The Expression of Anger as a Function of Self-Esteem

This study investigated the relationship between level of self-esteem and anger expression. Fifty female and 36 male university students completed the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale and the Anger Self-Report. A 3 x 2 AVOVA showed a significant relationship between self-esteem and the ASR scales of Anger Awareness, Guilt, Mistrust, and Total Anger. In addition, women were found to experience significantly more anger-related guilt than men, while verbal and physical anger expression were both characteristic of men. The results further indicate that men experience greater mistrust and suspicion of others These finding suggest that low self-esteem individuals report more anger, but have fewer expressive outlets than do individuals with more favorable self-concepts. Furthermore, low self-esteem females tend to internalize their angry feelings, while low self-esteem males convert their anger into outer-directed hostility. Treatment implications and future research directions were discussed