Longstanding political, social, and academic debates surrounding women’s anger have followed a distinct pattern. On one hand, critics disparage women for writing and speaking in an angry voice, casting them as bitter, irrational, or they assign them the pejorative “angry feminist”. Women often respond to these critiques by defending their anger, and reframe this emotional response as a legitimate response to oppression. Despite the utility of this intervention, this debate has given rise to a binary structure where a woman’s anger is either a legitimate response to oppression, or an irrational emotional response. As a result, the alternative functions to women’s anger remain largely unexplored. Working against binary logic, this dissertation aims to reframe this debate, and answer the following questions: what are the alternative functions for women’s anger outside of the binary terms of this debate? How can literary representations of anger complicate this conversation? Drawing from affect theory, intersectional feminist theory, discourse analysis, feminist discourse analysis, philosophical discussions about emotion, feminist literary theory, and ongoing debates surrounding nostalgia, this dissertation explores the function of anger within contemporary Canadian and American women’s literature. Before undertaking literary analysis in subsequent chapters, this dissertation first develops a methodology of “imperfect alignment” to account for the tensions between affect theory and discourse analysis, the theories and methods that guide this research project. The second chapter explores the ways anger allows liminal subjects to come into view in Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues and Morris’s A Dangerous Woman. Chapter three explores the ways anger can interrupt and complicate compassionate reader responses to gender based abuse in Sapphire’s Push and Mosionier’s In Search of April Raintree. Chapter four explores the ways anger and nostalgia allow subjugated groups to link anger to domestic violence in Joyce Carol Oates’s Foxfire and We Were the Mulvaneys. Finally, this dissertation concludes with a brief analysis of feminist critiques of reason, and locates the findings of this project in relation to this scholarship. Ultimately, this research project nuances debates surrounding anger, and poses alternative readings of this emotional response.

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The proposed research will investigate the effects of self-reported anger expression style on cerebrally lateralized physiological responses to a neuropsychological stressor and a painful stimulus. Specifically, this research examined changes in systole and grip strength in response to a verbal fluency task, a figural fluency task and exposure to a cold pressor. Significant group by trial interaction effects were found for mean number of perseverative errors on neuropsychological measures (F(1,54) = 10.89, p < 0.05), systolic blood pressure following administration of a verbal fluency measure(F(1,54) = 5.86, p < 0.05), and non-verbal fluency measure (F(1,54) = 13.68, p<.001), heart rate following administration of verbal (F(1,54) = 5.86, p < 0.05), and non verbal fluency measures (F(1,54) = 13.68, p<.001), and grip strength following exposure to the cold pressor (F(1,54) = 13.69, p < 0.001). Results are discussed in terms of functional cerebral systems and potential implications for physiological models of anger. / Ph. D.

A review of the anger literature, an anger model, and an anger treatment study were presented. Various dependent measures were utilized including physiological, behavioral, cognitive, life satisfaction, and expectancy measures. A 4 X 2 research design was utilized. There were four experimental groups with ten subjects per group, measured pre- and posttreatment. The experiment groups included a problem solving group, a social skills group, a cognitive behavior modification group, and an attention control group. Therapists were counterbalanced across groups. It was found that problem solving, social skills, and cognitive behavior modification approaches to anger control were all successful in reducing anger. The cognitive, social skills, and problem solving groups were all successful in reducing anger cognitions and aggressive behavior, however only the social skills and problem solving groups were successful in increasing assertive behaviors. Thus, it appeared that the problem solving and social skills approaches taught the subjects anger control by teaching them to competently interact with their environment. The cognitive approach appeared to teach a very passive strategy for anger reduction in that the subjects in this group uniformly interacted less with the environment when faced with an anger-provoking stimulus. The physiological data yielded inconclusive results, and none of the treatments appeared to significantly affect life satisfaction. Criticisms and suggestions for future research were presented. Future research should include investigation of female/male anger differences, development of a more direct behavioral assessment technique for anger, and exploration of the role of anger in the etiology and maintenance of various clinical syndromes. / Ph. D.

Anger is a pervasive problem after individuals experience traumatic stress that heightens the risk for violence, health problems, poor relationships, and poor treatment outcomes. Previous research has demonstrated a moderate relationship between anger and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet this research also highlights that anger has not been rigorously measured in the context of PTSD. Thus, this study concerns the development of a complimentary measure to assess anger in the context of PTSD. Participants were 435 undergraduate students. The participants were given a battery including the proposed scale and measures of trauma exposure, PTSD, anger, depression, anxiety, and social desirability to assess. Exploratory factor analyses revealed that a hierarchical, four-factor model was the best model. The Posttraumatic Anger Scale appeared psychometrically sound, with excellent internal consistency, good evidence of validity, and good model fit. This scale may provide implications for clinical work, specifically for the assessment and tracking of anger symptoms connected to PTSD. Additionally, this scale may assist with research by predicting treatment outcomes, aggression, and PTSD. / Master of Science

In this paper I raise a puzzle that I call 'the puzzle of victim-anger' that is parallel to Bernard William's puzzle of agent-regret. Suppose a truck driver is driving down the street when a child happens to walk in front of them. Through no fault of their own, the driver hits and kills the child. It is well understood that the driver will, and probably should, have some sort of guilt-like response, called agent-regret. However, it would also be unsurprising to find out that the child's parents were angry at the driver for killing their child, and this observation has been largely overlooked in the literature on agent-regret. This anger is totally intelligible—we might even feel deeply alienated by a parent who didn't feel it in the wake of their child's avoidable death. Nevertheless, it's hard to see how this anger could be rationally defensible: aren't the parents just lashing out at an innocent party? In this paper, I show how the traditional philosophical account of anger fails to yield a satisfactory solution to this puzzle. As a result, I reject the traditional account and offer my own positive account of anger in its place. According to my positive account, anger functions to shift the conversational dynamic in order to call attention to the target's obligations to repair the harm they caused. / Master of Arts / In this paper I raise a puzzle that I call 'the puzzle of victim-anger' that is parallel to Bernard William's puzzle of agent-regret. William's puzzle starts like this: suppose a truck driver is driving down the street when a child happens to walk in front of them. Through no fault of their own, the driver hits and kills the child. It is well understood that the driver will, and probably should, have some sort of guilt-like response, called agent-regret even though the accident wasn't their fault. However, it would also be unsurprising to find out that the child's parents were angry at the driver for killing their child, and this observation has been largely overlooked in the literature on agent-regret. This anger is totally intelligible—we might even feel deeply alienated by a parent who didn't feel it in the wake of their child's avoidable death. Nevertheless, it's hard to see how this anger could be rationally defensible: aren't the parents just lashing out at an innocent party? In this paper, I show how the traditional philosophical account of anger fails to yield a satisfactory solution to this puzzle. As a result, I reject the traditional account and offer my own positive account of anger in its place. According to my positive account, anger functions to shift the conversational dynamic in order to call attention to the target's obligations to repair the harm they caused.

Research on marital abuse indicates that abusive husbands attribute greater negative intent and responsibility to their partner's behavior and report greater anger arousal during conflictual situations with their partner than do nonabusive husbands (Dutton &amp; Browning, 1988; Holtzworth-Munroe &amp; Hutchinson, 1993). Research also shows that measures of anger arousal (e.g., blood pressure and heart rate) are significantly greater during situations of provocation or threat than neutral or nonprovocative situations (Smith &amp; Allred, 1989). However, research has not attempted to measure abusive and nonabusive males' anger arousal and cognitive attributions to provocative and nonprovocative partner behavior in conflictual situations. Two studies examined attributional responses and one study examined anger arousal in high and low abusive dating males to highly provocative (e.g., girlfriend is flirting with another man) or minimally provocative (e.g., girlfriend wants to talk) partner behavior. A major hypothesis was that abusive males would attribute greater negative intent and responsibility as well as evidence greater blood pressure and heart rate reactivity to their partner's behavior in provocative but not in nonprovocative situations than would nonabusive males. In Study 1, six hypothetical vignettes (4 provocative and 2 nonprovocative) of dating situations were developed or modified from existing research (Holtzworth-Munroe &amp; Hutchinson, 1993). Provocativeness of the situations was determined through pilot testing which showed that "provocative partner behavior"; yielded significantly greater attributions of negative intent and responsibility than did nonprovocative partner behavior. Undergraduate males (N = 106) were assessed for their levels of abusive relationship behaviors with the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus 1979), for their tendencies to abuse with the Propensity for Abuse Scale (PAS; Dutton, 1995b), and for their expression of anger with the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI; Spielberger, Johnson, Russell, Crane, Jacobs, &amp; Worden, 1985). Participants then listened to audio-taped situations and completed negative intent and responsibility attribution questionnaires. Results indicated that high CTS, PAS, and STAXI males attributed greater responsibility and blame to partner behavior in provocative scenes, but not in nonprovocative scenes than did low CTS, PAS, and STAXI males (p < .05). Additionally, high CTS, PAS, and STAXI males attributed greater negative intent to partner behavior in both provocative and nonprovocative scenes than did low CTS, PAS, and STAXI males (p < .05). There were no interaction effects for attributions of negative intent and responsibility based on dispositional measures and scene provocativeness. In Study 2, undergraduate males (N = 107) were screened for abusive relationship behaviors with the CTS. Screening identified 37 males as High-Abusives (n=18) and Low-Abusives (n = 19). Participants selected in the screening phase were called back and fitted with a blood-pressure cuff which recorded blood pressure and heart rate before and after each of four scenes (2 provocative and 2 nonprovocative). Following presentation of the scenes, participants completed negative intent and responsibility attribution questionnaires. Results indicated that both High- and Low-Abusives evidenced significantly greater systolic blood pressure arousal during provocative as compared to nonprovocative scenes (p<.05). Similar to Study 1, results showed that High-Abusives attributed greater negative intent and responsibility to partner behavior than did Low-Abusives (p <.05). However, blood-pressure and heart rate reactivity of High- and Low-Abusives were not significantly discrepant. The results of Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that High-Abusives attributed greater negative intent and responsibility to partner behavior than did Low-Abusives. Study 2 also showed that provocative partner behavior produced greater increases in systolic blood pressure than nonprovocative partner behavior for both High- and Low-Abusives. Overall, these studies provided partial empirical support for the relationship between negative attributions and anger arousal to provocative partner behavior among abusive and nonabusive males. Limitations and future research directions will be discussed. / Master of Science

Anger is a significant human emotion, the management of which has far reaching implications for individual and relationship well-being. Yet there is a deficit in the clinical literature regarding the best ways to conceptualize and respond to anger (Saini, 2009). We offer a model of anger which therapists can use to help discriminate healing from harmful manifestations of anger, and which therapists can use in developing interventions for reshaping destructive anger toward constructive anger. We are specifically addressing anger in response to offense, or transactional anger which arises at points of friction in the interface between two people in a relational system. Persons perceiving a self-concept or attachment threat respond to the psychic or relational threat with physiological and emotional arousal. These reactions represent a biological signaling system informing our relationship experience. When offended, our experience of offense interacts with our view of self in relation to other. We propose that a person's view of self in relation to other is how one compares their own self-worth to other; it may be inflated, inadequate, or balanced. Either inflated or inadequate views of self in relation to other produce distinct manifestations of destructive anger. An inflated view of self in relation to other is seen as producing destructive-externalizing anger or anger turned outwards, and an inadequate view of self in relation to other is seen as producing destructive-internalizing anger, or anger turned inward. Both externalizing and internalizing anger are harmful to self (offended), other (perpetrator), and relationship well-being and healing. However, a balanced view of self in relation to other produces constructive anger, which is a healing and helpful indignation that promotes and even catalyzes self, other, and relationship healing and well-being. Use of the model in clinical settings is considered.

Recent interest and scholarship in the role of emotions in politics provide an opportunity for revisiting the idea of ancient Greek thumos as understood by Aristotle. In Aristotle’s Politics, thumos is a capacity of the soul for affection; it is most clearly seen in anger and righteous indignation; and it is indispensable for understanding the nature of politics. Aristotle shows that thumos motivates political actions that can be beneficial as well as destructive to the city. This ambivalence has an enormous impact on what is possible or desirable in political life and raises important questions about the extent to which thumos should be cultivated in society and in individuals. / text

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