Anger Management

Anger is a universal human emotion, yet its mismanagement can have serious consequences on individual well-being, relationships, and society. Understanding how anger works and how to effectively manage it has become an increasingly important focus in psychological research. Three meta-analyses disclose something maybe counterintuitive and provide a better idea of how anger management works.

How Emotion Regulation Shapes Anger

Larsson et al.'s article (2024) explored how emotion regulations work, highlighting two common strategies people use.

The first is underregulation — when someone lacks the tools to contain anger, leading to outward aggression. Contributing factors include poor physiological control, hostile misreading of situations, and low emotional awareness. Treatments like relaxation, cognitive reappraisal, and mindfulness can help.

The second is overregulation — masking and suppressing anger. When someone excessively suppresses or avoids anger, it may work in the short term, but eventually these behaviors become counterproductive. Rumination (dwelling on past grievances) is also considered an overregulation strategy, one that increases anger and aggression long-term. Rumination can also mask deeper emotions like shame or sadness.

The authors suggest that anger management needs to work on both the behavioral and cognitive level, noting that the physical aspect of anger management is often understated. Cognitive reappraisal — changing how a person thinks about a situation to alter its emotional impact — shows a surprisingly weak correlation as it is mentally demanding. Mindfulness may serve as a more effective replacement.

The Role of Arousal: What Fuels or Douses Rage

Kjærvik & Bushman's (2024) meta-analysis drew on 154 studies and over 10,000 samples. The authors describe anger as a negative, high-arousal emotion that drives people toward action rather than withdrawal. Their research is grounded in the two-factor theory of emotion: physiological arousal signals that something is happening, and we look to contextual cues to label what we're feeling.

The authors argue that effective anger management must address both physical and psychological arousal. From a physical perspective, simple delays — like counting to 10 — allow arousal to naturally dissipate. From a psychological perspective, CBT therapy is a proven resource.

A key counterintuitive finding: venting and jogging do not reduce anger — they actually elicit more arousal. Arousal-decreasing activities are an underestimated but essential part of anger management.

Anger Management in Adolescents: A Structured Program

Anjanappa et al. (2023) used two-month controlled experiments to evaluate a 6-session anger management program for school-going adolescents. The program effectively reduced anger by building three key skills:

• Problem-solving: helping teens identify triggers and resolve conflicts more constructively
• Communication: reducing aggression through assertiveness and social skills training
• Adjustment: improving relationships at home, with peers, teachers, and school

Key program elements included role play, relaxation exercises, anger/thought diaries, and cognitive restructuring. Students responded well to the interactive format, and results held up compared to a control group. The authors recommend that teachers, counselors, and nurses be trained to deliver such programs regularly, noting it could reduce the risk of violence and delinquency later in life.

Conclusion

Taken together, the three studies reviewed here highlight that anger management is a multidimensional challenge that cannot be addressed through a single strategy alone. Collectively, these findings call for anger management approaches that address both the physical and psychological dimensions, delivered in an interactive format.

References

Anjanappa, S., Govindan, R., Munivenkatappa, M., & Bhaskarapillai, B. (2023). Effectiveness of anger management program on anger level, problem solving skills, communication skills, and adjustment among school-going adolescents. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 12(1), 90. https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_1216_22

Kjærvik, S. L., & Bushman, B. J. (2024). A meta-analytic review of anger management activities that increase or decrease arousal: What fuels or douses rage? Clinical Psychology Review, 109, 102414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2024.102414

Larsson, J., Bjureberg, J., Zhao, X., & Hesser, H. (2024). The inner workings of anger: A network analysis of anger and emotion regulation. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 80(2), 437–455. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23622