Anger Rumination Theory

Hobfou, Johnson, Ennis and Jackson (2003) stated that women in our society are often placed in repeated conditions of dependence on parents, partners, and social services for their economic survival. These conditions have left these women with the feelings of being disempowered and hopeless, with low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence, thereby reducing their capacity to cope effectively with stressful situations in their lives. Faced with the lack or loss of material, personal and social resources, these women have become more susceptible to forms of internal distress, such as depression and anger which has led the increase of cardiovascular diseases among women.
Cox, Van Velsor and Hulgus (2004), in their theory of anger-diversion in …show more content…
In this study, a new model of anger responding that comprised of six independent anger response styles in two dimensions: Aggression, Assertion, Social Support Seeking, Diffusion, Avoidance and Rumination. Linear and interactive relations between the anger response styles and ambulatory blood pressure were tested and the traditional risk factors and level of hostility were controlled. The subjects were 159 hypertensive patients (90 men and 69 women) and the test used to measure rumination was the Behavioral Anger Response Questionnaire developed by Barefoot, Dodge, Peterson, Dahlstrom, and Williams’s (1989), a refined version of the Cook–Medley Hostility Questionnaire, which has better predictive validity in terms of mortality than the full Cook–Medley Hostility Questionnaire. Interactions between Rumination and the other anger response styles were examined. The results revealed weak linear relations between anger response style (Aggression, Assertion, Social Support Seeking, Diffusion and Avoidance) and blood pressure. The interaction of rumination with other response styles provided the significant association with blood pressure. This may indicate that the impact of ruminative cognitions may have a detrimental impact on the relation between aggression and blood pressure if they occur directly after a display of aggression (e.g., after an anger provocation). Rumination had a moderating influence on Avoidance in the hypertensive men. In this sample, the interaction of Rumination and Avoidance showed the significant relationship with ambulatory systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. When high levels of Avoidance was coupled with high Rumination, higher levels of ambulatory systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were observed, whereas high Avoidance in