The Key Moderator of the Relationship Between Anger and Depression: Gender

However, little is known about whether the anger indicator is associated with higher interpersonal costs for women than for men.

Paying for anger: Do women bear greater costs?

International Journal of Psychology In an article published in the journal on November 4, 2020, the researchers that anger-out expression might be associated with greater depressive symptoms for women; In men, this may be the opposite. suggests. At the beginning of the study, which included 942 adult participants, the frequency of anger of the participants was recorded. After a 9-year follow-up period, interviews with the participants were completed to evaluate depressive symptoms.

Before mentioning the results of the research, the underlying reason why researchers put forward this hypothesis anger Let’s take a look at the details about …

When it comes to emotional expression, social norms and display rules determine whether or what type of expression is appropriate. Past research on emotion stereotypes özgü shown that women are expected to be less angered and exhibit less anger than men. As a result of these stereotypes, women who show anger – compared to men who do not show anger – tend to bear greater social costs, including being perceived as less loved, less influential, and unreasonable in society. Previous research özgü shown that women have a concern about how this anger is perceived after they show anger; she suggests they tend to think more about it. It is estimated that this situation may have negative consequences on women’s well-being over time.

Anger and Depressive Symptoms

Anger is a very common emotion. Psychologists attribute the experience of anger to a type of target blocking or frustration that can often be attributed to another person’s deliberate actions. The experience of anger itself may be functional or problematic depending on the situation – particularly high in connection with poor health and poor quality of life.

Different expressions of anger have historically been associated with different mental and physical health outcomes. In particular, anger expression outward was associated with greater risk for cardiovascular disease and more experience of depression. Researchers consider depression as a mood disorder; Although they gömü it as a decrease in interest or pleasure in activities that were previously enjoyable, they say that this situation may also occur as an increase in anger and irritability.

For many years, seminal theories in psychology have addressed the role of anger in the pathogenesis of depression. For example; Freud (1917) introduced the first conceptualization of depression as internalized anger. This conceptualization is discussed in detail in later theories: Anger-turned-inward.¹. Since then, researchers have increasingly recognized the important role of anger and aggression in depression.

Gender and Anger

Anger is often portrayed as a male emotion. Studies have also revealed that people expect men to experience more frequent and intense anger.². There have also been evaluations that men experience and show anger more than women, moreover, that men’s anger is something more acceptable than women’s anger.³. Even children think that men’s anger is more acceptable than women.⁴.

Given these expectations and stereotypes, women’s showing their anger suggests that they tend to meet greater social costs. For example, in a job interview, women who express their anger are seen as less sympathetic, less competent, less deserving of power and independence; It özgü been observed that they are employed for lower wages compared to their angry male colleagues⁵.

On the other hand, it is observed that anger expressions increase social influence and perception of competence in men, while the opposite is true for women. While it is useful to develop insight into how other people perceive women’s anger and reveal the social consequences of anger expression, it is also important to understand how anger expression will affect women’s internal functioning (such as mental health).

In this study of researchers from The Pennsylvania State University, three possibilities are highlighted:

1. If women experience greater interpersonal costs when they show their anger; This can lead to greater social isolation or increased anger rumination, which can precipitate depression.
2. Since the expression of anger is not feminine and is therefore seen as undesirable in women; When women express their anger, they may experience a great deal of internal conflict.
3. As women may tend to value harmony in relationships more than men, endangering this through an outward expression of anger can be particularly stressful for women.

Not surprisingly; It was observed that the data on depression were significantly correlated with the results. The study also concluded that gender is an important moderator of the relationship between anger and depression.

As a result of the analysis, it was revealed that the external anger indicator – controlling the previous levels of depressive symptoms – was associated with greater depressive symptoms 9 years later. More importantly, more anger indicators were associated with greater levels of depression for women; For men, no relationship was found between depression and anger-out indicator.

The researchers think these results provide preliminary evidence that women’s expressing anger outwardly can bear more intrinsic costs. They state the probabilities that should be taken into consideration regarding the causes of this situation as follows: Greater depression associated with the anger-out indicator; It can be directly caused by negative assessments women receive from other people to show their anger. Women tend to feel more responsible than men for the emotional tone of their relationships and maintaining positive relationships with others at all costs. This sense of responsibility can lead to the perception that women need to be particularly attuned to negative reactions from others, as they can deal with every nuance in their relationship. This can put pressure on how their relationships are going, making women more alert to other people’s emotional states.

The research results reveal that overall anger is associated with depressive symptoms over time, and that the outward anger indicator is associated with greater depression for women, not men. The anger indicator of women shows that not only the social cost of this situation, but also greater costs for their body-mental health and well-being over time.

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