Hot headed

[differenceblog]

Evers et al (2005) performed an amusing experiment in which they determined anger expression by allowing subjects to give hot sauce to an imaginary rater who had given them randomly assigned positive or negative feedback on an essay. Negative ratings called the subjects "naive" and "immature." Evers et al found that men and women experienced

Comments

[suburban_mom]

Anger used to feel like being out of control; now it feels like a more controllable response than fear.

how much of that response is coloured by the unconcious perceptions we have of 'male' and 'female' responses to anger though? I've always seen and been told that a man getting angry isn't always bad, but a woman getting angry means she's losing precious control.

[differenceblog]

I don't really see how in a single case it would be colored that way, though. While other people's responses to my anger may have changed slightly, my socialization did not. My history remained the same, and I'm still a control freak. ;)

[astrogeek01]

At the same time, you may have been socialized that anger is more acceptable in men; so now that you are one, it's more acceptable. However, I think that generally the "YOU shouldn't do/be like X" is much stronger than that, regardless of where it comes from -- and that's why you're probably right that your socialization has not changed.

[Welcome, new people to difference blog! Yay!]

[differenceblog]

We had a jump of 10% in readership. It was really remarkable. I think it's due to mentioning yesterday's article about psychological measures of sexuality on the psychology community.

[plumtreeblossom]

*waves!*

[differenceblog]

more comments at ftm

[pdxkate]

Hey all

[differenceblog]

thank you for sharing this. :)

[puf_almighty]

New reader here. Just thought I'd introduce myself. Heh, I'm a little shy- feel a little voyeuristic reading this blog but it's really interesting.

[differenceblog]

Welcome! Don't feel voyeuristic at all. Differenceblog is written specifically for an audience that doesn't know me in the slightest, and I don't require anyone to comment. :) *waves*

[puf_almighty]

Wouldja mind if I did, though?

In response to
"However, anger is a more comfortable reaction than it was in my life before testosterone. Anger used to feel like being out of control; now it feels like a more controllable response than fear."
Check this out:

Gender differences in social representations of aggression: The phenomenological experience of differences in inhibitory control?
Abstract:
Women are more likely than men to experience acts of aggression as expressive (a loss of self-control) than as instrumental (control over others).We propose that this might arise from differences in behavioural restraint. If women have better inhibitory control, aggressive behaviour should occur less frequently yet should be experienced as more emotionally ‘out of control’ because women can tolerate higher levels of anger before inhibitory control is breached. Participants (N ¼ 606) aged 13-24 completed the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2) and Expagg. A more expressive

[differenceblog]

That is a very relevant paper, thanks! I definitely feel less fear since testosterone became part of my life (the most profound effect I've noticed was the sense of invulnerability I got when I first started taking T.) So, if Driscoll et al are correct about the harm-avoidance aspect of behavioral inhibition (e.g.: I don't want to get angry because I don't want people to get angry at me) that would really explain the shift in my attitude towards anger.

I do notice that they're specifically using a very young sample in this experiment, and I haven't been very impressed with most of the "personality questionairres", but this definitely deserves a closer read. Thank you for pointing it out.

For other people who may be interested in more information, but don't want to register to download the paper, this is Driscoll et al (2006)