ANGER

Americans are not particularly comfortable with expressing anger; in fact, many children are taught not to express or show their anger. This child-rearing attitude toward anger may produce adults who feel frustrated and unable to express how they feel inside, instead storing and suppressing their anger.

Anger can be the result of a wounded ego (pride), of unreasonable expectations of others and of self, or even of repeated hostile fantasies. Anger can be used manipulatively to "get" one's way, to fault others for one's perceived shortcomings (i.e., displacement or projection), to justify oppressing others, to feel better about oneself, and/or to conceal or "handle" other feelings (i.e., becoming aggressive when afraid).

A few working definitions are in order. What is anger?

Tucker-Ladd (1996), a psychologist, defines anger as "feeling mad in response to fr

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raumatic experience (the original cause of the tension) in the presence of an analyst" (Chaplin, 1985, p. 4). Those not of the psychoanalytic bent, the personality researchers who could be called pro-catharsis, might say that catharsis is the expression of intense feelings, conscious or unconscious, in therapy or by one's self, which encourages the person to feel better. Perhaps it results in clarity of thought or insights. Certainly it results in the reduction of angry feelings. Or does it? Psychologists Brad J. Bushman and Angela D. Stack, of Iowa State University, and Roy F. Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University, conducted a study of catharsis using undergraduate students. Their findings, Supported the researchers' hypothesis (and the results of earlier research) that venting one's anger does not decrease hostility; but rather increases it. Angered participants who read the pro-catharsis article wanted to hit the punching bag more than angered participants who read the anti-catharsis article (APA, 1999). The authors conclude, as follows: Pro-catharsis media messages may actually generate self-defeating propheciesàTelling people that aggressive activity is a good way to get rid of anger led them to choose ag
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