The American Psychological Association’s, Essay Example

The American Psychological Association’s “Strategies to Keep Anger at Bay” offers a series of techniques for dealing with the emotion of anger. The article details the way that anger manifest on many levels. The fact that anger has  emotional, intellectual, and physical components means that to successfully deal with anger, it must be engaged on each of these levels. The article cites several techniques that are designed to minimize or even eliminate the more damaging consequences of unchecked anger.  The first technique that is described is involved with the control of breathing. This is an important technique because it helps to blunt physical feelings of anger and anxiety and promotes feelings of stability and control. Obviously, the control of breathing is related to the physical aspect of anger; however, the article also suggests that along with controlled deep breathing that calming imagery should be visualized.

Another useful technique described in the article is involved with attempting to control the cognitive response to anger. In this technique, the basic idea is to replace a chain of thought-associations that help to stoke and build anger with a chain of thought-associations that are intended to diminish the impact of anger and frustration. Basically this technique involves consciously  directing one’s thoughts away from anger and toward a more positive line of reasoning. Problem-solving, another technique mentioned in the article, is closely connected to cognitive control. It involves the logical and steady application of rationality to find a solution to the problem or situation that gave rise to the feelings of anger.

Communication and even humor are further steps that can be taken by an individual to control an angry response. Many times, according to the article, all that is necessary to “beat” anger is to find an outlet for the emotion that is constructive and to maintain perspective about the situation. Obviously, without using any of the techniques described in the article anger has a way of building in intensity and perpetuating itself. Therefore each of the steps detailed in the article is constructive and the steps taken as a whole and used together should be very effective and blunting or even eliminating the more damaging impacts of anger.

Work Cited

American Psychological Association “Strategies to Keep Anger at Bay” (2012)