Considering the When, Where, Why and How of Anger
This issue focuses on a familiar, complex and often troubling emotion: anger. As Roger Petersen, one of our contributors remarks, this seems a good time to talk about anger. At a time of polarized politics, acute social and environmental challenges and clashing values, we live in heated times. Now more than ever, we need to understand the role that anger plays in our personal and political lives.
Our first feature article is by Roger Petersen, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science at MIT, who has published widely on war, violence and the role of emotion in conflict. In his article, he sets out a model of anger as understood by political scientists, then goes on to examine political actors seek to arouse anger in others as a means to achieve their goals; and he considers why anger is such a useful political tool. He ends by raising some possible future directions for research.
Our second article is by Ursula Hess Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at the Humboldt University, Berlin, an expert on the communication of emotions. In her article, she explores the effect of anger on the angry individual, both in motivating them to take action and in energizing and emboldening them to do so. However, while she emphasizes the positive effects of anger for the angry individual, she also notes the disparities in how anger is perceived in men and women.
Macalester Bell, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bryn Mawr College has contributed our third article. Bell’s research is in ethics and moral psychology, and has written about anger, contempt, blame and forgiveness. While Petersen and Hess focus on the uses of anger, Bell focuses on its moral and political value. As she points out, philosophers commonly stress the damaging effects of anger; however, there is scope for a more positive evaluation of anger – or rather resentment – for example, as a protest against injustice and a motivation for action against it. She then considers what features anger must have if it is to play these roles.
The fourth and final article is by Andrew Beatty, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Brunel University, London. Beatty brings a rather different approach to the study of anger as it is experienced and used by the Niha people in Indonesia. As an anthropologist Beatty is more concerned to understand anger in a particular cultural context, using both ethnographic and narrative approaches. In his article, Beatty describes how the Niha use expressions of anger as a tool of negotiation and bargaining, and as a way of avoiding – rather than provoking – violence. But he also offers a narrative account of a case of ‘raw’ anger, emphasizing that in neither case is it possible to draw a clear line between the natural and cultural.
While these four articles represent different disciplinary perspectives on anger, there are significant common threads. Most obviously, they all emphasize anger’s communicative functions, while most also emphasize its role in motivation. Several note its varied forms (rage, indignation, resentment, and so on), and raise questions about the relationship between anger and related emotions such as disgust and contempt. Hess and Bell touch on questions of gender; Petersen and Beatty both described ways in which anger is not only experienced but also used.
ISRE Interview
We are thrilled to have Professor Carolyn Zahn-Waxler join us for an interview in the current issue. Zahn-Waxler pioneered the early research on the development of empathy and prosocial responding in infancy. Her stories from her time working at the National Institute of Health demonstrate both the difficulties faced by women scientists and the hard-fought progress that has been made. Moreover, Zahn-Waxler’s recognition and ownership of her own mental illness provides a powerful example of recognizing and normalizing often stigmatized psychological issues. No doubt many of our readers, junior and senior alike, will resonate with her experiences. Though retired, Zahn-Waxler remains a prominent presence in current research examining the early development of empathy, relations of empathy with developmental psychopathology, and engagement in translational research.
ISRE Spotlight
Our Spotlight feature highlights the research of Professor Jessica Lougheed. Her work stands at the forefront of utilizing advanced methodological techniques to examine micro- and macro-level emotion processes. Lougheed overviews her research examining the unfolding of real-time emotions in parent-adolescent interactions. Her approach views the interpersonal context of emotion as a dynamic system in which the experience and expressive behavior of the individuals are inherently connected in time, both in the present and in subsequent social and emotional behaviors. Though her research is developmental in nature, its elegance lies in conceptualizing the intertwined nature of emotion systems across social partners, providing intriguing possibilities for emotion researchers across multiple disciplines.
Announcements
This year, ISRE President Christine Harris stepped down as President of ISRE. Agneta Fischer has served as Interim President and has kindly written our regular column on ISRE Matters for this issue. She emphasizes the increasingly competitive environment in which ISRE operates, its continuing as an interdisciplinary, and the importance of its members, including its junior members. Agneta also notes the recent changes to the ISRE Board and the election of Ursula Hess as incoming ISRE President.
A recap of the recent ISRE Meeting in Amsterdam is provided by hosts Disa Sauter and Agneta Fischer. We are sure that we speak for everyone in applauding their work putting on a superb conference!
We hope that our readers have enjoyed a peaceful and productive summer in 2019, as we look forward to planning and assembling the next issue of Emotion Researcher.
Warmly,
Carolyn & Eric
Carolyn Price is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the Open University (UK). Her research addresses a broad range of questions about emotions – what they are, what they tell us about the world, the norms by which we evaluate them, and (most recently) their relation to the self. She is also interested in particular types of emotions, – such as love, grief and regret. Her book Emotion (Polity) appeared in 2015.
Eric Walle is an Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of California, Merced. His theoretical writings emphasize the functions of emotions, particularly in interpersonal contexts. His empirical work examines emotional development, principally in infancy and early childhood, as well as how individuals perceive and respond to emotional communication.
