Temporal Dimensions of Anger: An Exploration of Time and Emotion

Abstract

The purpose of the present chapter is to clarify the theoretical and practical importance of time with respect to anger in particular and emotion in general. The first half of the chapter is largely theoretical. A review of the treatment of time in traditional theories of emotion suggests that in order to provide a coherent account of the temporal course of events in anger, we must reconceptualize emotional states as a type of psychological disposition organized into time-limited episodes. Some of the empirical bases for, and implications of, this reconceptualization are illustrated in the second half of the chapter, which presents the results of a survey (Study IV in this series) designed to explore the temporal dimensions of anger. The focus of Study IV is primarily on the duration of anger and its correlates, and secondarily on the factors that help terminate an angry episode.

This chapter is based on a Master’s thesis by Bram M. Fridhandler. Thanks are due to Drs. Ronnie Janoff-Bulman and Richard Halgin for their assistance as members of the thesis committee, and to Mary Haake for comments on an earlier draft of the chapter. The work was partially supported by a University Fellowship awarded to Bram M. Fridhandler by the University of Massachusetts.