Managing Anger Effectively

“Anger is an emotional response to a real or imagined threat or provocation.”  We experience anger on a spectrum, from annoyance to rage.  Anger arouses us, makes us more impulsive, and mobilizes resources to prepare for a response.  Anger can make people feel stronger and more prepared for angry outbursts or altercations.  Many people report a lack of anger management strategies.

Researchers were interested in anger management practices.  They examined activities that increase and decrease our arousal, following an experience that invoked anger, hostility, and/or aggression.  They conducted a meta-analysis of 154 studies, with 10,189 participants, that compared an anger management activity to a control condition.

Researchers discovered that decreasing physiological arousal can decrease anger, hostility, and aggression, even when participants were provoked, in students and non-students, criminal offenders and non-criminal offenders, and individuals with and without intellectual disabilities.  The effects were stable for participants of different ages, races, genders, and cultures. 

Arousal decreasing activities were effective no matter how they were delivered, such as via therapist, online platform, or researchers during a study.  Arousal increasing activities, such as venting, jogging, cycling, or hitting a punching bag, were ineffective overall.

Takeaway:  Anger management coping strategies that are effective turn down the heat and increase calm, and include:

• Meditation and mindfulness, which increase connection, compassion, and empathy toward others, and

• Relaxation and deep breathing activities, which reduce heart rate and blood pressure, and can support greater self-awareness and a reduction in negative emotions.

Well-being is a journey, not a quick fix.

Sources

Sophie J. Kjaervik and Brad J. Bushman, A Meta-Analytic Review of Anger Management Activities that Increase or Decrease Arousal: What Fuels or Douses Rage?, 109 Clinical Psychology Review 102414, April 2024, A meta-analytic review of anger management activities that increase or decrease arousal: What fuels or douses rage? - ScienceDirect.

Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions: Exploring the Emotion Wheel, Six Seconds, Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions: Feelings Wheel • Six Seconds (6seconds.org).

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