Is it best to hold your anger in or let it out? Explain your reasoning

Answer 1

The answer depends on who you ask and how your anger is expressed. The research described in the Research Highlight box suggests that expressing anger may help protect men from heart disease and stroke but the relationship is complex. How you express that anger may be even more important to your well-being. Research by Brad Bushman, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, suggests that letting anger out may make people more aggressive, not less. He says, "Many people think of anger as the psychological equivalent of the steam in a pressure cooker: It has to be released or it will explode. That's not true. The people who react by hitting, kicking, screaming, and swearing just feel more angry.". So "venting" may make you feel better, but only for the moment. Venting your anger could contribute to the following actions:

1 . Make you feel worse
2 . Cause your situation to escalate
3 . Lead to new problems you might have to fix later