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From the present study, anger may be said to have a two fold functional
meaning. First it intensifies volitional action in a useful direction.
Second, viewed from the mental conditions under which it occurs, it may
be a superfluous affectivity and is largely an end in itself. These two
functions are not to be separated. In fact any single emotion of anger
in its different stages of reaction may be merely hedonic, it may serve
a directly useful purpose or it may be both. These two functional
aspects of anger are the basis for pedagogical conclusions.
_Sublimation._ Anger in a modified form has been the theme of the poet
and artist. With its running mate fear, it has played an important role
in religion. Primitive magic with its self assertive coercion of the
supernatural, is not unlike anger. The curse prayer of backward religion
is motivated by resentment. A deity with an irascible temper like that
of the ancient Hebrews suggests the role of righteous indignation in the
discipline of the soul. Plato[1] held that anger is at the foundation of
the organization of the State. Ribot (16) has suggested that it is at
the basis of justice. More recently Bergson writes, “No society can
reach civilization unless throughout its members, there exists the
nervous organization which supports the sentiment of anger and hostility
against criminals; and this physical organization is the foundation of
what we call our moral code.” President Hall (10), James (13), and Dewey
(5) have suggested that much of the best work of the world and the great
deeds of valor have been done by anger. Dr. Hall states, “A large part
of education is to teach men to be angry aright,—it should be one aim of
pedagogy to show how the powers of the soul should be utilized.—Man has
powers of resentment which should be hitched onto and allowed to do good
and profitable work. We should keep alive our emotions and allow them to
do our labor.” (From lecture notes.) It has been suggested by Wundt
(22), James (13) and Stanley (17) that the function of anger is to
increase volitional action. The latter author writes, “At some point in
the course of evolution, anger comes in as a stimulant to aggressive
willed action. Some favored individual first attained the power of
getting mad, in violently attacking his fellows and so attaining
sustenance likely in the struggle for food.” The same author further
writes, “We take it then that it was a most momentous day in the
progress of mind when anger was first achieved and some individuals
really got mad.”
Education has to do with the function of anger in human needs, in growth
and development and in mental hygiene. Ethics has at times advocated the
elimination of anger as if it were a noxious product. From a pedagogical
view, it should be cultivated and excited aright. The familiar moral
exhortations, “Let not the sun go down on your wrath,” “Love your
enemies and do good to those that hate you,” and others like them, are
in accord with some satisfactory individual reactions to anger from the
feeling side, which have been cited; but their universal application
would not always serve the purpose of ethics. In pedagogical practice,
they would fall short. A good healthy resentment is, at times, a good
thing and should be kept alive. The emotion, if it works, must not die
out too satisfactorily at the cost of real effort. There should be a
working residuum for the time when it is needed. An injury may be
forgiven too quickly and resentment given up too easily. A healthy
fighting attitude, increased caution and willed action turned into
productive work is often subverted for an immediate satisfactory ending
of the emotion. There are none of the subjects studied but observe this
wholesome effect of anger at times. Anger may disappear successfully and
satisfactorily on the side of the feelings. The subject may attain the
full sense of victory by a number of devices of make-believe,
substitution, disguise, etc. An inner victory may be a good thing. In
fact, all subjects would, at times, resort to imaginative processes
motivated by the feeling and impulsive side of the emotion. A subjective
satisfaction may in fact save the day, clear the mental atmosphere, so
to speak, and allow mental life to continue along its habitual lines. On
the other hand, a subjective victory may become too easy. On the verge
of defeat, victory is at times imagined which takes the place of real
volition. The fight may be carried too far through the medium of ideas
leaving little enthusiasm for actual effort. A too easy habit of
excusing the offender at times serves an unprofitable end. Anger should
not be cut off too near its beginning by finding excuses too readily for
the offender or offending situation. It should at least be allowed to
get a little above the initial feeling stage to keep the emotional life
alive or there is danger of lapsing into obliviousness to essential
rights; mental life becomes too prosaic and commonplace, on a plateau
with no capacity to acquire new levels.
A second point of which the writer is convinced, is that in order to
study the emotions, especially the deep seated primary emotions like
fear and anger, it is necessary to take into account the finer working
of the emotion in its feeling and impulsive stage of development and
disappearance. In fact, the milder tenuous emotions of anger are
markedly important from the educational side as well as psychologically.
The normal function of the emotion is better exemplified in the less
intense experiences. Anger, as it is usually thought of, is the emotion
in its excited uncontrolled stage. Anger, sublimated into keener
intellectual and willed action, is no less anger though its affective
side is less intense; its reactive side is working in better accord with
the evolutionary function of the emotion,—to intensify action in a
needed direction. In fact, affective processes of indignation,
resentment and irascible feelings which are not called anger in the
popular sense, from the scientific side should be considered a part of
the anger consciousness. They have the feeling fore-stage of humiliation
and an intellectual reaction; the residuum of the affective process has
every mark of that victorious satisfaction, which is typical of anger.
Such tenuous emotions are reported to have far reaching results in
mental behavior and personal development. One subject, resentful at an
implication against the value of his work, considers that it stimulated
him to increased determined action and intensified endeavor for several
months in order to show the offender he was wrong. A., resentful of X.’s
adverse suggestion, put in three days of severe intellectual labor to
prove his point. E. observes that a humiliation and mild resentment was
a keen stimulus to his ambition. His ambitious behavior, he considers
was accompanied by increased friendliness toward the offender. The
question was privately put to a number of persons as to the effects of
resentment on some of their ambitions in the past. Every person who was
asked, after a careful recall, was able to find one and some times
several instances of important results of anger of this kind. Some
persons from early childhood have habitually reacted to little
resentments to beat the offender in an ambitious way. One person with
defective eyes early became sensitive about it. Any implication against
his defect was always reacted to, he says, by saying to himself, “I will
show you I can do more with poor eyes than you can with good ones, and
you will be sorry some day.” M. 28—“Resentful because the parents of a
lady to whom I was paying attention did not approve of me, I determined
to make so much of myself that they would be sorry. It was one of the
main incentives to my entering on a career. With this aim I went to the
University; I worked hard with success. Many times during the year I
would recall the incident and would resolve again and again to show them
some day. For two years this idea was pretty constantly in my mind. In
the course of four years I now take keen satisfaction in recalling that
I have partly accomplished my purpose.” M. 25.—“Four years ago a friend
whom I admire much, told me that I would never make a scientist. I have
resented it ever since and have laid plans to show him, which I have
partly carried out. Every once in a while I recall his statement in
connection with my work. It spurs me on. I imagine myself sending him a
copy of my scientific problem on which I am working.” M. 34.—“In my
sophomore year in college, I failed to be elected president of our
literary society. I became resentful against the one who beat me in the
election. This person was ambitious in college contests. I now laid
plans to beat him. I went into an oratorical contest first with the sole
aim of surpassing him. I did not care about the others. I am certain
that I would never have gone into this contest and others if it had not
been for a deep set resentment developed against him. I recall yet how
in practicing and writing in contests during the two years of my college
work my aim principally was to surpass this person. We were good friends
all the time.”
Such tenuous resentments which persist for years, it may be, against
people with whom one is on friendly terms, and which are accompanied by
a rather sudden rise in the curve of personal growth, are evidently an
essential part of the anger consciousness. Smaller achievements of
individual worth are often reported to be the direct result of a healthy
sort of reaction from resentment. It is entirely probable that most
persons, especially those of irascible disposition, could point to
sudden spurts in their own personal development and achievement, which
were motivated by anger which never reached the stage of intense
excitability or from the residuum of exciting anger which disappeared
unsuccessfully. Freud (9) has taken the view that much of biography
should be rewritten to include the part that sexual motives, which have
been sublimated, play in personal ambitions. Evidently anger cannot be
neglected by one who seeks for motives of personal growth whether
biographer or educator.
A too soft pedagogy which would heal over too soon the injury to
self-feelings, has its disadvantages. Encouragement at times by
superficial means may cut off a good healthy angry reaction which may
be needed. In fact a little lowered self-feeling with an irascible
response is a good thing and it may be a signal for “hands off,” or a
little skillful and judicious suggestion. It is frequently observed by
the subjects studied that anger at self intensifies a lagging willed
action and breaks up interfering habits. A quotation from B. will
illustrate. “I turned the anger inward and vituperated against myself
for being such a lazy man. The emotion of the moment was relieved and
I feel now like getting down to work at the stuff and getting it out
of the way.” Some subjects work at their very best when mildly angry.
Attention and association processes are intensified to the point that
real difficulties disappear. Anger in the exciting stage and at a
situation too remote from the problem at hand, interferes with mental
work. Bryan and Harter (3) in their study of skill in telegraphy,
found that the skillful operator may work best when angry, but the
inexperienced worker is less efficient. Michael Angelo is said to
have worked at his best in a state of irascible temper. The mass of
mankind are sluggish and need a hearty resentment as a stimulant. If
the circumstances are too soft and easy, the best which is in a man may
be dormant; there is no tonic to a strong nature capable of bearing it
like anger.
Many a good intellect has lacked the good powers of resentment necessary
for the most efficient work. The boy who has not the capacity for anger
should be deliberately taught it by some means. Göthe, who was a rather
keen observer of human nature, said, “With most of us the requisite
intensity of passion is not forth-coming without an element of
resentment, and common sense and careful observation will I believe
confirm the opinion that few people who amount to anything are without a
good capacity for hostile feelings upon which they draw freely when they
need it.”
_Need of Expression._ The second condition for the expression of anger
is that in which reaction is an end in itself. It may be said that while
on the one hand from a genetic and utilitarian point of view the
function of anger is to do work, to aid in behavior, where increased
willed action is needed; on the other, the mere expressional side in
connection with feeling and impulse assumes an important role in every
emotion. In fact with intense and exciting anger, utility may be ignored
and actually thwarted, volitional action is exerted contrary to
objective needs.
There is much in the expression of anger in both the subjective and
objective reaction to the emotion whose impulsive aim is merely to
release unpleasant feeling tension, to clear the mental atmosphere, so
to speak. A brief resumé of the reactive consciousness to anger will
illustrate. First on the feeling side there occurs a mental situation
accompanied by a tendency to expression in order to remove or modify the
situation. Irritation may be relieved or turned into pleasantness by the
reaction. Lowered self-feeling may be restored with extra compensation
in pleasurable feelings of victory, if the reaction has been successful.
Second, the expression of anger involves restraint, the cruder unsocial
tendencies are controlled and others are substituted of a less
objectionable and offensive nature. By both objective and subjective
reactions, devices of disguise, transfer and modification of the
unsocial pugnacious tendencies may allow the restraint to be released
and the emotive tendency fully satisfied, in which a feeling of
pleasantness follows. Third, the reaction which has been fully
satisfactory from the feeling side, is followed by a partial or complete
immunity against the recurrence of the anger from the same mental
situation, as the successful reaction has removed the mental situation
from which the emotion arose.
Anger from the point of view stated above, touches upon the second
educational aim. So large a part of the reactive consciousness to anger
is motivated to find a successful surrogate for cruder and unsocial
tendencies which are objectional, that this side of anger expression is
educationally important. It is a desirable personal equipment to have
strong potentialities of anger. However there should be a mentality
which is versatile and active enough by training and habit to react
successfully to the emotion, in the first place to use such reservoirs
of energy for work, and second, to react satisfactorily from the
feeling-side, where the instinctive tendencies are restrained, and break
up morbid and unpleasant mental tension which may be an inference.
A good angry outburst at times may be a good thing, but most frequently
some sort of surrogate is more satisfactory. Habits of witticism,
refined joking, a little good-natured play and teasing within the limits
of propriety serves a worthy end for mental hygiene, and often leaves a
basis for good will and a friendship which would otherwise be in danger.
The habit of suddenly breaking up an angry tension by a good thrust of
wit or joke would be a good one to inculcate with the irascibly
inclined. Many persons suffer in feelings and lack of good friendship
because they have never learned to be good mental sparrers and to
relieve their emotions by socially appropriate reaction rather than by a
method of repression which is cheaper at the moment but more expensive
in the end. Their anger is too absorbing and serious. It lacks the
necessary flexibility, their emotions are too near the instinctive level
and when the instinctive tendencies are restrained they lack mental
habits of purging their feelings in a satisfactory way, consequently
suppression is resorted to as a self-defense.
_Anger and Instruction._ As Terman (20) has pointed out, the emotions
employed in the act of instruction need a systematic investigation. The
emotions brought into play in school control, as incentive to work,
emotional reactions which retard, and those which accelerate learning
and efficient work in classes, these are little known scientifically.
Anger, or, perhaps, better potentialities of anger in both teacher and
pupils, is impulsively used in the role of teaching. Skill in using this
emotion aright is part of the teacher’s stock in trade. Pugnacity in the
form of rivalry is a common device.
_Individual Differences._ First, there is the problem of individual
differences in the emotional life of students; and the teacher, too,
for that matter. With some, the dominant emotion is fear and anxiety.
The material of the present study shows a wide variation in the
type and character of emotional reactions of the subjects studied
in which anger is one of the most frequently occurring emotions.
This difference is illustrated by the following summary from three
subjects: With J., anger predominates over fear; he knows but little
of the latter emotion. Anger usually occurs from a fore-period of
lowered self-feeling, the feeling intensity of the fore-period is not
strong. The reactive stage of the anger does not reach a high degree
of excitement. With him, anger usually disappears into indifference
and unpleasantness, leaving tendencies of passive dislike. He observed
no cases of anger at injustice or unfairness except when the latter
sentiments referred to himself. His anger for the most part is an
unsuccessful experience and is unpleasant. He consequently tries to
avoid getting angry and has relatively few emotions. The after-period
of his anger tends to be a little morbid, lacking any strongly marked
disposition which is the source of tendencies to do more work. Subject
G. has anger as a dominant emotion over fear. He scarcely knows anger
which arises from a fore-period of humiliation except anger at himself
when he has been inefficient. He does not hold resentments against
persons but against situations and principles. Anger is usually
unpleasant except a mild after-period of relief. With him, anger is a
means of throwing off superfluous feelings of irritation and serves
but little the purpose of work, except to increase volitional action
for the moment. His anger often refers to himself. Anger at unfairness
tends to refer to the principle rather than to the person. The emotion
occurs more frequently when he is unwell. It is rather slow to appear,
by a gradual accumulation, till the point of anger is reached; the
emotion does not attain a high degree of excitement. With subject C.
the character and type of anger reaction is in marked contrast to the
two subjects mentioned above. He knows but little of fear except in
extreme situations. His anger nearly all springs from a fore-period
of humiliation and is often intense in its most active stage. For a
time during the most intense stage of the emotion, he almost loses
the sense of justice; but as the emotion begins to die down, he has
a habit of excusing the offender and looking at his side of the
question. His anger is frequently followed by pity, remorse, shame and
fear. The emotion is both pleasant and unpleasant. The disappearance
is usually unpleasant and leaves a wealth of affective tendencies
and mental attitudes which are later a source of both pleasant and
unpleasant feelings. Anger is one of the greatest stimuli he has to
do work. He will work for days preparing some subject in which he has
had opposition that excited his resentment in order to even up with
the offender, and takes extreme delight in making his point. His
tendency to anger is greater when feeling well pleased with himself.
The residuum of his emotion involves attitudes of determination and
idealization which plays an important role in his ambition in general.
The description above will suffice to show the problem in individual
differences in emotional life. With some subjects fear is the ruling
passion. Subjects A. and B. have almost an even proportion of fear and
anger during the period of observation. However these instances
represent adult persons. How far the habitual emotional reactions are
determined by training and instruction, is an important question. It is
highly probable that the character of training in childhood and early
adolescence plays a leading part. Subject C. above was an only child and
took considerable license, almost getting beyond the control of his
parents at an early age. J. reports that at early adolescence, anger was
much more frequent and intense than at present. He believes that an
early philosophical notion that intelligence should dominate the
emotions, had an influence in establishing his present emotional habits.
G. was early taught that it was sinful to get angry, an idea which he
accepted at the time. His anger rarely refers to persons but vents on
objects, principles and situations involved. He has relatively few
emotions of anger. He believes that his early religious training was of
importance in moulding the habitual reactions which he now assumes when
angry. Such material as we have makes it entirely probable that a large
part of the habitual mental reactions assumed in anger is the result of
training. It may be said further that when instruction involves affairs
of emotional life, individual difference become a still more pressing
problem than when intelligence is the criterion.
Other inferences of the role of anger in the act of instruction are
suggested from the present study. If the teacher himself does not
possess the ability of well defined resentment against an infringement
of fairness, advantage of this defect may be taken by the alert pupil
unless there is compensation for it in another direction as by the
principle of co-operation, by love or pride appealed to. Cooley however
puts the matter a little too strongly when he says, “No teacher can
maintain discipline unless his scholars feel that in some manner he will
resent a breach of it.” (Human Nature and the Social Order (4), Page
244.) The method of school control itself refers to some extent to the
individual emotional life of the teacher, as well as pupil.
When anger enters into the role of discipline, of the three types
already discussed, that which springs from the sentiment of justice is
most efficient in instruction. Anger which arises from irritable
feelings, from its nature becomes a dangerous emotion to be used in
discipline. Emotion of this type develops by a cumulative process till
the point of anger has been reached. It too readily ignores justice and
is easily transferred from the real offender and may finally break out
against an innocent party who may have unwittingly touched off the
feelings which have been accumulated by previous stimuli, consequently
anger of this type which is so frequently displayed in school rooms
usually defeats the ends of discipline. Anger with a fore-period of
lowered self-feeling because of the personal element entering into this
type of anger and the tendency to ignore justice can evidently be
resorted to but sparingly in school control unless it also involves the
sense of justice.
Another point the teacher has to take into account is that from his
position, if he is held in respect, the anger he excites in the student
will usually be preceded by humiliation and, if he has been unfair, it
will be intensified by the sense of offended fairness. Anger of this
type is the one most frequently followed by an emotional disposition
against the offender. It is the residuum of unsuccessfully expressed
anger of this type which becomes a disturbing element in school control
with the student who is irascibly inclined. The wise teacher who
understands the individual emotional life of the pupil and the nature of
the after-period of anger, will skillfully remove the morbid residuum
and ally the resentful pupil on his side. Dislike following anger, is
skillfully removed, will frequently increase the friendship of the
offender more than before the offense. This principle of compensation in
the after-period is thus to be utilized in discipline. It may be a good
plan deliberately to bring a moody pupil to the point of anger and let
him vent his wrath. Any punishment in discipline has the possibilities
of being dangerous to school control, especially with the student of
pugnacious disposition, if the justice of the punishment cannot be
recognized by the offending pupil. Evidently a mistake in control is not
to recognize the individual differences in emotional life and to attempt
to use the discipline of fear with an irascible boy who knows no fear.
Anger, disappearing unsuccessfully, may leave a morbid residuum which
completely disqualifies the student for efficient learning, consequently
when it exists, it is the business of the educator to remove the
morbidity, transform it into work or to have the pupil transferred; for
it may be as serious a hindrance to learning as adenoids or defective
sense organs.
There is every reason to believe that a large part of the mental
reactions to anger is individually acquired habits, consequently
successful and satisfactory reactions are a matter of training.
Potentialities of anger may actually be taught indirectly by building up
the sentiments and mental disposition from which anger arises. Whatever
will increase ideals and new desires, achievements in school which allow
a better opinion of self and build up the sentiment of self-regard, of
fairness and justice, are at work at the very root of anger
consciousness. The study of the mental situation from which anger arises
allows every reason to believe that when there is a lack of
potentialities to anger, it may be built up in this indirect manner. The
student who lacks good healthy resentment when the proper stimulus is at
hand evidently is weak in the sentiment of self-regard, desire to
achieve, or sense of fairness.
Whatever exercises will excite the pugnacious instinct, if done
satisfactorily may involve a training in emotional habits. Habits of
good fighting in work and play, the give and take in debate, class
discussion, the witty retort, boxing, the team games if carried on
aright, afford good exercise for the emotions. To acquire good habits of
behavior when under fire, to fight clean and to the finishing point, to
take defeat in a sportsman-like manner, are valuable acquisitions
educationally whether they are acquired in athletics or the rivalry of
intellectual work. On the other hand, athletics and mental contests may
be carried on under conditions of emotional reaction, which defeat the
aim of healthy emotional habits and consequently lack their better
educational significance.
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Footnote 1.