Current trends and future perspectives in anger regulation strategies: A systematic review of experimental studies

Abstract

Anger regulation is significant because anger can lead to social problems such as aggressive driving and abuse. This study aimed to systematically review anger regulation strategies and to synthesize research on their characteristics, concerns, and effectiveness. A literature search using the Web of Science and citation screening identified 76 articles on anger regulation. Based on the framework of the process model of emotion regulation, each anger regulation strategy was classified into the specific groups of situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change, response modulation, strategies to increase the effectiveness of anger regulation, and assessed for validity on subjective anger experience, physiological responses, and aggressive behavior. For subjective anger, cognitive change and attention deployment, such as reappraisal and distraction, were shown to be most effective, whereas response modulation, such as acceptance, venting, and suppression, were not. For aggressive behavior, response modulation by inducing sadness and situation modification that counteracts approach motivation were suggested to be more effective than reappraisal. It is important to use the most appropriate anger regulation strategy depending on the purpose and context.