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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 Jan 2023Emotions ubiquitously impact action, learning, and perception, yet their essence and role remain widely debated. Computational accounts of emotion aspire to answer these... (Review)
Review
Emotions ubiquitously impact action, learning, and perception, yet their essence and role remain widely debated. Computational accounts of emotion aspire to answer these questions with greater conceptual precision informed by normative principles and neurobiological data. We examine recent progress in this regard and find that emotions may implement three classes of computations, which serve to evaluate states, actions, and uncertain prospects. For each of these, we use the formalism of reinforcement learning to offer a new formulation that better accounts for existing evidence. We then consider how these distinct computations may map onto distinct emotions and moods. Integrating extensive research on the causes and consequences of different emotions suggests a parsimonious one-to-one mapping, according to which emotions are integral to how we evaluate outcomes (pleasure & pain), learn to predict them (happiness & sadness), use them to inform our (frustration & content) and others' (anger & gratitude) actions, and plan in order to realize (desire & hope) or avoid (fear & anxiety) uncertain outcomes.
Topics: Humans; Emotions; Anger; Happiness; Learning; Sadness
PubMed: 36435390
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104977 -
Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia Sep 2018
Topics: Anger; Cardiovascular Diseases; Coronary Angiography; Coronary Artery Disease; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans
PubMed: 30379258
DOI: 10.5935/abc.20180176 -
BMC Public Health May 2023Previous research has indicated that anger and aggression may be elevated in adolescents with a bulimia nervosa (BN) diagnosis. However, as yet, little is known about...
BACKGROUND
Previous research has indicated that anger and aggression may be elevated in adolescents with a bulimia nervosa (BN) diagnosis. However, as yet, little is known about whether bulimia symptoms are linked to anger and aggression in adolescents in the general population. To address this deficit this study aimed to explore the associations between a clinical level of bulimia symptoms (CLBS) and anger, anger rumination and aggression in community-based adolescents, and determine whether gender is important in this context.
METHODS
This study was conducted on a representative sample of youth from northwestern Russia (n = 2613, age 13-17 years old, 59.5% female) using self-report scales. A proxy variable for a CLBS was created using the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale. Aggression, anger and anger rumination were assessed by the Trait Anger Scale of the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory, the Anger Rumination Scale, and scales created to assess physically and verbally aggressive behavior. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to examine the associations between the study variables.
RESULTS
A CLBS was more prevalent in girls than in boys (13.4% vs. 3.5%). The association with anger and aggression was stronger in both genders with a CLBS, compared to those adolescents without a CLBS. In the CLBS group, boys as compared to girls scored higher on verbal and physical aggression, anger rumination and social aggression. In both the CLBS and Non-CLBS groups higher anger and aggression scores were associated with increasing age.
CONCLUSIONS
Findings suggest that aggression and anger rumination are elevated in adolescents with BN symptoms, and that the associations between anger, aggression and BN symptoms may be stronger in boys. As previous research has indicated that the presence of aggressive behaviors may affect the prognosis of BN and complicate management of the disorder, clinician screening for these behaviors in adolescents with BN symptoms may facilitate the provision of more effective treatment, especially among boys.
Topics: Humans; Female; Adolescent; Male; Bulimia Nervosa; Bulimia; Aggression; Anger; Personality Inventory
PubMed: 37147644
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-15664-1 -
Current Psychiatry Reports Nov 2020To review the current literature on biobehavioral mechanisms involved in reactive aggression in a transdiagnostic approach. (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
To review the current literature on biobehavioral mechanisms involved in reactive aggression in a transdiagnostic approach.
RECENT FINDINGS
Aggressive reactions are closely related to activations in the brain's threat circuitry. They occur in response to social threat that is experienced as inescapable, which, in turn, facilitates angry approach rather than fearful avoidance. Provocation-induced aggression is strongly associated with anger and deficits in cognitive control including emotion regulation and inhibitory control. Furthermore, the brain's reward system plays a particular role in anger-related, tit-for-tat-like retaliatory aggression in response to frustration. More research is needed to further disentangle specific brain responses to social threat, provocation, and frustration. A better understanding of the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms involved in reactive aggression may pave the way for specific mechanism-based treatments, involving biological or psychotherapeutic approaches or a combination of the two.
Topics: Aggression; Anger; Brain; Humans; Reward
PubMed: 33180230
DOI: 10.1007/s11920-020-01208-6 -
Scandinavian Journal of Pain Jan 2022Anger is a negative emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or something, is rooted in an appraisal or attribution of wrongdoing, and is accompanied by an... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
OBJECTIVES
Anger is a negative emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or something, is rooted in an appraisal or attribution of wrongdoing, and is accompanied by an action tendency to undo the wrongdoing. Anger is prevalent in individuals with chronic pain, especially those with chronic primary pain. The associations between anger and pain-related outcomes (e.g., pain intensity, disability) have been examined in previous studies. However, to our knowledge, no systematic review or meta-analysis has summarized the findings of anger-pain associations through a focus on chronic primary pain. Hence, we sought to summarize the findings on the associations of anger-related variables with pain and disability in individuals with chronic primary pain.
METHODS
All studies reporting at least one association between anger-related variables and the two pain-related outcomes in individuals with chronic primary pain were eligible. We searched electronic databases using keywords relevant to anger and chronic primary pain. Multiple reviewers independently screened for study eligibility, data extraction, and methodological quality assessment.
RESULTS
Thirty-eight studies were included in this systematic review, of which 20 provided data for meta-analyses (2,682 participants with chronic primary pain). Of the included studies, 68.4% had a medium methodological quality. Evidence showed mixed results in the qualitative synthesis. Most anger-related variables had significant positive pooled correlations with small to moderate effect sizes for pain and disability.
CONCLUSIONS
Through a comprehensive search, we identified several key anger-related variables associated with pain-related outcomes. In particular, associations with perceived injustice were substantial.
Topics: Anger; Chronic Pain; Humans; Pain Measurement
PubMed: 34908255
DOI: 10.1515/sjpain-2021-0154 -
Journal of the American Academy of... May 2022Irritability is a defining feature or symptom in at least 15 DSM-5 disorders, and this does not even account for many more disorders that commonly co-occur with...
Irritability is a defining feature or symptom in at least 15 DSM-5 disorders, and this does not even account for many more disorders that commonly co-occur with irritability. However, just as the transdiagnostic nature of irritability supports its unequivocal importance in child mental health, it also contributes to criticisms that it is "ubiquitous." How to conceptualize the role of irritability in psychopathology rests on our ability to define it and its boundaries. Unfortunately, there is a lack of consensus on the definition of irritability. In fact, how to disentangle irritability's mood and behavioral components has been described as one of the biggest challenges related to irritability research. This editorial is a commentary on Zik et al.'s study, which takes an emprical approach to determine the overlap between questionnaire measures of irritability, anger, and aggression, thereby informing our conceptualization of irritabiltiy and focusing attention on critical measurement issues such as the impact of informant.
Topics: Aggression; Anger; Child; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Humans; Irritable Mood
PubMed: 35151791
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2022.02.001 -
Psychiatria Danubina 2021As a contribution to the dimensional classification of mental disorders, which in the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) could dominate over the...
BACKGROUND
As a contribution to the dimensional classification of mental disorders, which in the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) could dominate over the categorical, and in general, due to the impact of anger on the behavior of individuals in our society, it seems important to examine and analyze dimensions that represent risk factors for occurrence and development of anger disorders. Aim, to examine gender differences in the expression of the adaptive and maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism and anger (state and trait, as well as the anger expression and control) and to examine whether the dimensions of perfectionism are statistically significant predictors of anger.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
This study included a total of 600 primary and secondary school students (305 girls and 295 boys), 12 to 18 years old. Data were collected using a Socio-demographic Features Questionnaire for general information onto the Adaptive/ Maladaptive Perfectionism Scale (AMPS), Child-Adolescent Perfectionism Scale (CAPS), and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 Child and Adolescent (STAXI-2 C/A).
RESULTS
Statistically significant gender differences were found in the expression of the adaptive and maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism and anger. For aspects of anger, girls have been found to control their anger more often than boys. Multiple regression analysis indicates the important contribution of the dimensions of perfectionism in the explanation of anger in adolescents.
CONCLUSION
Given the results obtained, our research represents a contribution to the definition of a dimensional diagnostic system to prevent comorbidity of mental disorders and provide more clinically relevant information about each individual. The instrument which is used to measure anger in this study (STAXI-2 C/A; Brunner & Spielberger 2009) was for the first time applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results of this research are a contribution to its validation.
Topics: Adolescent; Anger; Child; Female; Humans; Male; Mental Disorders; Perfectionism; Personality Inventory; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 34718318
DOI: No ID Found -
Acta Psychologica Apr 2022Poetry evokes emotions. It does so, according to the theory we present, from three sorts of simulation. They each can prompt emotions, which are communications both...
Poetry evokes emotions. It does so, according to the theory we present, from three sorts of simulation. They each can prompt emotions, which are communications both within the brain and among people. First, models of a poem's semantic contents can evoke emotions as do models that occur in depictions of all kinds, from novels to perceptions. Second, mimetic simulations of prosodic cues, such as meter, rhythm, and rhyme, yield particular emotional states. Third, people's simulations of themselves enable them to know that they are engaged with a poem, and an aesthetic emotion can occur as a result. The three simulations predict certain sorts of emotion, e.g., prosodic cues can evoke basic emotions of happiness, sadness, anger, and anxiety. Empirical evidence corroborates the theory, which we relate to other accounts of poetic emotions.
Topics: Anger; Anxiety; Emotions; Happiness; Humans; Semantics
PubMed: 35101737
DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103506 -
Annals of Behavioral Medicine : a... Nov 2019The tendency to inhibit anger (anger-in) is associated with increased pain. This relationship may be explained by the negative affectivity hypothesis (anger-in increases...
BACKGROUND
The tendency to inhibit anger (anger-in) is associated with increased pain. This relationship may be explained by the negative affectivity hypothesis (anger-in increases negative affect that increases pain). Alternatively, it may be explained by the cognitive resource hypothesis (inhibiting anger limits attentional resources for pain modulation).
METHODS
A well-validated picture-viewing paradigm was used in 98 healthy, pain-free individuals who were low or high on anger-in to study the effects of anger-in on emotional modulation of pain and attentional modulation of pain. Painful electrocutaneous stimulations were delivered during and in between pictures to evoke pain and the nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR; a physiological correlate of spinal nociception). Subjective and physiological measures of valence (ratings, facial/corrugator electromyogram) and arousal (ratings, skin conductance) were used to assess reactivity to pictures and emotional inhibition in the high anger-in group.
RESULTS
The high anger-in group reported less unpleasantness, showed less facial displays of negative affect in response to unpleasant pictures, and reported greater arousal to the pleasant pictures. Despite this, both groups experienced similar emotional modulation of pain/NFR. By contrast, the high anger-in group did not show attentional modulation of pain.
CONCLUSIONS
These findings support the cognitive resource hypothesis and suggest that overuse of emotional inhibition in high anger-in individuals could contribute to cognitive resource deficits that in turn contribute to pain risk. Moreover, anger-in likely influenced pain processing predominantly via supraspinal (e.g., cortico-cortical) mechanisms because only pain, but not NFR, was associated with anger-in.
Topics: Adult; Anger; Attention; Electromyography; Facial Muscles; Female; Humans; Inhibition, Psychological; Male; Nociception; Pain; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Pleasure
PubMed: 31009029
DOI: 10.1093/abm/kaz016