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WHAT CAUSES ANGER?

Now that you have learned about the nature of anger and its problematic aspects, let’s take a look at what causes anger. This will be important for helping you deal with anger reactions and preventing them from occurring.

There are four basic causes of anger:

1. External events or situations.

2. Thoughts and perceptions of events and situations.

3. Bodily states of arousal and activation.

4. Behaviour patterns.

None of these four factors causes anger by itself - anger is a product of the combination of these factors together, although all four may not be present to the same degree at any given time. This is not as complicated as it may sound. One simple thing that it means is that you do not become angry just because something “happens” to you. Of course things that happen do play a role in making you angry, but your thoughts, your prior arousal level, and your own behaviour play a big part in whether you become angry. How you think, how you feel, and how you act are all interconnected.

External Factors.

Anger is an emotional reaction to events or circumstances that are called provocations. There are many kinds of provocations, but you can think of them as being of four main types.

1. Frustrations. A frustration is when you are trying to do something and are blocked or disappointed. Examples of frustrations are when you are trying to get a job done and the tool or appliance that you need doesn't work or breaks, when you are in a hurry to get somewhere and you are held up, or when you are expecting something good to happen and then it doesn't.

2. Annoyances and Irritations. These are incidents that “get on your nerves” like excessive noise or interruptions. For example, when someone is being inconsiderate or is making a pest of themselves. Other forms of annoyance are things like minor accidents, such as tearing or soiling an article of clothing or accidentally breaking something that you like.

3. Abuse. This can be either verbal or physical. Verbal abuse consists of name-calling, cursing and other unkind remarks that are directed at you. Sometimes the abusive remark is very obvious and direct, like when a four-letter word is used; other times it is more subtle and indirect, like when the person is being sarcastic or tries to make you feel like a fool. Physical abuse like pushing, grabbing, punching, or kicking occurs much less frequently than verbal abuse.

4. Injustice or Unfairness. These are situations where you have not been treated fairly or received what you deserved. For example, when someone is prejudiced against you, fails to honour an agreement, or makes a snap judgement without hearing your side of the issue. We also can get angry at injustice when it is happening to someone else, like when we see or hear about someone being mistreated.

THOUGHTS AND PERCEPTIONS: THINGS THAT GO ON IN YOUR HEAD.

Anger is not caused by external events themselves - it is also caused by our thoughts about those events. Sometimes, in fact, thoughts about past events can recreate those provocations in our mind, making us mad all over again.

The same situation can mean different things to different people. Some people are said to be more “sensitive” than others about aspects of things that happen. In a similar sense, we often think of people as having certain “dispositions” or “temperaments.” Italians and other Latin types are thought to have hot tempers, while Scandinavians are seen as cool headed and Polynesians are known for being very mild mannered and cheerful,.

It is commonly believed that these “dispositions” are ingrained, permanent characteristics. However this is not the case. In fact, these dispositions largely consist of particular styles of thinking, feeling, and behaving that have been learned. Both styles of reacting to provocation can indeed be changed.

How you think about situations and events determines how you experience them and whether or not you become angry. This refers to your perceptions and beliefs about things that happen. What goes on in your head determines how you feel, and how you continue to feel. What goes on in your head can be understood in terms of four key elements: (1) attentional focus, (2) expectations, (3) appraisals and (4) self-statements.

To start with you should realise that you get angry about things that you pay attention to. This doesn't mean that the remedy for anger is to not pay attention to anything that goes wrong. It means that to a large degree, anger is a matter of attentional focus. By learning how to shift your attention away from things that don’t really matter you can avoid anger that is unnecessary or unproductive. And when you are angry about something that does matter, you can control you anger and your behaviour by shifting your attentional focus away from personal ego-centred matters to objective, problem-focused matters. This involves learning how to be “task-oriented” and will be explained fully later.

Yours expectations about the way things should be or ought to be can also lead to anger. When expectations of yourself or others are set very high or are unrealistic, you set yourself up for anger experiences. Unrealistic expectations result in more things being perceived as unsatisfactory, and this can lead to irritation with oneself and other people. High expectations are linked to high standards, and that is a positive characteristic. There is nothing wrong with having high standards for yourself and others. The important thing is that your expectations be realistic and flexible, which means that you must learn to adjust your expectations according to the situation.

Another way that expectations lead to anger is when you expect negative things to happen, creating a kind of mental set for provocation. This is a form of “looking for trouble”. When you are mentally geared for someone to say or do something unpleasant, certain aspects of their behaviour stick out and register in your mind more quickly. This may also mean that you do not recognise other aspects of their behaviour which are neutral or even positive or that you fail to consider whether the upsetting things are relevant to your needs in the situation.

In addition to your attentional focus and your expectations, there is a third element of thinking that influences anger. This is known as appraisal, which is another word for judgement, meaning or interpretation. It is not the event itself that makes you angry, it’s what the event means to you. How you appraise or interpret what happens determines whether or not you get angry. A frequent cause of anger is being too quick to “take it personally” when something unpleasant happens - for example, if you are having to wait for service, and you think that you are being ignored or slighted, or if you are disappointed in not getting something that you wanted and think that someone was out to get you. When a person is rigid and inflexible in their appraisals, anger is a likely result. Learning how to see things from alternative viewpoints is a central part of anger control.

A final and important way that thinking influences how we feel is through the things we say to ourselves. Our internal conversations or private speech is an expression of our thoughts. The statements that we make to ourselves often precede, accompany or follow the things we feel. During anger incidents our self-statements play an important part in defining and shaping our emotion. For example, “I'm going to tell that bastard just where he can stick it!”, or “Why does't she just get off my back”. These self-statements not only add fuel to the fire, they have a major role in prolonging anger after an incident is over. Anger is often recreated and inflamed by our private dialogue. On the other hand, as you will see later, your self-statements can be a valuable means of regulating anger and guiding your behaviour in conflict situations.

Each of these four aspects of thinking (attentional focus, expectations, appraisals, and self-statements) are readily under you control. Once it has been determined how your anger is linked to each of these areas, changes can be made in the way you think that will minimise problems with anger and help you cope more effectively.

Arousal, Agitation and Mood

Bodily states of arousal and activation have a part in anger. The saying that our “blood boils” when we become angry is not far from wrong, because increases in blood pressure are definitely associated with anger. In addition to elevations in blood pressure, the heart beats faster, muscles become more tense, breathing is more rapid, blood sugar increases and a variety of other biochemical changes take place in the body.

However these changes inside the body during anger are only part of the story of how anger and physiological arousal are connected. The other part is that when your body is already aroused or activated because you are under pressure or stress, then you can become angry more quickly. This is especially true when pressures in one area of your life carry over into another area, as when work pressures spill over to home life.

One way to understand this is in terms of tension and its build-up. The arousal of anger is often a product of accumulated tension. When we feel strung-out, we are more easily provoked. Tension and agitation are the companions of anger. Tense muscles, headaches and tightness in the chest reduce our tolerance for provocation. When our tension level is high, it takes something less serious to set us off. We suddenly treat a minor annoyance as though it were a catastrophe. Annoyances become aggravations. As the aggravation builds it also robs us of strength that is spent needlessly in making so much out of things that are of little consequence.

Work pressures, noise and even things like traffic congestion in automobile driving will affect your level of arousal. Also, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes cause increases in arousal. It’s not uncommon to find someone who routinely drinks over six cups of coffee every day is puzzled about why he is often on edge and annoyed. Smoking compounds this problem. Instead of having a heart rate in the range of 70-75 beats per minute, persons who are heavy consumers of these common stimulants often have heart rates of 90-100 beats per minute. To effectively deal with anger you must learn to reduce your exposure to things that elevate your general level or arousal, whether that be work pressures, traffic congestion, chemical stimulants, or obnoxious people. Reducing such exposure where possible can then be combined with techniques like deep-muscle relaxation training and other arousal methods to get an overall effect. Relaxation training for example can be an important antidote for counteracting the effects of tension on anger.

Being tense or highly aroused colours our entire disposition towards life, work, and people. Being moody, cross or sour creates a crabby disposition that primes us for anger. This often comes from taking things, including ourselves, too seriously. When we lose our ability to take some distance from life’s situations everything becomes more important than it need be. A person who is characteristically tense, annoyed and irritable is someone who has lost his or her sense of perspective.

A good indicator of taking things too seriously is losing your sense of humour. A sense of humour not only means being able to recognise a good joke and to laugh at it, but also that we are able to laugh at ourselves - not in mockery, but in appreciation of the less serious aspects of our behaviour. Being able to role with the punches rather than stand rigidly in the face of adversity comes from a keen ability to tell the less serious from the more serious.

Behaviour Patterns

Anger is also a product of your behaviour patterns. Anger is not something that pops up at 4.00pm and disappears at 4.05pm on a predetermined schedule. Whether you stay angry, get more angry or become less angry is a direct result of how you behave when the provocation occurs. The intensity, duration and reactivation of anger is linked to your behaviour. In addition, your own behaviour patterns play an important role in determining the kinds of experiences that you have which can make you angry. Therefore, there are several behaviour patterns associated with anger, which we will call:

1. Activation-Agitation

2. Antagonism-Hostility

3. Withdrawal-Avoidance

Activation-Agitation
Activity patterns and life styles that are hard-driving and arousal-inducing can create circumstances in which one is often subject to pressure and frustration. Occupational habits are the main area where this comes into play. Individuals who work at jobs that involve many deadlines, time pressures, and demands for productivity are very much at risk of anger. They become like a locomotive with engines set at full throttle. Once locked into this cycle of work pressure met by hard-driving behaviour, the person develops characteristics of impatience and irritability. The highly activated person, who is over-eager to take on new challenges, trying to accomplish more and more things in shorter periods of time, creates a personal life style that is both arousal-inducing and likely to encounter obstacles. Anger often results as a response to these obstacles and as a way to drive oneself and others to meet overly ambitious goals.

Antagonism-Hostility
Expressions of anger and acts of aggression tend to elicit anger and aggression from others in return. If you react too quickly and too intensely to feelings of anger, you will act in ways that are antagonistic and breed further conflict. Negatives produce more negatives. A heated argument consists of a series of abusive remarks. Regardless of who starts it, an angry confrontation is at least a two party affair. Just as the other person’s hostility or abuse has triggered your anger, an antagonistic response from you triggers theirs. This is known as an escalation effect.
Aggressive acts are often either acts of impulse, desperation or attempts to overpower the other person. Because aggression is an action that causes injury or damage, aggressive behaviour easily gets you into trouble. As an impulsive act, aggression is doing something without thinking first and which is often regretted later. As an act of desperation, aggression is an attempt to overcome a sense of powerlessness and frustration. Aside from the immediate relief you might get, very little is changed in the long run. Lastly, as an attempt to overpower, coerce, or trample, aggression only causes harm and pushes others further away. Real strength lies in composure not antagonism. It is much easier to dominate than to negotiate. To dominate means to bear down on another’s weakness. Negotiation involves a respect for one another’s strength or worth.

Withdrawal-Avoidance
If you don’t actively deal with a problem and “go away mad” several negative consequences may result. First, there is nothing done about the problem, so the provocation remains. Second, as you continue to think about the situation, you will become more angry. Third, the anger smoulders inside of you and can turn to resentment of the other person. Fourth, because you have not done anything to successfully change the situation, you can become discouraged and lose confidence. Finally, the anger that has not been directed appropriately at others, might turn into self-criticism. Depression could be a final result. Depression can be thought of in exactly the terms that have just been described - as a low sense of personal worth, a sensitivity to unpleasant events, high self-criticism and a feeling of helplessness.

Each of these behaviour patterns influences your anger level, either by contributing to its arousal or by prolonging its presence. To effectively manage your anger you will need to make changes in how you act in situations of provocation and possibly make life style changes to decrease your exposure to anger-inducing situations.

Having given you this background about the nature of anger, its function, causes and problematic aspects, we can now turn to what can be done to help you control anger and cope with the stressful situations that can provoke it.

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