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Anger Proneness

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Angry personality; Probability of anger; Trait anger

Definition

Anger proneness refers to individual differences in the frequency, intensity, and duration of anger across time and situations.

Introduction

Anger is conceptualized as a common emotional response to loss, goal thwarting, and frustration (Berkowitz 1989). Anger is observed cross culturally, and the behavioral referents of anger – threatening, aggressive, and dominant behaviors – are also observed across species. Although anger is often deemed a “negative” emotion, the ubiquity of anger across contexts coupled with observations of anger-related behaviors across species suggests that the emotion has resulted in some adaptive advantages over the course of human evolution.

Anger has been operationalized in many ways, and most definitions include a combination of cognitive, behavioral, and affective responses made in response to threat (Ronan et al. 2014). Cognitive processes of anger include selective attention toward...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI, USA

    Danielle Paull & James Gerhart

Authors
  1. Danielle Paull
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  2. James Gerhart
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to James Gerhart .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Kevin Beaver

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Paull, D., Gerhart, J. (2019). Anger Proneness. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1693-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1693-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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