.
Even within a culture a set of stimuli may
elicit different perceptions.
Misappraisal

Misperception is interchangeably used as
cognitive distortions. MFor example, you
may misread some event: you may
misinterpret someone’s statement (this
happens frequently in personality disorders)
Cognition as modifier

Cognitive distortions or automatic misappraisals
are significant contributors to useless or even
harmful experience of anger. Later on we will
look at some examples of cognitive distortions.
Coloring perception

How we perceive a set of stimuli may
depend on our current state of being.
Whether we are at peace, agitated,
depressed, anxious, happy, etc.
More modifiers

How we perceive or think may also depend
on our past experience, interpretative tools
and agents, values, etc.
Quantification

If we were to quantify anger, we can point
to the variations in frequency, intensity,
and duration.
Variation in responses

Some people seem to get angry most of the
time while others rarely feel it.
Intensity and duration


Anger may be experienced as annoyance to
full blown rage.
Anger may be transient or eternally held
grudge.
Behavior

Angry behavior: Behavioral manifestation
of anger or anger expression varies widely
within a culture as well as across cultures.
Some examples are: withdrawal, sulking,
pouting, glaring, yelling, sarcasm, etc.
How old is anger?


Video clip
Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey. Opening
scenes.
From Archeology


Richard Leaky. Origins. Hunters, tools,
weapons, farmers, communities.
Gathering of things and the need to protect
the holdings.
From the Bible

In Exodus Moses expresses anger by shattering the
tablets on which the Lord (YWH)’s finger
inscribed the Ten Commandments. […Moses’
anger burned hot and he threw the Tablets from
his hand and broke them at the foot of the
mountain. Ex. 32:39] So the First Edition of the
Ten Commandments was destroyed. Later God
again gave the Covenant and the Ten
Commandments to Moses.
Antiquity

In The Republic Plato proposes interconnecting
tripartite soul: reason, the appetite and the passion.
He argued that these parts are interactive. In
Plato’s scheme, passion includes a wide range of
emotions, including love/lust. In Shakespeare’s
Venus and Adonis (1592?), we see exquisite
account of love/lust/eroticism.
Darwin

Charles Darwin’s The Expression of the
Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)
provides very detailed descriptions of
various emotions.
Anger as survival tool

Anger properly managed is a vital survival
mechanism. The very early formulation of
anger appears to have been a response to a
threat. A deviation from allostasis.
Threat to survival

When our system is about to be pushed
outside the normal optimal range of
operation by an external agent (predator is
about to make supper out of you), your
instantaneous reaction is to fight, flight,
and/or to fear--be fearful.
Adaptive responses

Puff up (make yourself look bigger), or
make yourself look very small (cowering so
the predator will ignore you). Take a
submissive posture. Diminution.

Anger

(Middle Ages. Norse origin, and current
usage). More recorded accounts.

Origin is Middle English : from Old
Norse angr ‘grief,’ angra ‘vex.’ The
original use was in the Old Norse
senses; current senses date from Late
Middle English
Anger as Noun

his face was livid with anger rage, vexation,
exasperation, displeasure, crossness, irritation,
irritability, indignation, pique; annoyance, fury,
wrath, ire, outrage, irascibility, ill temper/humor;
informal slow burn, aggravation; literary choler.
antonym pleasure, good humor.
Anger as Verb

she was angered by his terse reply infuriate,
irritate, exasperate, irk, vex, peeve, madden,
put out; enrage, incense, annoy; rub the
wrong way; informal make someone's blood
boil, get someone's back up, make someone
see red, get someone's dander up, rattle
someone's cage, make someone's hackles
rise; aggravate, get someone, rile, tick off, tee
off, burn up. antonym pacify, placate.
More recently


Paul Ekman’s Emotions Revealed (2003)
provides an updated research of emotional
expressions across cultures.
Ekman also wrote Telling Lies
Anger and aggression

Aggression can be assault or battery (these
are criminal acts).

If the victim has been actually touched by
the person committing the crime, then
battery has occurred. If the victim has not
actually been touched, but only threatened,
then the crime is considered to be assault.


Most aggression ignited by anger fall short of
criminal acts.
Or the victims do not press charges (i.e.,
domestic assault and battery)


Yet, aggression is cause for serious concern.
Aggression is normally goal directed.
(against someone). Some form of
aggression is culturally sanctioned (as in
certain sports).
Aggression and anger are closely related.

Anger does not necessarily result in
aggression. Anger can be a “stand alone”
state. Pervasive, chronic anger (grudge)
colors one’s ‘temperament.’

Even though long lasting, frequent and intense
anger is as harmful as anxiety, depression,
panic disorder, etc., it is not yet classified
under the official APA diagnostic scheme. The
only exception is the Intermittent Explosive
Disorder (312.34).

The main feature of the Intermittent Explosive
Disorder is the failure to inhibit impulse to
commit aggressive act, and the act is grossly
out of proportion to the agency.

We are in dire need of more systematic
research.