• About Lakeside
  • Therapeutic Schools
  • Training
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Online Learning

Lakeside

Redefine the Rest of Your Life

  • Home
  • About Us
    • Donate to Lakeside
    • Employment
  • Locations
  • Blog
    • Anger and Violence
    • Bullying
    • Early Childhood Education and Development
    • Effective Discipline
    • News
    • Professional development
    • Self Esteem
    • Teen Issues
    • Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care
  • Contact Us
loading...

January 27, 2011

Defining Anger and Its Causes

“So, why were you angry?” Usually, the angered person will refer to something someone said or did in provocation. While, angry outbursts can feel justified when they are responses to volatile situations or threats, whatever the reason, angry outbursts often build walls to relationships that are very difficult to overcome later in life. We will discuss this complex topic in several posts.

Evaluating anger from two points of view

boy holding hands over ears
Anger can damage relationships long-term

It is quite helpful to define and evaluate the topic of anger from a reactive and a neurological point of view. We have gleaned this data from accepted scientific research published over the last few decades.

Though there are many definitions of anger, Bernard Gold, author of Healthy Anger, describes it as “an emotional and subjective experience. It is separate and distinct from the physical reactions that might result from it.”

In other words, anger is often a reaction to other emotions and thoughts. So, when we think of the cause (or causes) of anger, we really need to recognize what specific set of connections exist between emotions and the physiological responses to those emotions.

It is also true that our reactive emotions often have a social context; meaning, they reflect beliefs and behaviors that are accepted and expected by a culture.

To summarize, we are angry largely because of emotion, and that anger is both emotional and physiological. Further, we know that certain outside influences cause us either to erupt or internalize these angry emotions, and it is critical to understand what triggers this process.

Anger-triggering thoughts

Many episodes of anger result from anger-triggering thoughts. These types of perceptions or beliefs can also activate or exacerbate the intensity of someone’s anger. These are thoughts that we have around someone’s behavior that include:

  • the perception that he or she has been deliberately harmed or victimized by someone
  • the perception the person intended to do harm
  • the belief the person was wrong to attempt to intentionally do harm and he or she should have behaved better

Distorting thoughts

angry couple
What has triggered or distorted your anger?

To complicate matters, we tend to distort another person’s intentions, and these distortions can throw us into intense anger.

Why do we distort what someone says or means and interpret them as a threat to us? We have set up expections distortedly so that we can be blamed, or we personalize, exaggerate, overgeneralize or misunderstand the event.

Many times, when I have spoken with individuals who have struggled with anger, they have attributed their anger to these perceptions or distortions not realizing the process of how these perceptions, true or not, can be the source of anger.

Becoming aware of these triggers

The more we understand the nature of these triggers, the clearer we can be about the process that leads to the level of anger and the ensuing reactions that cause problems in our relationships and families.

Stay tuned. In my next post, we will talk more about the cause of anger from a neurological perspective. Anger is a complex topic with much to talk about and being informed will help us deal with this prominent problem of our society.

Gerry Vassar, President and CEO, Lakeside Educational Network

Some information taken from Understanding Anger, 2004, Diane Wagenhals.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Related

By Gerry Vassar Filed Under: Anger and Violence, Lakeside

Comments

  1. tom says

    October 8, 2018 at 7:07 am

    Thanks for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research on this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such magnificent information being shared freely out there.

    Reply
  2. PPC Ads in Australia says

    November 26, 2019 at 4:45 am

    Great article. Really impressed with the writing skills of the writer. I have bookmarked this page so that i can check all your new posts. Thank you for sharing

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Us

For struggling students, success is often an elusive dream and failure a painful reality. Lakeside's brain-based, trauma-informed approach to serving young people alters that reality. When students perceive themselves as failures, they can react by withdrawing or acting out. Lakeside offers another option, one that leads to success today and in the future. Our therapeutic schools and … Continue Reading

Subscribe to Blog

Enter your email address to subscribe Lakesidelink and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

  • Do you Suspect Your Child is Depressed? December 5, 2019
  • Sharing Trauma Narratives through Art December 4, 2019
  • Giving Tuesday December 3, 2019
  • Holiday Trauma Triggers November 27, 2019
  • Happy Thanksgiving – 2019 November 26, 2019

Categories

  • ACE
  • Anger and Violence
  • Anxiety
  • Attachment Disorder
  • Autism
  • Back to School
  • Brain Breaks
  • Brain States
  • Bullying
  • Child Trauma
  • Depression
  • Diane Wagenhals
  • Drugs
  • Early Childhood Education and Development
  • Education
  • Effective Discipline
  • Effective Parenting
  • emotions
  • Featured
  • Graduates
  • Holidays
  • Intervention and Prevention
  • Lakeside
  • Leadership
  • Mental Illness
  • Mindfulness
  • Narcotics
  • Neurologic
  • NeuroLogic Initiative
  • Neuroscience
  • Neuroscience and education
  • News
  • NGO
  • Online Learning
  • opioid epidemic
  • Personality Disorders
  • Politics
  • Professional development
  • PTSD
  • School Violence
  • Self Esteem
  • Sexual Abuse
  • Special Messages
  • Stress
  • Suicide
  • Support for Parents
  • Support for Teachers
  • Technology and life
  • Teen Issues
  • Therapeutic care
  • Trauma
  • Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care
  • Trauma Informed Enviroment
  • Trauma Informed Training
  • Uncategorized
  • Veterans
  • Videos
  • Violence
  • Workplace policies


1350 Welsh Road, Suite 400
North Wales, PA 19454
P: 215-654-9414
F: 215-654-9523

Lakeside

  • Home
    • About Us
    • Employment
    • Locations
  • Donate to Lakeside
  • Contact Us
  • Blog

Therapeutic Schools

  • About Therapeutic Education
    • Our Facility Dogs
  • Schools
    • Lakeside School
    • Girls Academy
    • Souderton Vantage
    • Elementary Program
    • Upper Merion Vantage
    • E-Learning
    • Summer School
  • School Calendars
  • Food and Nutrition Services
  • PowerSchool for Parents
  • Contact Us
  • Services
    • Mobile Support
    • In-School Counselors
  • Contact Us

Global Institute

  • Global Institute Home
    • Trauma Training
    • Pricing
    • About LGI
      • Course Registration
      • Training Locations
      • Resources for IFP
        • CEU’s
        • Certifications Available
        • Schedule
        • Current Courses
        • Other Courses
        • Policies
        • Research
  • Contact Us

NeuroLogic

  • NeuroLogic Initiative
    • About NeuroLogic
    • For Schools
    • For Individuals
  • Contact Us
  • Lakeside Store
  • About Lakeside
  • Therapeutic Schools
  • Training
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Online Learning

Copyright © 2019 · Education Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in