文档介绍：COGNITION AND EMOTION, 2000, 14 (6), 737–762
Who responds how and when to anger? The
assessment of actual anger response styles and their
relation to personality
Inke Bo¨ddeker and Gerhard Stemmler
University of Marburg, Germany
Actual anger response styles during anger encounters may well diverge from self-
reported habitual anger response styles, such as anger-in, anger-out, or anger
control. Also, the relationship of actual anger response styles to broad personality
traits is not well known. We obtained anger self-reports, physiological reactivity
(diastolic blood pressure, skin temperature at the forehead, and EMG extensor
digitorum), and ratings of facial anger expression, and defined actual anger
response style dimensions of ‘‘intensity’’, ‘‘suppression’’, ‘‘repression’’, and
‘‘denial’’ as particular patterns of discrepancies among these responses. A total of
80 female subjects were randomly assigned to a treatment (Tr) and a control (Co)
group. Anger was induced through real-life provocations. Compared to Co, Tr
subjects showed larger physiological responses and reported more anger. Habitual
anger response styles did not predict actual styles, whereas extraversion and
neuroticism did. Control subjects scoring low on extraversion or high on
neuroticism reacted with high denial, that is, with stronger physiological and
behavioural than experiential anger, whereas the opposite pattern of low denial was
found for treatment subjects low on extraversion or high on neuroticism. These
results suggest that both the particular situation and broad but not narrow
personality traits exert an influence on actual anger response styles.
That individuals differ in how they respond to anger has e part of
everyday knowledge. It is far from clear, however, who would respond how and
when. Can anger responses be predicted from personality characteristics (who)?
Which varieties of response to anger actually exist and how should they