Thoughts That Lead to Anger

Introduction

Anger is an important emotion, since it serves a protective function. It causes an increase in heartbeat and adrenaline which gives you enough energy to fight or flee the situation, if you are in danger. Anger can also protect you from underlying emotions. This is because anger is easier to express and understand than more vulnerable emotions, and is often expressed instead of them. Thoughts play a critical role in the way you experience anger, since the way you make sense of what is going on around you influences how you feel about the situation. For example, if two people missed their bus, and one of them thought it was unfair, while the other thought it was not something to worry about, it is likely that the first person would get angry and the second person would not.

Research by Chereji, Pintea and David (2012) has shown that there is a strong relationship between anger and violent behaviour, as well as biased ways of thinking and violent behaviour. The nature of these thoughts also determine the nature of violent behaviour, as shown by Barriga, Hawkins and Camelia in 2008. They found that thoughts that serve your own interests are associated with outward expression of anger, such as aggression and delinquent behaviour, and those that are self-critical relate to expressing anger inward, or keeping problems to yourself, such as withdrawing from others, being afraid, and feeling sad.

A study by Martin and Dahleen in 2005 found that people that ruminate and catastrophise about negative events, or have a lower positive evaluation of the situation tend to naturally experience more anger. Those that catastrophise tend to express their anger aggressively, while those that blame others, ruminate about it, accept what happened, or do not appraise the situation positively tend to suppress their anger. The same study showed that people who focused on handling the situation were able to control their anger through ways like relaxation. This shows that the way people think and react to situations has a role to play in the anger they experience.

Here's how you can identify the thoughts

There are specific thoughts that can make you angry. It is important to know that they may not be true, and recognise them when they occur. Some of these are discussed below:

Attributing neutral events to yourself: Sometimes when you get angry, it may be because you attach personal meanings to events that may not be related to you, and respond accordingly.

Focusing on the negatives: You may tend to focus only on the negative aspects of a situation, which may make you angry. Try to step back and take into account the positives too.

Being preoccupied with perfection: If you constantly expect too much from yourself or others and these expectations are not met, it can cause hurt and anger.

Expecting and demanding fairness: If you have certain ideas of fairness in terms of what is “right” and “wrong” for all people, and if these standards of justice are not met, you may feel frustrated and angry. It is important to remember that not everyone will have the same standards, and ideas of fairness are likely to differ.

Anticipating negative outcomes: After facing negative events, or attributing unpleasant meanings to events, it is likely that you generalise them and begin to expect negative events. This can cause you to behave in ways that make your prediction come true.

Thinking in absolute terms: Thinking in dichotomies, like black and white, such as what should and should not be done can also make you angry.

It is thus important to understand how your thoughts can make you angry, because by being aware of your thoughts and knowing when they occur, you will be able to understand the source of your anger better and thus deal with it more appropriately.