Take a closer look on anger, aggression, and violence.

 

Anger is typically characterised as an ‘approach’ emotion, meaning it is an emotion that helps a person to address threat or overcome barriers to achieve a particular goal (Carver & Harmon-Jones, 2009). In removing the barriers to achieve a goal, anger is a motivator or mobiliser of productive action. Anger can thus drive different types of behaviour. However, aggression or violence are not the same as anger. Aggression is generally considered a behaviour that is intended to cause physical or psychological harm to another person. Violence is more likely to refer to an extreme form of aggression that has intentional injury as its primary goal. On a continuum of severity, we have relatively minor acts of aggression on one end and violence at the other end (Allen & Anderson, 2017). It is very common for anger to be experienced without accompanying aggression or violence and, conversely, for anger not to be the motivator of aggressive or violent behaviour. In some cases, we can have anger-triggered aggression or violence. Visually, this can be represented as follows: 

A closer look on;

 - Anger -

Anger is an emotion that is usually adaptive and appropriate as it motivates or energises people to act in certain situations and circumstances, such as addressing a threat or overcoming an important challenge. In disaster contexts, it can be the fuel that leads people through difficulties beyond what they would normally be able to adapt to, physically and emotionally (Kellett, 2019). However, for some people anger can become an all-encompassing experience, seriously affecting their health and wellbeing, and sometimes, when coupled with aggressive behaviours, even their safety or that of others. Anger is considered problematic when it occurs with a level of frequency, intensity, or duration that causes significant distress, actively interferes with the person’s interpersonal relationships and their functioning, and is associated with aggressive behaviours towards others. For more general information on anger, see the ‘Understanding anger’ handout.

- Aggression or violence -

Aggression can be characterised in many ways (such as impulsive/planned or direct/indirect), can take different forms (physical, verbal and relational) and may cause different types of harm (physical or psychological). As noted previously, violence is an extreme form of aggression. Aggression does not always involve violence, but violence always involves aggression. Aggression and violence are rarely constructive, and are only sometimes triggered by anger. Although violence is generally described as extreme physical aggression, non-physical forms of aggression have, in recent years, also been considered as violence when the consequences are severe (Allen & Anderson, 2017). For example, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) often includes emotional violence and psychological abuse, aimed at gaining power and control over the family member and which can adversely affect their emotional or social wellbeing. One of the key mechanisms through which intimate partner violence can operate is non-physical, like threats and other controlling behaviour. Anger may be the motivator of this behaviour to a greater or lesser extent

- Anger after disasters -

Anger is a common response after disasters and, when it has harmful effects, can impede resilience and recovery. It is not unusual for people to feel angry when they believe the disastrous events were preventable or controllable or when provision, access to and distribution of resources and services after the events are perceived as unfair. For example, during the long-term recovery process following the Black Saturday bushfires, people expressed anger about a large range of services including the fairness of the distribution of resources such as donated money and goods (Kellett, 2019). While community members expressed that their anger was more immediate, higher and more intense than previously they still felt that it was justified 

Tips for practitioners in a post-disaster 

context • Ensure you understand the role of anger for your client and whether it is productive or harmful. Provide the appropriate support, including reducing ongoing stressors. • Practitioners should be collaborative and enable community to retain control of their recovery through bottom up recovery processes. • Work with all other emotions such as blame, shame and guilt, and understand the way they interact. • Pay attention to cultural responses, such as gendered reactions, and how they are contributing to recovery, particularly where family violence may be occurring. • Keep in mind that aggressive or violent behav

 The presentation and the panel discussion of the webinar can be viewed on the website of Phoenix Australia – Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health.