Question

Critical Thinking Exercise: Hostility, Depression, and Heart Disease

Now that you have completed Chapter 10, take your learning a step further by testing your critical thinking skills on the following practical problem-solving exercise.

Although everyone feels angry from time to time, when everyday anger turns destructive or occurs with increasing frequency, it can have a variety of unhealthy effects. In addition to reducing the overall quality of a person’s life, uncontrolled anger can damage relationships and make people feel as though they are at the mercy of an unpredictable force.

Hostility and anger may also directly affect the health of a person’s heart. In one study, Duke University researchers asked patients with ischemia to wear wireless heart monitors for 48 hours, and to keep a diary of their emotions—sadness, tension, frustration, happiness, and feelings of control—during that time period. The researchers found that the patients who had stressful feelings were twice as likely to have a bout of ischemic pain an hour later as the patients who didn’t have stressful feelings.

In another, long-term prospective study of medical students at Johns Hopkins University, researchers found that those who experienced depression during their time at Johns Hopkins were, on average, twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease or suffer a heart attack 15 years later, as students who didn’t experience depression. Other studies that examined the effects of depression on the heart have found that depressed people who already have heart disease are up to eight times more likely to develop ventricular tachycardia—a dangerous heart arrhythmia—than heart disease patients who are not depressed.

The effect of positive emotions on the heart is also a subject of research. One ongoing study at the Institute of HeartMath has reported that feelings of love and gratitude in coronary patients may actually make the beating of their hearts more uniform and consistent. This change is similar to the “relaxation response”—a state that is physiologically the opposite of the “fight-or-flight” response, in which blood pressure is reduced and blood flow to the heart is increased.

The American Psychological Association’s Web site includes an outstanding series of essays called “Psychology and Everyday Life,” which offer solid and direct advice on hostility and the heart, based on the latest research. It also discusses strategies for anger management, such as cognitive restructuring. As part of this exercise, check out the information at www.apa.org/pubinfo/anger.html and then prepare answers to the questions that follow.

Question 1

In what ways is anger like other emotions? In what ways is anger unique?

Question 2

What are the common triggers of anger? How often does a typical person become angry? Who tends to become angry more often?

Question 3

What do researchers believe to be the causes of an “anger-prone” temperament?

Question 4

Researchers believe that hostility is one of several emotions that force the heart to work overtime, and, that, after a while, may promote the development of heart disease. For example, hostility may increase blood clotting and the levels of sugar and fats in the blood. Physiologically, what other emotion-induced changes may account for this relationship between hostility and heart disease?

Question 5

How can cognitive restructuring be used to help anger-prone individuals gain control of their anger? What are several other strategies for keeping anger and hostility under control?

Answer 1

Anger is considered to be a normal emotion and a healthy emotion. It is common for all to be angry at certain points.

The fact is how can we control anger and if not controlled becomes destructive.Anger can be from mild irritation to rage if we do not control it.There are many factors that can contribute to anger.it could be just a small issue tht we face in our everyday life and we do not know how to cope with it. Anger can be external or internal.We could hav had an argument or things are not going the way we expect and starts with a mild irritation leading to fury.

If a person has no control over their emotions and do not know how to deal with anger this can lead to devastating themselves and others around them.Expressing anger is healthy but in an assertive way and not in an agressive way.If anger is not controlled it affects our physical well being as to rise in blood pressure,heart beat and overwork of adrenal in fight and flight response.

people who often get angry are people with low tolerance to frustration. But it is envitable. They do not know how to take things in a positive way.Anything said to them will seem negative .There are physiological factors contributing to anger.

Anger management helps in controlling your emotions and dealing with it. We need to keep telling ourselves how we can cope with it.Keep a diary and note down how many ties in a day we were angry and also why . evaluate if it was logical why we were angry and what was the outcome of our anger.Did it help us resolve the situation.What other ways would have helped us in that situation apaert from being angry?Often a diary helps us to keep a check on ourselves and repeatedly do the exercises to work on ourselves.Yoga and meditation helps us to keep our mind calm and bring a balance with the mind and body.