Is anger emotion or behavior?

[HereSince1628]

Poll question: Is anger emotion or behavior?

Endorse the choice that is most like your belief

Just like the creepy psyche tests that never have the answer you would name for yourself, except you can explain yourself in a reply.

And you could mention in a reply any behavior, thought or sensation that is a unique characteristic of anger.

[mopinko]

1. anger is a useful emotion.

there would be no battles for a better world without someone getting pissed off. but they don't call it blind rage for nothing. nor do they say that love is blind without reason.

[HereSince1628]

2. So in addition you're saying something like the

emotion may lead to behavior.

From the standpoint of understanding "the system" to which anger belongs having a sense of order is important information.

[postatomic]

5. I could not disagree more

A battle has a clearly defined beginning and end. A soldier that fights with emotion is a dead soldier. Blind rage is reckless and dangerous.

Oh, and love is only blind when you're having sex. :D

[HereSince1628]

7. I don't know if rage = anger,

I would agree that rage is a downstream consequence of other mental processes and so may be removed from a inputs that perception of immediate circumstance might contribute. What makes rage different than anger? Does rage cease to have signalling properties and only have aggressive/destructive consequenes?


Re blindness...Having no situational awareness could certainly be dangerous because it may result in being oblivious to risks. That could certainly make a person vulnerable to a risk that is either not percieved or which is dismissed. Are angry people really oblivious to risks? Are "inappropriately" angry peole oblivious to risks?

Acts that are fearless and acts that are brave often seem distinguishable by the awareness of risk prior to the behavior.

[HereSince1628]

3. I do recognize this is horribly worded...plese yes=emotion, no=anger

tried to get it up before I had to leave for an appointment undeniably failed twice.

[woo me with science]

10. Aw.

I liked the poll when it was surreal. O8)

[HereSince1628]

11. Thanks, Classic Mental Health Support...

In this group we always respond very well to ridicule.

[woo me with science]

13. Hey, it was not meant to be ridicule.

I really thought it was cute.

[postatomic]

4. Anger is a behavior fueled by emotion

And Anger is almost always a reactionary response to any variety of situations. Anger can be learned and chosen as the best reaction because a person has had "favorable" results in the past when Anger was used. Results that a person could perceive as benefiting them when in reality it usually is hurting them more than the person or persons they direct their anger toward.

Anger-the behavior-puts most people on the defensive. They can't grasp the anger reaction as being a reasonable response. Anger can also create Anger with the person(s) who anger is being directed at. Anger rarely accomplishes anything.

[HereSince1628]

6. Behaviors may be seen as kinesthetic (motion) and/or semiotic (signalling)

Do you have any examples of kinesthetic and/or semiotic behavior that are unique to anger?

If it is body movement, what does the body movement achieve? Sometimes movements seem to achieve nothing. Such behaviors have been called 'displaced' behavioral responses--a response to to something that actually isn't present--because the behavior it is the best response available for the circumstance. Does anger as behavior achieve anything?

If anger is a semiotic (signalling through facial expression, posturing, vocalizations) then the resulting communication depends upon accurate perception of the signal--something not done by the signaler but by the reciever. Does 'anger' send an ambiguous signal? Do we learn to send unambiguous signals? Do we learn to interpret correctly what would otherwise be an ambigous and thereby missed communication? Can we send a signal that is specific to say defense, frustration, aggression? As recievers can we tell the difference between a signal of frustration, annoyance, defense, or aggression?

[postatomic]

8. When a dog is 'growling' at you

Is the dog just 'talking' to gain your attention so you'll play with the dog or is the dog sending a warning to you that an offensive attack may come? How we answer that question is based on our own life experiences, conditioning, and knowledge.

It almost sounds to me that what you are describing isn't anger. It may be fear, confusion, frustration. These emotions could be expressed with anger. And no, anger as a behavior doesn't achieve anything. Anger is very primal.

In what you refer to as motion anger I can tell the difference between someone who is just pissed and yelling at me to express their anger and someone who is preparing to attack me. Motion anger would be communicated with body language. Slamming your fist on a table. Breaking a dish. These would be expressions of motion anger. But I refer back to the dog. Someone who is experienced with dogs could tell the difference. It's the same with people. A trained mental health professional can 'usually' tell the difference between someone who is expressing emotions like fear, confusion, and frustration AND someone who is most likely to become violent.

I only witnessed one 'take down' when I was in-patient. He was high. I'm guessing the next day he probably didn't even remember what happened. Most people would have probably looked at him and said he was angry. I didn't see that. I saw a person very afraid. He was thrown in a facility against his will. The lead staffer talked to him. She was very calm and did her best but eventually he started taking wild swings at people. At that point they did the 'take down' and carried him off.

How we signal the emotions you mention are usually in a manner that we have trained ourselves. The crying baby will usually immediately garner attention from a parent. The baby learns that crying will bring attention to them.

It comes down to how we communicate. Anger has no place in a constructive discussion. The simplest way to express to someone that you are frustrated is to tell them "I'm frustrated because (fill in the blank)"

As I re-read this it appears I'm all over the place with my comments. I 'think' I know why you are asking the original question so I'm trying to address my response to best fit your criteria.

I have an Anger behavior problem. It's much better than it was. My SO has also learned not to put me in any situation that might bring out Mr. Hyde.

You've obviously done your homework on this subject and have me at a disadvantage. I can't communicate with you at the same intellectual level.

[HereSince1628]

12. Why this could matter...

An emotion is an innate feeling associated with a mental state.

Emotions are precognitive--we can't do ANYTHING about these feelings that result from stimulus. They just happen.

Affect (as in signalled behavior) is how we communicate, and are the phenomena on which Others judge our emotional state--we as signallers and they as recievers can do things to make communication clear and less misunderstood.

Behavior is assumed to have post-cognitive components that can regulate the kinesthetic components of communication to insure a correct response.

To say someone is emotionally dysfunctional is to say that independent of cognition, they are generating feelings that don't serve them in a positive manner--but there isn't anything that can be done about that.

If someone is affectively dysfunctional they can practice communication. They can IMPROVE their communication so that miscommunication isn't the cause of dysfunction. If they can cease to communicate affective information about internal emotional states, they can avoid the consequences that follow socially dysfunctional affective communication.

Behaviors in humans tend to be 'perfectable' and have many components that can be modified by cognition to produce desired outcomes.

If you look at Anger as an emotion...well you can't do much about that. Emotions are percieved 'feelings' associated with mental states arising from stimulus. They are preceptable physiological states. They aren't right or wrong.

If you look at Anger as a set of signals...we start with ambiguous communication and typically learn to communicate with very high precision. Communication with others is a very central feature for any animal that is gregarious (lives in a group). On Earth, H. sapiens is particularly spectacular at communicating.

If you look at Anger as a behavior, it is as controllable as pissing your pants. It may be driven by psychic or physiological urges, but being a behavior it is considered to be manageable. If you don't manage your anger, it is because you either can't or haven't learned to do it.

[elleng]

9. Emotion leads to behavior,

whether its positive or not

The emotion anger may lead either to positive/useful/constructive behavior, or to negative/useless/destructive behavior.

[JeffersonChick]

14. As I see it..

Anger is a feeling. If I choose to express that anger, for instance, by yelling at someone, taking it out on my spouse, or slamming doors, it then becomes an emotion (long long ago, I read about the idea that "emotion" = energy in motion).

So, the behavior itself (slamming the door) isn't anger, but rather a means by which anger is expressed as an emotion.

One can feel anger and choose not to express it. Not by repressing, but by dealing with it internally, choosing to let go of it.