ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办:中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理科学进展 ›› 2023, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (3): 386-401.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1042.2023.00386

• 元分析 • 上一篇    下一篇

人际愤怒的利与弊:来自元分析的证据

王旭东1,, 何雅吉1,, 范会勇2, 罗扬眉1, 陈煦海1()   

  1. 1陕西师范大学心理学院, 西安 710000
    2渤海大学教育科学学院, 辽宁 锦州 121013
  • 收稿日期:2022-05-07 出版日期:2023-03-15 发布日期:2022-12-22
  • 通讯作者: 陈煦海 E-mail:shiningocean@snnu.edu.cn
  • 作者简介: 为共同第一作者
  • 基金资助:
    国家社会科学基金项目(20BSH138)

The advantages and disadvantages of interpersonal anger: Evidence from meta-analysis

WANG Xudong1,, HE Yaji1,, FAN Huiyong2, LUO Yangmei1, CHEN Xuhai1()   

  1. 1School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’ an 710000, China
    2School of Educational Sciences, Bohai University, Jinzhou 121013, China
  • Received:2022-05-07 Online:2023-03-15 Published:2022-12-22
  • Contact: CHEN Xuhai E-mail:shiningocean@snnu.edu.cn

摘要:

愤怒是因愿望落空、目标受挫或边界被犯而产生的负性情绪, 指向他人的愤怒即为人际愤怒。人际愤怒对接收者的影响有争议, 有人认为人际愤怒弊端极大, 有人认为人际愤怒是可资利用的工具。这种分歧可能源于评价指标、参照对象和应用场景的不同, 有必要用元分析系统考察人际愤怒的利与弊。本研究对67篇文献, 总样本量为15462人的185个效应值进行了分析, 结果发现:人际愤怒会让接收者让步更多、亲社会行为减少、问题解决行为提升, 同时情境不公平感增加, 对愤怒表达者的态度和能力评价均降低, 这些效应受接收者文化背景和相对权力大小的调节。这提示人际愤怒利弊相依, 能改变愤怒接收者的某些行为, 却增加对表达者的消极评价, 应视情景谨慎使用。

关键词: 愤怒, 行为表现, 主观评价, 文化背景, 社会权力

Abstract:

Previous studies have shown that expressing anger toward others, also known as interpersonal anger, has social effects. The social effects of interpersonal anger remain controversial, with some researchers finding that it improves the behavior of the emotional recipient, while others find that it negatively affects both the expresser and the recipient. It can be perceived that there may be other factors moderating the effects of interpersonal anger, but few studies have explored it. To investigate the pros and cons of interpersonal anger, we conducted a meta-analysis based on a systematic and comprehensive review of published studies on interpersonal anger. We examined the social effects of interpersonal anger and its possible moderating factors from subjective evaluation and behavioral performance.
The review was performed following the rigorous PRISMA protocol. Published studies were selected from the current major database, including English and Chinese literature. The database used included VIP Journal Integration Platform, Wan Fang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Web of Science, and ProQuest. Keywords used were “interpersonal anger”, “anger”, “angry”, “interpersonal emotion”, “emotion expression”, and “anger expression”. Finally, a total of 67 studies were included, in which there were 7 studies in Chinese and 60 in English (N = 15462 participants). The random-effect model was used to summarize the effect size (Hedge’s g), and the publication bias analysis and moderating effect analysis were carried out in CMA 2.0.
Our results showed that expressing anger, whether using the neutral or happy group as the control group, led to more negative subjective evaluations of the expressers, but did not significantly alter the behavioral performance of the recipients. Based on the high heterogeneity of the main effects, we inferred that the dependent variables might need to be subdivided for further analyses. After disintegrating the dependent variables, we found that when the expressers expressed anger, the recipients reduced their evaluation of the expressers’ attitudes, they felt that the situation was unfair, and increased their desire for revenge. Meanwhile, interpersonal anger was found to improve the recipients’ work or study performance, while reducing their willingness to engage in prosocial behaviors. In addition, expressing anger was found to increase the income of the expressers in a competitive environment. Due to the limited number of included literature, the moderating effect analyses were conducted only on the recipients’ cultural backgrounds and social powers. The results showed that in the background of western culture, the anger recipients believed that the affinity of the anger expresser was lower than that of those who expressed neutral emotion, and they were less willing to make concessions. Individuals with lower social power, compared with those with higher ones, made more concessions when receiving anger and had less influence on others when expressing anger.
In conclusion, interpersonal anger can change the recipients’ behaviors but can also increase their negative evaluations of the anger expresser and the interpersonal situation. Specifically, anger recipients are prone to make more concessions, engage in less prosocial behaviors and more problem-solving behaviors, perceive the current situation as more unfair, and evaluate the anger expresser as less affinitive and competent. The influence of interpersonal anger on prosocial behavior and competitive gain is moderated by the recipients’ cultural background and social power. These results suggest that interpersonal anger has both advantages and disadvantages. It can be used as a suitable strategy but also as an inappropriate way to control others’ behaviors, depending on the expresser’s purpose, relative power, and cultural background.

Key words: anger, behavior, subjective evaluation, cultural background, social power

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