In this intriguing Psychology Today article, Joanne Ellison Rodgers says that anger (mild to moderate, not uncontrolled rage) is an important and functional emotion. “Researchers are amassing evidence that anger is a potent form of social communication,” says Rodgers, “a logical part of people’s emotional tool kit, an appetitive force that not only moves us toward what we want but fuels optimism, creative brainstorming, and problem solving by focusing mind and mood in highly refined ways. Brainwise, it’s the polar opposite of fear, sadness, disgust, and anxiety – feelings that prompt avoidance and cause us to move away from what we deem unpleasant. When the gall rises, it propels the irate toward challenges they otherwise would flee and actions to get others to do what they, the angry, wish.” For example, the anger Americans felt after 9/11 brought people together in a common cause and minimized paralyzing fear.
Interestingly, when we’re angry, heart rate and testosterone levels rise but cortisol, the stress hormone, falls. Brain scans have also shown that anger activates the left frontal lobe and the left anterior cortex, which control rational, logical, systematic, and positive ways of dealing with a problem. In short, anger works to help us focus on a challenge and think straight – as opposed to avoiding or running away from it. “Anger allows us to detect our own value in any conflicting interaction,” says Rodgers, “then motivates us to get others to rethink our positions, to pay a lot more attention to what it will cost us to get what we want – and whether it’s worth the cost.”
The most important take-away about anger, she concludes, is that we shouldn’t suppress it but should keep the flame low and use it to help solve problems and deal constructively with others.
“Go Forth in Anger” by Joann Ellison Rodgers in Psychology Today, March/April 2014 (Vol. 47, #2, p. 72-79), no e-link available
Stephen Anderson
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