Focuses on the psychological and physical signs displayed by
persons when they are angry of have been aggravated, while highlighting
the impact of hostile behavior on the heart and blood pressure rates.
Importance of controlling hostile impulses; Objectives of anger
management programs; Why person with heart problems should monitor their
hostile impulses.
By
Jamie Talan, published on July 01, 1998
BRAIN
Why do some people lose their heads when they're angry? Because,
say researchers, they don't know their own minds--or bodies.
People who are prone to lash out in anger often ignore the signs,
both physical and psychological, that they are getting angry-signs that
help others control their hostile impulses, says Heath Demaree, Ph.D., of
the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute.
People who score low on tests of hostility are tuned into their
bodies, he finds. They know when their blood pressure is rocketing or
their heart is beating too fast. Being aware of these physical changes
helps them to back off and prevent their emotions from careening out of
control.
But a different process takes place in hotheads. They aren't aware
that they are becoming physiologically aroused, so they persist in
behavior that's distressing to themselves and others. What's more,
chronically hostile people react to stress in an exaggerated way, and
take far longer to calm down.
Demaree thinks that the link between self-awareness and hostility
may begin in the brain itself. The processing of negative emotions takes
place in the right side of the cerebrum-the same area that produces
conscious awareness. Hostile people may actually have deficits in this
region of the brain. Reporting in Neuropsychology, Demaree found that
chronically angry people are also less aware of their facial expressions,
body position, and voice inflections.
The psychologist has since taken his findings from the lab into the
clinic, running an anger management program in which he teaches people
how to become more self-aware. Participants learn how to pay attention to
bodily cues like a racing heart, shortened breath, and sweaty palms. Such
awareness, he says, "is key to protecting yourself from acting in ways
that you may later regret."
Tags:
anger,
anger management program,
body position,
brain,
cerebrum,
conscious awareness,
cues,
demaree,
emotion,
Heath,
hostility,
hotheads,
impulses,
physical changes,
racing heart,
self awareness,
sweaty palms,
ucla neuropsychiatric institute,
voice inflections
