Anger Is All the Rage: A Theoretical Analysis of Anger Within Emotional Ecology to Foster Growth and Political Change

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Anger is implicated in nearly every social pathology, from war to bullying to child abuse. Yet, it is also the spark of reform for nearly every positive social movement, from civil rights to labor rights to handicapped rights. This article examines how anger has been understood and misunderstood across different discursive spaces in society, research, and education to offer a peace-promoting, emotional ecology theory of anger to foster emotional growth and political change. Research Design: This article employs theoretical research, which is a logical exploration of a system of beliefs and assumption to increase understanding, develop new theory, and explore implications. Findings: Anger is reconceptualized as a crucial emotional and political experience rooted in the emotional ecologies and histories of family, school, and society. Three distinctive features characterize it: An ethical response, an emotional response, and an action response. Five steps to anger resolution follow from this analysis including: mindfulness, compassion, insight, action, and a therapeutic response (or MCIAT). Recommendations: Future studies on anger should span developmental stages and include ways anger intersects with curricula, emotional experience and intellectual understanding. Teachers, social workers, and therapists must work together to address the emotional and political aspects of anger in education. Addressing our most painful and angering global challenges in all their complexity requires full integration of the personal, educational, civic, and therapeutic dimensions of emotional ecology and this worthy enterprise should inspire interdisciplinary dialogue and future research.