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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Apr 2018Empathy and anger are two social emotions that modulate an individual's risk for aggression. Empathy is an emotional reaction to another individual's emotional state.... (Review)
Review
Empathy and anger are two social emotions that modulate an individual's risk for aggression. Empathy is an emotional reaction to another individual's emotional state. Anger is an emotional reaction to threat, frustration or social provocation. Reduced empathy, seen in psychopathy, increases the risk for goal-directed aggression. Atypically increased anger (i.e. irritability), seen in conditions like disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and borderline personality disorder, increases the risk for reactive aggression. In this paper, I will outline core neurocognitive functions that correspond to empathy and which are compromised in individuals with psychopathic traits. In addition, I will outline neurocognitive functions involved in either the generation or regulation of anger and which are compromised in psychiatric conditions at increased risk for irritability/reactive aggression. It can be hoped that improved understanding of empathy and anger will lead to better assessment tools and improved interventions to reduce aggression risk.This article is part of the theme issue 'Diverse perspectives on diversity: multi-disciplinary approaches to taxonomies of individual differences'.
Topics: Adult; Aggression; Anger; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Cognition; Empathy; Female; Humans; Irritable Mood; Male
PubMed: 29483341
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0155 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Apr 2022Chronic pain remains one of the most persistent healthcare challenges in the world. To advance pain treatment, experts have recently introduced research-driven subtypes... (Review)
Review
Chronic pain remains one of the most persistent healthcare challenges in the world. To advance pain treatment, experts have recently introduced research-driven subtypes of chronic pain based on proposed underlying mechanisms. Nociplastic pain (e.g., nonspecific chronic low back or fibromyalgia) is one such subtype which may involve a greater etiologic role for brain plasticity, painful emotions induced by life stress and trauma, and unhealthy emotion regulation. In particular, correlational and behavioral data link anger and the ways anger is regulated with the presence and severity of nociplastic pain. Functional neuroimaging studies also suggest nociplastic pain and healthy anger regulation demonstrate inverse patterns of activity in the medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala; thus, improving anger regulation could normalize activity in these regions. In this Mini-Review, we summarize these findings and propose a unified, biobehavioral model called the Anger, Brain, and Nociplastic Pain (AB-NP) Model, which can be tested in future research and may advance pain care by informing new treatments that address anger, anger regulation, and brain plasticity for nociplastic pain.
Topics: Amygdala; Anger; Brain; Chronic Pain; Emotions; Humans
PubMed: 35122780
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104558 -
Current Topics in Behavioral... 2017Anger may be caused by a wide variety of triggers, and though it has negative consequences on health and well-being, it is also crucial in motivating to take action and... (Review)
Review
Anger may be caused by a wide variety of triggers, and though it has negative consequences on health and well-being, it is also crucial in motivating to take action and approach rather than avoid a confrontation. While anger is considered a survival response inherent in all living creatures, humans are endowed with the mental flexibility that enables them to control and regulate their anger, and adapt it to socially accepted norms. Indeed, a profound interpersonal nature is apparent in most events which evoke anger among humans. Since anger consists of physiological, cognitive, subjective, and behavioral components, it is a contextualized multidimensional construct that poses theoretical and operational difficulties in defining it as a single psychobiological phenomenon. Although most neuroimaging studies have neglected the multidimensionality of anger and thus resulted in brain activations dispersed across the entire brain, there seems to be several reoccurring neural circuits subserving the subjective experience of human anger. Nevertheless, to capture the large variety in the forms and fashions in which anger is experienced, expressed, and regulated, and thus to better portray the related underlying neural substrates, neurobehavioral investigations of human anger should aim to further embed realistic social interactions within their anger induction paradigms.
Topics: Anger; Brain; Humans; Interpersonal Relations
PubMed: 26695163
DOI: 10.1007/7854_2015_408 -
Experimental Psychology May 2020The effect of anger on acceptance of false details was examined using a three-phase misinformation paradigm. Participants viewed an event, were presented with...
The effect of anger on acceptance of false details was examined using a three-phase misinformation paradigm. Participants viewed an event, were presented with schema-consistent and schema-irrelevant misinformation about it, and were given a surprise source monitoring test to examine the acceptance of the suggested material. Between each phase of the experiment, they performed a task that either induced anger or maintained a neutral mood. Participants showed greater susceptibility to schema-consistent than schema-irrelevant misinformation. Anger did not affect either recognition or source accuracy for true details about the initial event, but suggestibility for false details increased with anger. In spite of this increase in source errors (i.e., misinformation acceptance), both confidence in the accuracy of source attributions and decision speed for incorrect judgments also increased with anger. Implications are discussed with respect to both the general effects of anger and real-world applications such as eyewitness memory.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Anger; Communication; Female; Humans; Male; Young Adult
PubMed: 32900296
DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000489 -
Journal of Medicine and Life 2010The present paper makes a research about negative effects of anger and hostile conduct on peoples' health status. We have studied scientific articles published between... (Review)
Review
The present paper makes a research about negative effects of anger and hostile conduct on peoples' health status. We have studied scientific articles published between 2000 and 2010, which did not contradict our initial assumption. The literature demonstrates that anger, wheatear suppressed or expressed, can determine various diseases, it can influence the conduct of people suffering from bulimia nervosa or it can be the cause for the growing number of car accidents. In order to avoid these risks, the intervention should not be limited to medication, but it should also involve a psychological help that should insist on ways of dealing with anger without exposing the person to any kind of risk for his health or wellbeing.
Topics: Accidents, Traffic; Anger; Bulimia Nervosa; Coronary Disease; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Health Behavior; Humans; Risk-Taking
PubMed: 21254733
DOI: No ID Found -
The Journal of Pain Feb 2022Mechanisms explaining the relationship between pain-related injustice appraisals and functional outcomes in youth with chronic pain have yet to be examined. In studies...
Mechanisms explaining the relationship between pain-related injustice appraisals and functional outcomes in youth with chronic pain have yet to be examined. In studies of adults, greater pain-related injustice is associated with worse depressive symptoms and greater pain through greater anger. No study to date has examined anger expression as a mediator in the relationships between pain-related injustice appraisals and physical and psychosocial functioning in youth with chronic pain. The current sample consisted of 385 youth with varied pain conditions (75% female, 88% White, M=14.4 years) presenting to a university-affiliated pain clinic. Patients completed self-report measures assessing anger expression (anger-out and anger-in), pain-related injustice, pain intensity, functional disability, and emotional, social, and school functioning. Bootstrapped mediation analyses indicated that only anger-out (indirect effect= -.12, 95% CI: -.21, -.05) mediated the relationship between pain-related injustice and emotional functioning, whereas both anger-out (indirect effect= -.17, 95% CI: -.27, -.09) and anger-in (indirect effect= -.13, 95% CI: -.09, -.001) mediated the relationship between pain-related injustice and social functioning. Neither mode of anger expression mediated the relationship between pain-related injustice and pain intensity, functional disability, or school functioning. Collectively, these findings implicate anger as one mechanism by which pain-related injustice impacts psychosocial outcomes for youth with chronic pain. PERSPECTIVE: Anger expression plays a mediating role in the relationship between pain-related injustice appraisals and psychosocial outcomes for youth with chronic pain. Anger represents one target for clinical care to decrease the deleterious impact of pain-related injustice on emotional and social functioning.
Topics: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior; Anger; Chronic Pain; Female; Humans; Male; Psychosocial Functioning
PubMed: 34375744
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2021.07.005 -
Clinical Psychology Review 1997Marital violence researchers have generally used the terms anger and hostility interchangeably. However, there are important differences between anger and hostility that... (Review)
Review
Marital violence researchers have generally used the terms anger and hostility interchangeably. However, there are important differences between anger and hostility that may be vital to understanding the relationship between these constructs and marital violence. The present manuscript highlights the advantages of distinguishing between anger and hostility. In order to investigate the role of anger and hostility in marital violence, we provide a comprehensive review of 26 empirical studies in addition to critically examining researchers' definitions of anger and hostility and the methods of assessment utilized in this body of research. While many researchers have presented data suggesting that maritally violent men are higher in anger and hostility than maritally nonviolent men, the findings are not consistent and vary in accordance with the construct assessed and the assessment strategy used.
Topics: Adult; Anger; Causality; Cognition; Emotions; Hostility; Humans; Male; Psychology, Clinical; Psychometrics; Research Design; Spouse Abuse; Terminology as Topic
PubMed: 9199856
DOI: 10.1016/s0272-7358(96)00003-7 -
Psychophysiology Jan 2021Numerous investigators have tested contentions that angry faces capture early attention more completely than happy faces do in the context of other faces. However,... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Numerous investigators have tested contentions that angry faces capture early attention more completely than happy faces do in the context of other faces. However, syntheses of studies on early event-related potentials related to the anger superiority hypothesis have yet to be conducted, particularly in relation to the N200 posterior-contralateral (N2pc) component which provides a reliable electrophysiological index related to orienting of attention suitable for testing this hypothesis. Fifteen samples (N = 534) from 13 studies featuring the assessment of N2pc amplitudes during exposure to angry-neutral and/or happy-neutral facial expression arrays were included for meta-analysis. Moderating effects of study design features and sample characteristics on effect size variability were also assessed. N2pc amplitudes elicited by affectively valenced expressions (angry and happy) were significantly more pronounced than those elicited by neutral expressions. However, the mean effect size difference between angry and happy expressions was ns. N2pc effect sizes were moderated by sample age, number of trials, and nature of facial images used (schematic vs. real) with larger effect sizes observed when samples were comparatively younger, more task trials were presented and schematic face arrays were used. N2pc results did not support anger superiority hypothesis. Instead, attentional resources allocated to angry versus happy facial expressions were similar in early stages of processing. As such, possible adaptive advantages of biases in orienting toward both anger and happy expressions warrant consideration in revisions of related theory.
Topics: Anger; Evoked Potentials; Facial Expression; Facial Recognition; Happiness; Humans
PubMed: 33040366
DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13700 -
PloS One 2021Social cognition allows humans to understand and predict other people's behavior by inferring or sharing their emotions, intentions and beliefs. Few studies have...
Social cognition allows humans to understand and predict other people's behavior by inferring or sharing their emotions, intentions and beliefs. Few studies have investigated the impact of one's own emotional state on understanding others. Here, we tested the effect of being in an angry state on empathy and theory of mind (ToM). In a between-groups design we manipulated anger status with different paradigms in three studies (autobiographical recall (N = 45), negative feedback (N = 49), frustration (N = 46)) and checked how this manipulation affected empathic accuracy and performance in the EmpaToM. All paradigms were successful in inducing mild anger. We did not find the expected effect of anger on empathy or ToM performance but observed small behavioral changes. Together, our results validate the use of three different anger induction paradigms and speak for rather weak behavioral effects of mild state anger on empathy and ToM.
Topics: Anger; Empathy; Theory of Mind
PubMed: 34324527
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255068 -
Journal of Clinical Psychology Sep 2022Anger rumination and imagined violence, in the context of anger/aggression proclivity, are examined for their direct and conjoint associations with violent behavior by...
OBJECTIVE
Anger rumination and imagined violence, in the context of anger/aggression proclivity, are examined for their direct and conjoint associations with violent behavior by psychiatric patients.
METHOD
A secondary analysis of data from the MacArthur Violence Risk Study was conducted with 1136 acute civil commitment patients, assessed during hospitalization and after hospital discharge. Anger/aggression proclivity was assessed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale hostility subscale, anger rumination was indexed using items from the Novaco Anger Scale, and imagined violence was measured with Grisso's Schedule of Imagined Violence. Violence, prehospitalization and posthospitalization, was indexed by the MacArthur project measure.
RESULTS
Correlational analyses, mediation analyses, and moderated mediation analyses were conducted. Anger rumination significantly predicted pre- and posthospitalization violence, when controlling for age, sex, race, childhood physical abuse, and anger/aggression proclivity; and it partially mediated the relation between anger/aggression proclivity and violence. Imagined violence and anger rumination were highly inter-related. When imagined violence was added to the regression model, it was a significant predictor of prehospitalization violence; however, it did not moderate the association of anger rumination with pre- or posthospitalization violence.
CONCLUSION
Anger rumination may be a mechanism through which anger activates violent behavior, which has important implications for psychotherapeutic intervention targeting. Future research should investigate the association between anger rumination and imagined violence, with attention given to revenge planning as a link.
Topics: Aggression; Anger; Child; Hospitalization; Hostility; Humans; Violence
PubMed: 35246981
DOI: 10.1002/jclp.23334