ABSTRACT
Harmon-Jones and Harmon-Jones show that anger is best considered a multicomponent process and they review research on its components—appraisals, feelings, action plans, activation states, and physiology. Olatunji et al. provide an overview of cognitive-behavioral anger treatments and their effectiveness, whereas Paivio and Carriere demonstrate how anger can be conceptualized and worked with within an emotion-focused approach. Therapists and psychologists have long pondered the value of expression versus the active suppression of a feeling. A simple prescription either to inhibit or to avoid inhibiting emotional experience and expression is not supported, clinically or empirically. Individuals who are chronically inhibited in their expression seem to benefit more from disclosure than less inhibited individuals. Psychotherapy is in large part the intricate dance and balance between inhibition and action in various aspects of human experience. An additional factor to be considered would be how the anger is related to clients’ personalities with regard to anger proneness and trait anger.
