Anger and Aggression

What Is Anger?

Anger is the internal experience of a private, subjective event that has cognitive (e.g., thoughts, private speech, attributions) and physiological (e.g., shifts in heart rate, muscle tension) components. There is not always a direct relationship between anger and aggressive behavior; in other words, individuals who become aggressive do not always experience anger.

Distinguished from anger, aggression is an overt set of behaviors that may be verbal or physical; it involves acts that inflict bodily or mental harm on others. There are several different forms [Page 124]of aggressive behavior: reactive, proactive, and relational. Reactive (retaliatory/hostile) aggression is typically an impulsive defensive reaction to a perceived threat and is characterized by anger and aggression. Proactive (threatening, bullying) aggression is used for personal gain or to influence and coerce others. Relational (indirect) aggression, occurring more frequently in females, can be both reactive and proactive (slandering, rumor spreading, manipulating friendships). Aggression causes less serious harm than violence, which often involves serious harm (e.g., aggravated assault, rape, robbery, homicide).

Theories of Anger and Aggression

Over the years, several theories of aggression have been proposed. Some suggest that anger and aggression are instincts. For instance, Freud’s psychoanalytical theory suggests that humans have a death drive that leads us to act aggressively toward others as they turn their inward anger outward. Ethologists contend that a fighting instinct—stemming from primitive urges to preserve territory, maintain a steady supply of food, and weed out weaker animals—is innately embedded.

Sociobiologists take an evolutionary point of view in considering the biological roots of social behavior by arguing that anger and aggression facilitate the goal of strengthening the species and its gene pool as a whole, according to the “survival of the fittest” doctrine. Anger is seen as needing to be discharged (catharsis) or released in some fashion. Such instinctual explanations, however, fail in determining when and how individuals become angry and behave aggressively.

Social learning and cognitive approaches are currently most accepted and supported by research. Social learning theories have emphasized how social and environmental conditions affect the experience of anger and play a significant role in whether individuals behave aggressively or not. Cognitive approaches suggest that the key to understanding anger is to examine how individuals interpret behavior of antagonists and of the environmental context in which problems occur.

For example, developmental psychologists note that children with anger problems are more prone to assume that actions are aggressively motivated, have difficulties in paying attention to the appropriate cues in a situation, and are unable to interpret behaviors in a given situation accurately. Instead, they assume, often erroneously, that others are behaving in a hostile manner, and then become angry in response to this. Chronically angry and aggressive individuals are often more impulsive and deficient in problem-solving capabilities. Thus, children and adults with anger problems manifest a developmental lag and deficits in specific social–cognitive and affect-labeling processes.

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