Encyclopedia of Mental Health - Vol. 1

Aggression The infliction of pain, minor or severe injury, permanent mutilation, or total destruction on another person or organism.

Anger The noxious experience of annoyance for which someone or something is held accountable and that inspires hostile and aggressive dispositions and actions toward the instigating agents or conditions.

Cautious Disengagement A strategy of anger and aggression control based on the detection of symptoms of escalating arousal that creates the conditions under which violence is imminent.

Cognitive Deficit The transitory mental incapacitation associated with intense emotional experiences. In acute anger, for instance, cognitive deficit manifests itself in the preoccupation with immediate retaliatory actions and the inability to consider the nonimmediate consequences of such actions.

Excitation Transfer The summation of arousal from different sources that fosters overly intense and often inappropriate reactions to immediate stimulation, such as provocation and endangerment.

Excitatory Escalation The incrementation of arousal in acute emotional states. In anger, for instance, excitation increases with repeated provocations during conflict, eventually producing the conditions for rage and impulsive aggression.

Hostility The disposition to inflict harm on another person or organism and/or the actual infliction of harm to these agents. Harm is broadly conceived as anything that fosters annoyance and related forms of mental anguish.

Rage A state of intense emotional experience associated with uncontrolled destructive behavior.

ANGER and its dispositional properties are detailed in this article, along with the essential expressive and motivational components of the anger experience. In a psychobiological analysis, the utility of anger in early human evolution is specified, and the loss of much of this utility in contemporary societies is traced. The cognitive and excitatory manifestations of anger, especially the interdependencies between these processes, are then elaborated in a psychophysiological and neuroendocrine examination. Strategies are presented for the control of the escalation of anger and the prevention of aggressive outbursts with their destructive behavioral consequences. Finally, the pathogenic effects of anger are addressed. Special attention is given to the consequences of dysfunctional anger for coronary artery and heart disease.

Anger is a universal experience. Its profound role in human affairs has been documented in the earliest recorded cultures, and there is every reason to believe that it pervaded interactions in preliterate societies

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