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Anger

Anger

Anger is a fundamental emotion accompanied by an activation of the sympathetic nervous system in response to a threat, provocation, or insult. Traditional views saw anger as a feeling of displeasure and of antagonism. A more neutral view is that anger is neither good nor bad (like all emotions), but rather the quantity and quality of the emotion will be determined to be either harmful or helpful to reaching one’s goals. The physiological arousal experienced in anger is similar to that of fear/anxiety due to the functional “fight or flight” response along with the sympathetic nervous system activation. Whereas, in fear, the cognitive response is to want to escape and behaviorally one may flee; with anger, the cognitive and behavioral analogs are to oppose or attack.
As an emotion, anger is to be differentiated from behavior. High levels of anger can lead to reactive aggression, which in extreme forms, are recognized as violence. As explained in the aggression entry, not all aggressive behavior is connected with violence and anger does not always lead to aggression.
As identified early with the Yerkes Dodson Law (1908), there is a curvilinear, inverted-u-shaped relationship between emotional arousal and performance.
Later, Hanin (2000) explained the Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning, wherein the characteristics of the athlete as well as the task at hand may show shifts in what emotions assist performance optimally. Anger has often been seen as a ‘negative’ emotion and people will often deny its presence. Rather, newer views recognize that, at moderate levels, like other emotions, anger can assist with performance, while high levels interfere with processes necessary (e.g., cognitive processing speed, decision making, visual scanning and synthesis, and fine motor coordination) to succeed in sport and in life.
References
Hanin, Y. L. (2000). An individualized approach to emotions in sport. In Y. L. Hanin (Ed.), Emotions in sport (pp. ix xii). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Yerkes, R. M., & Dodson, J. D. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18, 459 482.
***Contributed by Mitch Abrams for Hackfort, D., Schinke, R. J., & Strauss, B. (Eds.). (2019). Dictionary of sport psychology: sport, exercise, and performing arts. Academic Press.
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