Habitual Goals and Strategies in Anger Regulation

Abstract

The article presents two studies done with the Anger-Related Reactions and Goals Inventory (ARGI) combining the assessment of functional and dysfunctional anger-related reactions with the goals that people pursue in regulating interpersonal anger. Study 1 (N = 756) corroborated the questionnaire’s psychometric properties and factorial structure. Correlations with indicators for psychosocial well-being, trait anger, and the Big Five dimensions were largely in line with our predictions. Study 2 documented the convergence between self-reports (N = 104) and reports of two knowledgeable informants (N = 188), in particular for the dysfunctional reactions. We conclude that the ARGI is a reliable and valid questionnaire that taps into facets of anger regulation that are of high relevance for research on the consequences of anger for health and well-being.

Adult attachment orientations and anger expression in romantic relationships: A dyadic analysis.

“…Researchers have identified a number of adaptive and maladap tive styles of anger expression that either promote or impede the functional expression of anger (Campbell & Muncer, 2008;Deffenbacher et al, 1996;Kubiak, Wiedig-Allison, Zgoriecki, & Weber, 2011;Linden et al, 2003;Tangney, Wagner, Hill-Barlow, Marschall, & Gramzow, 1996;. Maladaptive anger-related behaviors and attitudes include malevolent intentions, rumination, pessimism about the conse quences of anger episodes, physical or verbal aggression, and attempts to suppress angry feelings, to escape angering situations, or to dismiss the importance of angering events.…”

Effects of Habitual Anger on Employees’ Behavior during Organizational Change

“…Even though current research shows that the habitual anger reaction serves as a valid predictor for actual anger reaction [19], it should be taken into account that the present study is based on cross-sectional data and therefore we could not assess causality. Longitudinal studies are requested to gain an in-depth understanding of the interdependencies aforementioned.…”

“…Contradictory, the habitual anger reaction humor increases here the likelihood of deviant resistance to change, mediated by affective commitment to change (the lower affective commitment to change, the higher humor). These findings question the interpretation of the ARGI-R humor scale by Kubiak and colleagues [19] and suggest that this scale should be rather interpreted as change related cynicism [63]. Cynicism is an often shown reaction in the context of organizational change as such changes are often characterized by value-conflicts [64], individual failure [65] or a perception of incompetence, laziness or a lack of integrity within others [66].…”

“…The individual, habitual anger reaction at the workplace (28 items) and the related habitual goals (28 items, 4-pt-Likert-scale) have been measured by the “Anger Reactions and Goals Scale” (ARGI) [19,45] which has been adapted to the work-context. Dimensions for anger reactions within the ARGI are venting, feedback, ruminating, humor, downplaying, submission, and distraction which fits in with the multidimensional concept of anger applied here (α = 0.69–0.83).…”

“…Functional regulation strategies include providing feedback, downplaying the incident’s negative impact, humor or distraction. Dysfunctional anger regulation strategies leading to negative outcomes for the individual’s well-being comprise venting, submission or rumination [19]. It is important to note that an anger reaction, conducive for recovering or increasing individual well-being and that is therefore perceived as being beneficial by the individual, does not have to be functional in terms of performance or organizational outcomes at the organizational level as we will exemplify further down.…”