Recent studies have revealed that anger is an important psychological factor to cardiovascular diseases, the most leading cause of death in Korea. In order to understand the role of anger in the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of detrimental diseases such as cardiovascular disease, an attempt was made to unravel the nature of anger based on a control theory. To begin with, the rationale on why we need to study anger was provided. Then, an overview of a control theory was provided; first with a simple control system, then with a more complex human control system. With this background knowledge, the basic nature of anger was analyzed from a control theoretical perspective: generation, direction, intensity, type, and mixed emotions. The current model of anger was then compared with Higgins(1987). Finally, conclusions and implications of the present model are discussed.
The root of anger is "desire," as indicated in the Bhagawad Gita. Frustration of our desires causes anger which, metaphorically, blinds the person and ultimately leads to destruction. Desires are at the three levels of body, mind, and intellect. The pure nature of desire (or "kama") is to know reality, that is, it is at the intellectual level. However, it is through the human body that one satisfies one`s desire. Therefore, physical needs (e.g., food, sleep, and sex) and emotional desires (e.g., security, love, and esteem) require satisfaction. Maslow`s hierarchy of needs (motivation theory) is comparable with this perspective. Satisfying needs and desires at these levels are descriptive of our functioning towards the goal of transient happiness ("sukh"), paving the way to the final goal of bliss ("anand"). Kama gives rise to attraction/attachment to the objects of desire but also to anger and fury ("krodha") when desires get frustrated. Kama, predominantly at the body level, causes greater anger and leads to adverse consequences at the level of psychophysiology. To reduce such experiences of anger, people must adhere to dharma which enables them to transcend the baser levels of desires, thus leading to the higher goals of prolonged than transient bodily happiness, and finally, to liberation ("moksha") from the bondage of desires and attachments which are involved in our existence. Various techniques and methods to overcome anger have been suggested in the Bhagawadgita and presented in the paper.
Despite of tremendous time and efforts in the past, relationships between anger-in and high blood pressure have not been consistent in the previous findings. In this article, a comprehensive theoretical approach was attempted, aiming to put inconsistent findings of the past studies in order and to guide the new direction for the future studies. A conceptual and operational definition of hostility, aggression, and anger, which was distinctively different from each other, was first made. Also, the differentiation between anger experience and anger expression, and state and trait was recommended. An explaining model, which specifies the inter relationships among relevant constructs, came next. A new conceptual framework, which integrate anger-in and anger-out into the dysfunctional anger-expression or anger-coping style, was suggested and supportive research findings for this model were discussed.
The purpose of this study is to look into the relationship among self-discrepancy, discrepancy reduction expectancy, emotion and physical symptoms based on the self-discrepancy theory. In order to achieve the objective of this study, surveys using selves questionnaire, emotion questionnaire and physical symptoms questionnaire were administered to a total number of 247 university students. The data collected from the surveys were statistically analysed. The major findings of this study are as presented below: (1) The correlation between actual: ideal discrepancy and depression, and the correlation between actual: ought discrepancy and anxiety were significant, respectively. These results have led to the support of the basic hypothesis of self-discrepancy theory. (2) In the correlation analysis between self-discrepancy and anger, the correlation between actual: ideal discrepancy and anger was not significant. However, the correlation between actual: ought discrepancy and trait anger was significant. (3) The correlation between discrepancy reduction expectancy and positive emotion was significant. (4) In the analysis of the relationship between self-discrepancy and physical health, the correlation between actual: ideal discrepancy and headaches, and the correlation between actual: ideal discrepancy and digestive symptoms, have both been found to be significant. The correlation between actual ought discrepancy and digestive symptoms were also significant. (5) Regression analyses revealed that digestive symptom was affected by actual: ought discrepancy, 4 physical symptoms (headaches, digestive symptoms, insomnia, and heart symptoms) were affected by anxiety, and insomnia and heart symptoms were affected by state-anger. Finally, the limitations of the present study and implications for future studies are discussed.
This study investigated the interaction effect of hostility and social support on CVR in a provocative experimental situation and tested the two models of social support (Cohen & Syme, 1985) by manipulating the stress level with task difficulty. One hundred and twelve male college students who scored high or low on the cynicism score of MMPI Ho scale were randomly assigned to one of two social support (support vs. no support) and one of two task difficulty (high vs. low) conditions. They were confronted by a provocative confederate during their task performance. CVR was measured every minute by systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressures and pulse rate (PR) over baseline, provocative stress, and recovery periods. For low-hostility participants, the supported group exhibited significantly smaller increases in DBP than the nonsupported group during the provocative stress period. The opposite effect on SBP was observed for high-hostility men. An unexpected finding was that low-hostility men compared with high-hostility men exhibited more exaggerated SBP and DBP when they were not supported. Whereas the nonsupported group in the high-difficulty condition exhibited more increased SBP and PR during the stress period than the nonsupported group in the low-difficulty condition, there was no difference between the two difficulty conditions in terms of CVR for the supported group. During the recovery period, the supported subjects were recovered more quickly in SBP than the nonsupported, regardless of their level of hostility and the task difficulty they had been exposed to. This study provides an experimental evidence of the potential cardiovascular benefit of social support moderated by hostile attitude, and supports two models of social support. It also showed that high-hostility people do not always show more heightened CVR in response to experimental stress, for which a possible explanation (i.e., low voluntary commitment) was provided.
This study was designed to explore the change of anger level and the amount of cigarette smoking among adolescents (202 boys and girls) who were participating in a smoking cessation program. In addition, an attempt was made to investigate whether there were any differences between an education-centered smoking cessation program focusing on knowledge, attitude, and belief as opposed to a counseling-centered smoking cessation program centering around a psychosocial aspect; including the cognitive-behavioral model, social influence model, and life skills model. The major findings of the present study included: (1) There was a significant difference before and after the smoking cessation program in terms of the amount of cigarette smoking; (2) Significant differences were also found for state anger and anger-out before and after the smoking cessation program. More specifically, anger-out was reduced for girls who participated in the education-centered smoking cessation program, while state anger, trait anger, and anger-out for boys and state anger and anger-out for girls were significantly reduced at counseling-centered smoking cessation program; (3) State anger for boys was significantly different between the education-centered smoking cessation program and the counseling-centered smoking cessation program; (4) Within the education-centered smoking cessation program, state anger and anger-out were more significantly reduced in over 17 years olds than those who were 16 years or younger. The present findings were discussed in light of contributing to develop smoking cessation programs and/or smoking prevention programs for adolescents.
The development of a Korean Code of Ethics for Psychologists is under way. The present article introduces general principles and standards which health psychologists who provide psychological services in the fields should not only be aware of, but also. utilize as guidelines in the field in order to assure respectful and competent practice for the public. Several cases are illustrated to help elucidate the rationale and the implications of the ethical codes. In addition, issues to consider before adopting a Korean Code of Ethics for Psychologists are discussed.
Holland presented a personality typology representing investigative, social, enterprising, intellectual, realistic and artistic types, which he argued could also be used to classify job types. This study was designed to test the hypotheses that incongruence between one's preferred job and one's actual job would be stressful and contribute to levels of job stress and impoverished health. Job satisfaction and solution-oriented coping were proposed as mediators of this relationship. Seventy-two people completed the Occupational Stress Inventory, The Deakin Coping Scale and the Vocational Preference Inventory. Job incongruence, job dissatisfaction and job stress predicted 42 percent of the variance in respondents' ratings of their physical health. The results provided support for the negative impact of lack of job congruence on health but not for the proposition that incongruence would also predict job stress. Although incongruence negatively predicted the use of solution-oriented coping strategies, coping did not act as a mediator variable between incongruence and health. The results are discussed in terms of state versus trait indicators of health, as well as the implications for career and health advisors.
This study investigated factors that affect restrained eaters· eating behaviors. Especially, which factors facilitate or prohibit the inhibition of eating behaviors, and whether the private self-focused attention influences on eating behaviors to the restrained eaters were examined. The experimental design was a 2 (restraint level: restraint/non-restraint)×2(preloading: 0cc/235cc)×3(private self-focused attention: weight or body shape related self-focused/personality related self-focused/private self unrelated attention) completely randomized factorial design. Participants were 180 college females, 15 females in each condition. The main findings of this study are as follows. First, the restraint level by the preloading two-way interaction effect was significant. In the simple main effect analysis, the restrained eaters ate more ice cream in the preloading condition than in the non-preloading condition. But non-restrained eaters ate less ice cream in the preloading condition than in the non-preloading condition. Second, the restraint level by the preloading by the private self-focused attention three-way interaction was significant. The restrained eaters in the weight-or body shape related private self-focused attention condition ate ice cream almost equally both in the preloading condition and in the non-preloading condition. The non-restrained eaters in the weight-or body shape related private self-focused attention condition ate ice cream nearly identically both in the preloading condition and in the non-preloading condition. These results suggest that the weight or body shape private self-focused attention play an important role in regulating eating behaviors. The significance, Implications, and limitations of this study were discussed.
This study investigates the moderating effects of coping strategies on the relationship between work, home conflicts and depression, and how these strategies differ depending on gender. In order to this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to dual couples of teachers' group (258 couples). Results showed that the avoidance coping method positively moderated the relationship between depression and the division of household labor in males, In additon to this, the avoidance coping method positively moderated the relationships between depression and division of household labor, child care conflict, job conflict and job ambiguity and job overload in females. From these findings, the differential efficacy of coping strategies by gender was revealed on the relationship between multiple role conflicts and depression experienced by dual employed couples. The controllability of circumstances was implicated as an important factor influencing the efficacy of coping strategies. The results of this study were discussed and the limits of the present study and suggestions for further research were noted.
This study was intended to investigate the connection between emotional stimuli and brain activities by the use of ERP which is one of the central measures in psychophysiology. In this study, the affective primacy model was tested based on the LeDoux's neurophysiological model through the ERPs. As the subliminal ERP was assumed to be a direct brain index of unconscious processes, a comparison between the subliminal ERP and supraliminal ERP was made in order to examine the unconscious processing of emotional stimuli. 17 males and females participated in the experiment. The independent variables were three factors including stimulus types (emotional picture vs. neutral picture), sites(F3, F4, Cz, P3, P4), and presentation time(subliminal vs supraliminal). The results were differentiated by sex. Male subjects differentiated the stimulus types, and in addition, showed a left frontal superiority even for the subliminal condition. Even though female subjects showed a differentiated effect for the subliminal emotional stimuli, they failed to show frontal superiority, instead, the pervasive activation over the left hemisphere was menifested. Moreover, female subjects characteristically showed a lateralization effect including both the frontal asymmetry and the parietal asymmetry for the supraliminal emotional stimuli. They showed the frontal asymmetry, however, accompanied by the parietal asymmetry simultaneously. The results suggest lateralization effects rather than localization effects for the emotional stimuli. Some extraneous factors like sexual defenses and attitudes about the sexual stimuli should also be taken into consideration in discussing the overall results.
Two independent attempts were made to revise the life stress scale for college student developed by Chon and Kim (1991), In study 1, 10 additional items were included together with 80 items previously selected by Chon and Kim (1991), A more representative sample was also included to reflect the more appropriate norm for Korean college students, and only frequency and importance ratings were examined, omitting the controllability rating from the previous format. This newly constructed scale was administered to 420 college students located in Seoul, Onyang, Taejeon, Taegu, and Chonju. The instruments utilized in the study were a newly developed life stress scale, Korean adaptation of SCL-90-R, Korean adaptation of CES-D, and physical symptom scale. Factor analyses revealed that seven factor solution was the best, excluding the grade area in the scale. The range of internal consistency for the scales were α=.72 (value) to α=.86 (future career). In study 2, since grade was frequently found to be important life stress area in other studies, consistent with the original one (Chon & Kim, 1991), another attempt was made to examine the validity of grade area as one of the important life stress areas for college students. Thus, another version of the life stress scale was constructed to include 12 items for grade area, and it was administered to 189 college students. The factor analyses revealed that grade area is as important as other areas. In addition, all scales were found to be satisfactory in terms of their internal consistency with the range of .75 through .88. Thus, a final version of a life stress scale for college students was constructed to include eight life stress areas: (interpersonal relationship), friend, lover, family, and faculty; (task-related stress), grade, economy, future, and value. This revised version of a life stress scale for college student are discussed with other findings.