(PS12-8) What Does Adaptive Anger Look Like?

Anger is commonly associated with adverse effects for the individual experiencing it and others. Even though there are no diagnostic categories for anger, most research on anger focuses on the harmful and dysfunctional consequences of anger. A collection of quotes from famous people on anger shows that 98% reflect the negative consequence of anger. Evolutionary psychologists stress that there must have been some survival value in experiencing anger. Our knowledge of anger would benefit from understanding any adaptive aspects of anger. Such knowledge might improve treatment effectiveness for anger if therapists could help clients work towards adaptive anger. We searched for articles that included the subject terms "adaptive," "Functional," or "Constructive" with anger. We found only four such articles. We created a 21-item Adaptive Anger Scale (AAS) based on these manuscripts. The current study evaluated the factor structure, psychometric qualities, and validity of the AAS.  

Method: Data was collected from more than 200 participants from a college sample and adults through social media platforms. Participants completed the AAS, the Anger Disorder Scale – Short form (ADS-SF), the Trait Anger Scale (TAS), a demographic questionnaire, and questions concerning their current utilization of mental health services. We expect more than 600 participants from diverse groups by convention.

Results: An EFA of the AAS yielded two factors. Factor 1 included identifying anger as leading to self-knowledge, self-awareness, and values clarification, and Factor 2 included items reflecting anger leading to critical thinking skills and problem resolution. Factor 1 scores had neither positive nor negative relations with the ADS-SF or TAS. The correlation of the AAS with the ADS-SF and TAS yielded small but significant correlations of .3. An analysis of scatter plots suggested a nonlinear relationship. A curve fit regression equation of the ADS-SF predicting the AAS yielded a significant quadratic regression. As dysfunctional anger increased, so did the AAS. However, at the midpoint of the distribution, further increases in dysfunctional anger led to declines in the AAS. Participants who were not using mental health services had significantly higher adaptive anger and significantly more dysfunctional anger.

Discussion: Our findings suggest that having up to a moderate amount of anger can be constructive for individuals, but afterward, anger reaches a point where it is no longer adaptive. It also appears that anger is unrelated to helping individuals identify themselves or their values. Clinicians should be aware that anger can be constructive, but further research is needed to determine the timeline of the presentation of anger to establish more effective treatments for anger in adults.