Understanding anger worksheet

Are you a therapist looking for a worksheet to provide anger management psychoeducation? You’re in the right place.

This guide to understanding anger gives mental health therapists a brief overview of anger, answers the question “Is anger a learned behavior?”, and provides examples of different types of therapy for anger. 

We’ve also included a free downloadable anger as a secondary emotion PDF to save to your electronic health record (EHR) and use in your practice as anger management psychoeducation.

What is anger in psychology?

When it comes to  understanding anger in psychology, it’s important to know that anger is a natural reaction to a perceived threat, injustice, or violation. 

Physical signs of anger include an increased heart rate, headache, stomach ache, tensed muscles, and rapid or shallow breathing. 

Emotions that are key to understanding anger include antagonism and resentment toward the other person. 

It’s important to note in anger management psychoeducation that anger is a normal emotion and often signals when someone has crossed a personal boundary. However, too much anger or unresolved anger can harm mental and physical health.

Anger can cause increased stress levels, high blood pressure, insomnia, depression, digestive illnesses, eating disorders, and diabetes. Anger can also influence people’s conduct, causing aggression, physical assaults, verbal conflicts, and car accidents.

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Is anger a learned behavior?

Another important key to understanding anger is recognizing that anger is learned, but its expression varies among people and their experiences. 

For instance, Dave may yell when angry, but Sara experiences her anger by crying. 

Interpersonal relationships and sociocultural influences influence the way we express anger. In other words, we learn from our families, social relationships, and our culture. 

Our family shows us how they respond to and express certain emotions, while other families may not respond or act on specific emotions. 

The intensity and expression of powerful emotions, like anger or guilt, also vary in different sociocultural contexts depending on how those emotions are viewed in that particular culture. 

These experiences and biological predispositions influence the experience of anger and how we express it. 

There are four different ways people respond to anger to provide in anger management psychoeducation:

• Assertively: Anger is managed effectively and communicated appropriately when necessary.

• Aggressive: Anger is outwardly expressed aggressively through yelling, shouting, and physically aggressive behavior.

• Passive/aggressive: While people might appear unphased, their anger may manifest in passive-aggressive ways, such as subtly undermining others, making sly remarks, or sabotaging. 

• Passive: Anger is not expressed and internalized. 

Types of therapy for anger

Working with a therapist can help individuals in better understanding anger, identifying anger triggers, and developing anger management skills. 

Skilled therapists may use various types of therapy for anger, such as:

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

CBT helps clients in understanding anger by examining negative core beliefs and maladaptive thought patterns that lead to their anger and helping to restructure their thoughts into more adaptive thoughts and behaviors. 

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)  

DBT techniques that are key to understanding anger include strengthening distress tolerance and emotional regulation skills, developing mindfulness to increase awareness of anger triggers, and enhancing the healthy expression of anger through assertive communication skills and boundary development.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) 

ACT can help clients accept difficult emotions through cognitive diffusion techniques, mindfulness, and values-aligned actions.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) 

EMDR can help individuals resolve unprocessed trauma, which may be influencing anger issues. 

Group therapy 

This type of therapy combines awareness techniques, understanding anger triggers, and skill development in a group setting, and can be particularly helpful in making people feel less alone in their experiences. 

In addition to peer support, group therapy also helps people gain perspective and learn from others' experiences of anger.

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Using the understanding anger PDF 

Clients often come to therapy feeling the effects of anger, such as frustration and irritability, but they might not be able to answer the question, “Where does anger come from?” 

The understanding anger worksheet can be a useful tool for therapists in several ways. 

First, it provides anger management psychoeducation pointers to help clients understand anger as a secondary emotion, anger triggers, and anger coping strategies. 

It can also be given to clients as a handout on understanding anger to review the information, complete anger reflections between sessions, and then debrief at their next therapy appointment. 

Sources

• American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Anger. 

• Batholomew, N., G. & Simpson, D., D. (2005). Understanding and reducing angry feelings. Texas Institute of Behavioral Research at TCU. 

• Blair R. J. R. (2012). Considering anger from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science.

• Staicu, M. L., & Cuţov, M. (2010). Anger and health risk behaviors. Journal of medicine and life.

• UC Berkeley. (n.d.). Understanding Anger. 

• Williams R. (2017). Anger as a Basic Emotion and Its Role in Personality Building and Pathological Growth: The Neuroscientific, Developmental and Clinical Perspectives. Frontiers in Psychology. 

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