Emotion Regulation of Others and Self

Anger is an energy!

Posted on Mar 14, 2011 by Andy Lane

Anyone interested in studying anger just needs to watch live sport; it’s a fantastic natural laboratory.  Sport has winners and losers and people take result seriously, and they seem to do so at all levels of competition. It’s not just elite athletes who get emotional; take yourself down to your local park to watch soccer on a Sunday morning and you will see plenty of displays of anger.  Continuing with soccer, take any game at any level and you will hear abusive comments from players towards officials if they perceive an incorrect decision. What is true in sport is that people seem to get angry easily and when they do so, display it for all to see. 

Why do people get so angry when playing sport? Sport is goal directed, and attaining your goals means the opposition can’t attain theirs; only one team can win. We might think that sports such as marathon running, and particularly events such as the London marathon are relatively devoid of anger. However, our own research says otherwise. If runners don’t achieve their personal goals they report anger as a consequence (Lane et al., 2007). Our research says that many runners report feeling angry before and during races (Lane, Devonport, & Stevens, 2010). Furthermore, many runners believe feeling angry will help performance. 

So if we ask ourselves again why do sports people display anger, the answer might be because they believe it helps them perform better. Why might this be the case? One theory that offers an explanation is evolutionary psychology (Nesse & Ellsworth, 2009). We know that emotions are universal concepts and an integral part of human evolution. Evolutionary psychologists propose that each emotion is like a computer programme that has been designed to help accomplish a specific task (Nesse, 1990). Each emotion is energy giving, and the function of anger is to help prepare the individual to deal with frustration in relation to whether the individual is achieving his or her goal.

If anger helps develop beliefs that it helps performance, then it might be that people have learned to recognise its message (Baumeister, Vohs, DeWall, & Zhang, 2007). The key function of anger is that it stimulates the message that action is needed and it does this by increasing arousal. Evolutionary psychologists argue that human beings are hard-wired to respond to goal challenges by activating a physiological response. In many everyday situations where anger is resolved by discussion, such a physiological response is largely unnecessary. However, in competitive sport, increased physiological arousal can be functional to performance.  When an athlete is trying to increase arousal, imagining negative scenarios can have an immediate effect (Baumeister et al 2001). By its nature, competition involves trying to prevent another person from achieving his or her goal and therefore, when people see this occurring, and then some symptoms of anger are triggered. 

So this raises the question, if you believe anger helps you perform better, then should you look to get angrier before competing. Or, if something in the environment winds you up, should you look to channel these feelings of anger to the source of the frustration with a view to increasing motivation? Quite possibly: If success is the primary goal, we could say yes, getting angry is desirable as it helps bring about motivated behaviour. The notion that achieving success in sport is worth whatever it takes is a view that many coaches and athletes would endorse (Gould & Maynard, 2009).  However, an individual has to take account of their thoughts and feelings in all aspects of life, not just sport, and in most situations and at most times, people would want to control their anger, reducing its intensity and rationalising accompanying thoughts. 

It’s worth taking some time to consider what accompanying thoughts will come with this emotion. On the plus side, it might be that getting angry is used to get yourself aroused or activated. We found that some athletes reported feeling angry and happy before competition, possibly they anticipated succeeding (A. M. Lane & Devonport, 2010). On the minus side, anger might associate with poor performance, possibly shameful behaviour, undesirable thoughts, and health risks associated with high blood pressure etc. Some athletes can count numerous times when frustration over her/his preparation increased her/his feelings of anger appeared to lead to poor performance. There is a great deal of evidence showing that intense anger can be harmful not only for performance (Beedie, Terry, & Lane, 2000) but also well-being (Spielberger & Reheiser, 2009). Evidence shows anger can be associated with negative thoughts and feelings associated with depressed mood. For example, the person blames himself or herself for performing poorly and become angry as a consequence (Lane & Terry, 2000). Once this happens, the tendency is for anger to spiral upwards as performance deteriorates further. What this does is to reinforce beliefs that anger is detrimental for performance. When an athlete experiences feeling angry, even if this is anticipatory in nature, it sends a single that performance might begin deteriorating.

In conclusion, displays of anger might be seen so often in sport because athletes believe it helps performance, it raises arousal and develop thoughts of single-minded goal pursuit. That’s all well and good if sporting success is worth it.  However, I wonder just how many people enjoy the experience of being angry. If you believe anger helps performance, and you are not successful, you run the risk of exacerbating your disappointment.

References
Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., DeWall, C. N., & Zhang, L. (2007). How emotion shapes behavior: Feedback, anticipation, and reflection, rather than direct causation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 167-203.
Beedie, C. J., Terry, P. C., & Lane, A. M. (2000). The Profile of Mood States and athletic performance: two meta-analyses. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 12(1), 49-68.
Gould, D., & Maynard, I. (2009). Psychological preparation for the Olympic Games. Journal of Sports Sciences, 27(13), 1393-1408.
Lane, A. M., & Devonport, T. J. (2010). Can anger and tension be helpful? Relationships between mood states and emotional intelligence during optimal performance. Athletic Insight.
Lane, A. M., Devonport, T. J., & Stevens, M. (2010). Relationships between emotional intelligence, pre-race and post-race emotions in 10-mile runners. Athletic Insight.
Lane, A. M., & Terry, P. C. (2000). The nature of mood: development of a conceptual model with a focus on depression. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 12 (1), 16-33.
Lane, A. M., Whyte, G. P., George, K., Shave, R., Stevens, M. J., & Barney, S. (2007). Marathon: A Fun Run? Mood state changes among runners at the London Marathon. In A. M. Lane (Ed.), Mood and human performance: Conceptual, measurement, and applied issues (pp. 265-274). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science.
Nesse, R. M. (1990). Evolutionary explanations of emotions. Human Nature, 1(3), 261-289.
Nesse, R. M., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2009). Evolution, emotions, and emotional disorders. American Psychologist, 64(2), 129-139.
Spielberger, C. D., & Reheiser, E. C. (2009). Assessment of emotions: anxiety, anger, depression, and curiosity. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 1(3), 271-302.

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