Religious and Spiritual Implications in Functional Anger

Abstract

The topic of spirituality has been of interest for many years in the helping professions ( Matise et al., 2018; Pargament, 2011). Another level of interest is how spirituality may be connected to anger that is culturally informed ( Subarimaniam et al., 2020). This writing approaches the topic of functional anger as impacted by the religious and spiritual beliefs with case vignettes pertinent to students, pastoral counselors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, psychotherapists, and other helping professionals.

Keywords

Anger religion spirituality dysfunctional anger functional anger

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abblett

M. R.

(2019). From anger to action powerful mindfulness tools to help teens harness anger for positive change. Instant Help.

American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision. Washington, DC: Author. ISBN: 9780890425787

Anderson

A. J.

(2010). Anger, forgiveness, and the goal of distal reconciliation: Predictors of complicated grief reactions to suicide-related bereavement (Doctoral Thesis). Seattle Pacific University, USA. Available from EBSCOhost psyh database. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2010-99220-380&site=ehost-live.

Ariyabuddhiphongs

. (2014). Anger concepts and anger reduction method in Theravada Buddhism. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 1(1), 56–66. doi:10.1037/scp0000003

Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (2020b). SIP Competencies. https://acpe.edu/programs/spiritual-integrated-psychotherapy/spiritual-integrated-psychotherapy-(sip)-trainer-certification

Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). (2019). Spiritually integrated psychotherapy (SIP) program participant manual. ACPE.

Association for Spiritual Ethical Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVIC). (2021). Competencies for Addressing Spiritual and Religious Issues in Counseling. https://aservic.org/spiritual-and-religious-competencies/

Banks

A. J.

White

I. K.

McKenzie

B. D

. (2019). Black politics: How anger influences the political actions blacks pursue to reduce racial inequality. Political Behavior, 41(4), 917–943. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-018-9477-1

Barber

. (2018). The forgotten emotion: An investigation into the lived experience of anger in young men. Counselling & Psychotherapy Research, 18(3), 332–341. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12179

10.

Bock

G. L.

(2021). Righteous indignation: Christian philosophical and theological perspectives on anger. Lexington Books/Fortress Academic.

11.

Butts

C. M.

Gutierrez

. (2018). Expanding intake assessment to incorporate spirituality using five functional tasks. Counseling and Values, 63(2), 147–163. https://doi.org/10.1002/cvj.12085

12.

Carriere

J. S.

Sturgeon

J. A.

Yakobov

Kao

M. C.

Mackey

S. C.

Darnall

B. D

. (2018). The impact of perceived injustice on pain-related outcomes: A combined model examining the mediating roles of pain acceptance and anger in a chronic pain sample. The Clinical Journal of Pain, 34(8), 739. https://doi.org/10.1097/AJP.0000000000000602

13.

Cassiello-Robbins

Dillon

Blalock

, et al. (2021, May). Exploring the role of anger in nonsuicidal self-injury in veterans. Journal of Psychiatric Research,137, 55–65. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.02.026.

14.

Chang

E. C.

Edward

C.-H.

Lee

Kamble

Batterbee

C. N. H.

Stam

K. R.

Chang

O. D.

Najarian

A. S. M.

Wright

K. M

. (2018). Understanding the association between spirituality, religiosity, and feelings of happiness and sadness among HIV-positive Indian adults: Examining stress-related growth as a mediator. Journal of Religion and Health, 57(3), 1052–1061. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0540-8

15.

Cherry

. (2021). The case for rage: Why anger is essential to anti-racist struggle. Oxford University Press.

16.

Christ

N. M.

Contractor

A. A.

Wang

Elhai

J. D

. (2020). The mediating effect of rumination between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and anger reactions. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(6), 619–626. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000579

17.

Cipriano

Claes

Gandhi

Cella

Cotrufo

. (2020). Does anger expression mediate the relationship between parental rejection and direct and indirect forms of non-suicidal self-injury? Journal of Child & Family Studies, 29(12), 3575–3585. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01844-9

18.

Cipriano-Steffens

T. M.

Carilli

Hlubocky

Quinn

Fitchett

Polite

. (2020). “Let go, let god”: A qualitative study exploring cancer patients’ spirituality and its place in the medical setting. Journal of Religion and Health, 59(5), 2341–2363. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-019-00942-3

19.

Costa

A. M.

Medeiros

G. C.

Redden

Grant

J. E.

Tavares

Seger

. (2018). Cognitive-behavioral group therapy for intermittent explosive disorder: Description and preliminary analysis. Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999), 40(3), 316–319. https://doi.org/10.1590/1516-4446-2017-2262

20.

DiGiuseppe

Tafrate

R. C.

(2004). Anger disorders scale (ADS). Multi-Health Systems.

21.

Donate

A. P. G.

Marques

L. M.

Lapenta

O. M.

Asthana

M. K.

Amodio

Boggio

P. S

. (2017). Ostracism via virtual chat room—Effects on basic needs, anger and pain. PLoS ONE, 12(9), Article e0184215. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0184215

22.

Dryden

(2021). Overcoming anger: When anger helps and when it hurts. Sheldon Press.

23.

Exline

J. J.

Pargament

K. I.

Grubbs

J. B.

Yali

A. M

. (2014). The religious and spiritual struggles scale: Development and initial validation. Psychology Of Religion And Spirituality, 6(3), 208–222. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036465

24.

Exline

J. J.

Park

C. L.

Smyth

J. M.

Carey

M. P

. (2011). Anger toward God: Social-cognitive predictors, prevalence, and links with adjustment to bereavement and cancer. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 100(1), 129–148. doi:10.1037/a0021716

25.

Fernandez

Callen

Johnson

S. L.

Gaspar

Kulhanek

Jose-Bueno

. (2020). Prevalence, elicitors, and expression of anger in 21st century mass shootings. Aggression and violent behavior, 101483.

26.

Freeman-Coppadge

D. J.

Horne

S. G

. (2019). “What happens if the cross falls and crushes me?”: Psychological and spiritual promises and perils of lesbian and gay christian celibacy. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 6(4), 486–497. https://doi-org.ezproxy.messiah.edu/10.1037/sgd0000341 https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000341

27.

Friedman

H. H.

Friedman

L. W.

(2019). The pen versus the sword: Humor in the service of social justice. Available at SSRN 3396640.

28.

Ghadirian

A.-M.

Salehian

. (2018). Is spirituality effective in addiction recovery and prevention? The Journal of Bahá’í Studies, 28(4), 69–88. https://doi.org/10.31581/jbs-28.4-5(2018)

29.

Gillespie

. (2019). A qualitative pilot study of spirituality in long-term recovery in acquired brain injury. The Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling, 73(2), 96–105. https://doi.org/10.1177/1542305019853588

30.

Godfrey

D. A.

Bennett

V. E.

Babcock

J. C

. (2021). Trait anger moderates the relation between facial affect recognition ability and perpetration of male-to-female physical and psychological intimate partner aggression. Journal of Family Violence, 36(3), 361–369. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-020-00162-4

31.

Greenfieldboyce

. (February 20, 2019). The power of Martin Luther King Jr.’s anger. All Things Considered. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/02/20/691298594/the-power-of-martin-luther-king-jr-s-anger

32.

Griffith

J. L

. (2010). Religion that heals, religion that harms. Guilford.

33.

Johnson-Kwochka

A. V.

Stull

L. G.

Salyers

M. P

. (2020). The impact of diagnosis and religious orientation on mental illness stigma. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000384

34.

McCullough

M. E.

Emmons

R. A.

Tsang

J. A

. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(1), 112–127. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.1.112

35.

Jones

R. S.

(2019). Spirit in session: Working with your client’s spirituality (and your own) in psychotherapy. Templeton Foundation Press.

36.

Kim

Y.-K.

(2017). Major depressive disorder: Risk factors, characteristics and treatment options. Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

37.

King

O. M.

Arber

Faithfull

. (2019). Beliefs that contribute to delays in diagnosis of prostate cancer among afro-Caribbean men in Trinidad and Tobago. Psycho-Oncology, 28(6), 1321–1327. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.5085

38.

Kocet

M. M.

Herlihy

B. J

. (2014). Addressing value-based conflicts within the counseling relationship: A decision-making model. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 180–186. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00146.x

39.

Korinek

A. W.

Arredondo

Jr . (2004). The spiritual health inventory (SHI): Assessment of an instrument for measuring spiritual health in a substance abusing population. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 22(2), 55–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J020v22n02_05

40.

L& L Programming. (2021). STAR: Spiritual themes assessment and reflection. Apple Store.

41.

Magyar-Russell

G. M.

Griffith

J. L

. (2016). Addressing unhealthy and potentially harmful expressions of religiousness and spirituality in clinical practice. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 3(3), 159–162. https://doi-org.ezproxy.messiah.edu/10.1037/scp0000111

42.

Matise

Ratcliff

Mosci

. (2018). A working model for the integration of spirituality in counseling. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 20(1), 27–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2017.1326091

43.

McGinnis

C. Z. A

. (2008). Using anger productively: “Amazon” warrior theory, Psychology Journal, 5(2), 73–91.

44.

McGinnis

C. Z. A

. (2015). Family ostracism in christianity and counseling. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 34(1), 79–83.

45.

Meier

B. P.

Fetterman

A. K.

Robinson

M. D.

Lappas

C. M

. (2015). The myth of the angry atheist. The Journal Of Psychology: Interdisciplinary And Applied, 149(3), 219–238. doi:10.1080/00223980.2013.866929

46.

Muniz da Silva Bezerra

S. M.

Tavares Gomes

da Costa Galvão

P. C.

de Souza

K. V

. (2018). Spiritual well-being and hope in the preoperative period of cardiac surgery. Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem, 71(2), 398–405. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2016-0642

47.

Nguyen

Carter

J. S.

Carter

S. K.

(2019). From yellow peril to model minority: Perceived threat by Asian Americans in employment*. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 100(3), 565–577. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12612

48.

Owens

L. R

. (2019). The wrathful guru: Exploring the vajrayana understanding of anger. Buddhist-Christian Studies, 39(1), 19–26. https://doi.org/10.1353/bcs.2019.0002

49.

Pargament

K. I.

(2011). Spiritually integrated psychotherapy: Understanding and addressing the sacred. Guilford Press.

50.

Pargament, K., Feuille, M., & Burdzy, D. (2011). The brief RCOPE: Current psychometric status of a short measure of religious coping. Religions, 2(1), 51–76.

51.

Pearton

van Staden

. (2021). The core cultural formulation interview in yielding religious content among patients suffering from a current major depressive episode. Journal of Religion and Health, 60(4), 2465–2483. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01114-4

52.

Perry

. (2017). The gift of anger and other lessons learned from my grandfather Mahatma Gandhi. Library Journal, 142(19), 50.

53.

Piedmont

R. L.

Piedmont

R. L

. (2010). Assessment of spirituality and religious sentiments technical manual. Ralph L. Piedmont, Ph. D.

54.

Raval

V. V.

Raval

P. H.

Salvina

J. M.

Wilson

S. L.

Writer

. (2013). Mothers’ socialization of children’s emotion in India and the USA: A cross-and within-culture comparison. Social Development, 22(3), 467–484. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2012.00666.x

55.

Reis-Dennis

. (2019). Anger: Scary good. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 97(3), 451–464. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2018.1520268

56.

Reno

R. R

. (2021). Anger-Politics on the Right. First Things, 1–17.

57.

Rodriguez

C. M

. (2018). Predicting parent-child aggression risk: Cognitive factors and their interaction with anger. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 33(3), 359–378. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260516629386

58.

Rose

O. N.

Kaiser

J. E. G.

Klein

(2008). Righteous indignation: A Jewish call for justice. Jewish Lights Publishing.

59.

Saiz

Chen-Chen

Mills

P. J

. (2021). Religiosity and spirituality in the stages of recovery from persistent mental disorders. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 209(2), 106–113. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000001271

60.

Shin

W. C

. (2020). Reimagining anger in christian traditions: Anger as a moral virtue for the flourishing of the oppressed in political resistance. Religions, 11(5), 1–12. https://doi-org.ezproxy.messiah.edu/10.3390/rel11050244

61.

Snell Jr, W. E., Gum, S., Shuck, R. L., Mosley, J. A., & Kite, T. L. (1995). The clinical anger scale: Preliminary reliability and validity. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51(2), 215–226.

62.

Somer

Klein-Sela

Or-Chen

. (2011). Beliefs in reincarnation and the power of fate and their association with emotional outcomes among bereaved parents of fallen soldiers. Journal Of Loss And Trauma, 16(5), 459–475. doi:10.1080/15325024.2011.575706

63.

Spielberger

C. D.

(1999). Staxi-2: State-trait anger expression inventory-2; professional manual. PAR, Psychological Assessment Resources.

64.

Subarimaniam

Zakaria

N. S.

Jaafar

W. M. W

. (2020). Multicultural competency, spirituality and self-efficacy in dealing with legal and ethical issues. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 28(2), 1371–1386.

65.

Svetieva

Zadro

Denson

T. F.

Dale

O’Moore

Zheng

W. Y

. (2016). Anger mediates the effect of ostracism on risk-taking. Journal of Risk Research, 19(5), 614–631. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2014.1003320

66.

Tafrate

R. C.

Kassinove

(2019). Anger management for everyone: Ten proven strategies to help you control anger and live a happier life (2nd ed.). Impact.

67.

Tessman

. (2005). Burdened virtues: virtue ethics for liberatory struggles. Oxford University Press.

68.

Thompson

L. Y.

Snyder

C. R.

Hoffman

Michael

S. T.

Heather

Billings

L. S.

Heinze

Neufeld

J. E.

Shorey

H. S.

Roberts

J. C.

Roberts

D. E

. (2005). Dispositional forgiveness of self, others, and situations. Journal of Personality, 73, 313–359. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00311.x

69.

Traister

. (2018). Good and mad: The revolutionary power of women’s anger. Simon and Schuster.

70.

Vaingankar

J. A.

Choudhary

Chong

S. A.

Kumar

F. D. S.

Abdin

Shafie

Chua

B. Y.

van Dam

R. M.

Subramaniam

. (2021). Religious affiliation in relation to positive mental health and mental disorders in a multi-ethnic Asian population. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073368

71.

Van Voorhees

E. E.

Dillon

K. H.

Wilson

S. M.

Dennis

P. A.

Neal

L. C.

Medenblik

A. M.

Calhoun

P. S.

Dedert

E. A.

Caron

Chaudhry

White

J. D.

Elbogen

Beckham

J. C

. (2021). A comparison of group anger management treatments for combat veterans with PTSD: Results from a quasi-experimental trial. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(19–20), NP10276–NP10300. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519873335

72.

Vasilopoulos

Marcus

G. E.

Valentino

N. A.

Foucault

. (2019). Fear, anger, and voting for the far right: Evidence from the November 13, 2015 Paris terror attacks. Political Psychology, 40(4), 679–704. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12513

73.

Westera

(2017). Spirituality in nursing practice: The basics and beyond. Springer Publishing Company.

74.

Williams

K. D.

Nida

S. A

. (2011). Ostracism: Consequences and coping. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(2), 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411402480

75.

Wills

Cuevas

C. A.

Sabina

. (2022). The role of the victim–offender relationship on psychological distress among Latinx women: A betrayal trauma perspective. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 14(1), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000923

76.

Zitek

E. M.

Jordan

A. H.

(2021). Individuals higher in psychological entitlement respond to bad luck with anger. Personality and Individual Differences, 168(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110306