Skip to main content

The Effects of Anger Rumination and Cognitive Reappraisal on Anger-In and Anger-Control

Cognitive Therapy and Research volume 41, pages 654–661 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Many studies have suggested that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is efficacious for anger expression problems. However, it is still unclear which emotion regulation strategies are most effective for anger-in (a tendency to suppress anger) and anger-control (a tendency to calm angry feelings). In the present study, anger rumination and cognitive reappraisal were manipulated, and their effects on anger-in and anger-control were investigated with a within-subjects design. Participants were 46 Japanese undergraduates assigned to the three conditions; free recall (no regulation strategy), anger rumination, and cognitive reappraisal. Results indicated that, compared to free recall and anger rumination, cognitive reappraisal, taking a third-person perspective and thinking about positive aspects of an anger-related event, induced fewer angry feelings, alleviated anger-in, and facilitated anger-control. Given that CBT has been efficacious for anger expression, CBT might facilitate taking a third-person perspective and thinking about the event more flexibly in clients.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

References

  • Baron, K. G., Smith, T. W., Butner, J., Nealey-Moore, J., Hawkins, M. W., & Uchino, B. N. (2007). Hostility, anger, and marital adjustment: Concurrent and prospective associations with psychosocial vulnerability. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 30, 1–10.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: International Universities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cattarin, J. A., Thompson, J. K., Thomas, C., & Williams, R. (2000). Body image, mood, and televised images of attractiveness. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 19, 220–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahlen, E. R. (2007). Cognitive therapy for clinically dysfunctional anger: A case study. Clinical Case Studies, 6, 493–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahlen, E. R., & Martin, R. C. (2005). The experience, expression, and control of anger in perceived social support. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 391–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deffenbacher, J. L., Dahlen, E. R., Lynch, R. S., Morris, C. D., & Gowensmith, W. N. (2000). An application of Beck’s cognitive therapy to general anger reduction. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 24, 689–697.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Del Vecchio, T., & O’Leary, K. D. (2004). Effectiveness of anger treatments for specific anger problems: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 15–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Denson, T. F., Moulds, M. L., & Grisham, J. R. (2012). The effects of analytical rumination, reappraisal, and distraction on anger experience. Behavior Therapy, 43, 355–364.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • DiGiuseppe, R., & Tafrate, R. C. (2004). The anger disorders scale. Tronto: Multi-Health Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • DiGiuseppe, R., & Tafrate, R. C. (2007). Understanding anger disorders. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Eckhardt, C., Jamison, T. R., & Watts, K. (2002). Anger experience and expression among male dating violence perpetrators during anger arousal. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 17, 1102–1114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenlohr-Moul, T. A., Peters, J. R., Pond, R. S. Jr., & DeWall, C. N. (2016). Both trait and state mindfulness predict lower aggressiveness via anger rumination: a multilevel mediation analysis. Mindfulness, 7, 713–726.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Fabiansson, E. C., Denson, T. F., Moulds, M. L., Grisham, J. R., & Schira, M. M. (2012). Don’t look back in anger: Neural correlates of reappraisal, analytical rumination, and angry rumination during recall of an anger-inducing autobiographical memory. NeuroImage, 59, 2974–2981.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grodnitzky, G. R., & Tafrate, R. C. (2000). Imaginal exposure for anger reduction in adult outpatients: A pilot study. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 31, 259–279.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (2013). Handbook of emotion regulation. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinberg, L. J., & Thompson, J. K. (1995). Body image and televised images of thinness and attractiveness: A controlled laboratory investigation. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 14, 325–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorgensen, R. S., & Kolodziej, M. E. (2007). Suppressed anger, evaluative threat, and cardiovascular reactivity: A tripartite profile approach. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 66, 102–108.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, N. J., Hortensius, R., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2013). When anger leads to rumination induction of relative right frontal cortical activity with transcranial direct current stimulation increases anger-related rumination. Psychological Science, 24, 475–481.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, R. C., & Dahlen, E. R. (2005). Cognitive emotion regulation in the prediction of depression, anxiety, stress, and anger. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 1249–1260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsumoto, D., Yoo, S. H., & Nakagawa, S. (2008). Culture, emotion regulation, and adjustment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 925.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McDermut, W., Fuller, J. R., DiGiuseppe, R., Chelminski, I., & Zimmerman, M. (2009). Trait anger and Axis I disorders: Implications for REBT. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive Behavior Therapy, 27, 121–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mohr, P., Howells, K., Gerace, A., Day, A., & Wharton, M. (2007). The role of perspective taking in anger arousal. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 507–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ray, R. D., Wilhelm, F. H., & Gross, J. J. (2008). All in the mind’s eye? anger rumination and reappraisal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 133–145.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spielberger, C. D. (1988). State-trait anger expression inventory (STAXI) research edition. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spielberger, C. D., Johnson, E. H., Russell, S. F., Crane, R. J., Jacobs, G. A., & Worden, T. J. (1985). The experience and expression of anger: Construction and validation of an anger expression scale. In M. A. Chesney & R. H. Rosenman (Eds.), Anger and hostility in cardiovascular and behavioural disorders. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spielberger, C. D., Krasner, S. S., & Solomon, E. P. (1988). The experience, expression, and control of anger. Individual differences, stress, and health psychology (pp. 89–108). New York, NY: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Spielberger, C. D., & Reheiser, E. C. (2009). Assessment of emotions: Anxiety, anger, depression, and curiosity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 1, 271–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sukhodolsky, D. G., Kassinove, H., & Gorman, B. S. (2004). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anger in children and adolescents: A meta-analysis. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 9, 247–269.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki, T., & Haruki, Y. (1994). The Relationship between anger and circulatory disease. Japanese Journal of Health Psychology, 7, 1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szasz, P. L., Hofmann, S. G., Heilman, R. M., & Curtiss, J. (2016). Effects of regulating anger and sadness on decision-making. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 45, 479–495.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Szasz, P. L., Szentagotai, A., & Hofmann, S. G. (2011). The effect of emotion regulation strategies on anger. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49, 114–119.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tafrate, R. C., Kassinove, H., & Dunedin, R. (2002). Anger episodes of angry community residents. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58, 1573–1590.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Trew, J. L., & Alden, L. E. (2009). Predicting anger in social anxiety: The mediating role of rumination. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 1079–1084.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whiteside, S. P., & Abramowitz, J. S. (2005). The expression of anger and its relationship to symptoms and cognitions in obsessive–compulsive disorder. Depression and Anxiety, 21, 106–111.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Kana Hashimoto, Yosuke Maeda, Yuri Matsuoka, Kimika Suzuki, Erika Toyama, and Sumire Yoshihara for help with data collection.

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP16J02752.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Psychology, Kansai University, 3-3-35, Yamatecho, Suita, Osaka, 564-0733, Japan

    Masaya Takebe

  2. Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan

    Masaya Takebe

  3. Institute of Education, Shinshu University, 6-ro, Nishi-Nagano, Nagano, 380-8544, Japan

    Fumito Takahashi

  4. School of Humanities, Kwansei Gakuin University, 1-1-155 Uegahara, Hyogo, Nishinomiya, 662-0891, Japan

    Hiroshi Sato

Authors
  1. Masaya Takebe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fumito Takahashi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hiroshi Sato
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Masaya Takebe.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Masaya Takebe, Fumito Takahashi, and Hiroshi Sato declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Animal Rights

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Takebe, M., Takahashi, F. & Sato, H. The Effects of Anger Rumination and Cognitive Reappraisal on Anger-In and Anger-Control. Cogn Ther Res 41, 654–661 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-017-9837-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-017-9837-x

Keywords

  • Anger-in
  • Anger-control
  • Anger rumination
  • Cognitive reappraisal