The impact of spirituality on the expression of anger

Abstract

Anger is prevalent in American society trigging hate crimes that range from vandalism to murder. Consequently, many anger management programs have been created for problem offenders and many research studies have been conducted on anger and its accessories, hate, rage, and hostility. Much of the research on anger concentrates on effective methods to control anger. Spirituality, often shown to have helped people to be more peaceful, has not been scientifically researched in conjunction with anger. The purpose of this research project was to determine if there is any relationship between expression of anger and practicing the principles of spirituality. The self-reported angry feelings and general anger were be measured by the State-Trait Anger Scales (Spielberger, 1988). Spirituality was tested with a researcher created form. Participants were fifty-eight men and women. The results were reported using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation (Pearson’s r) and several t-tests, which compared the various groups. Results were found to be significant in two of the null hypotheses and partially significant in the third null hypothesis. Implications of these findings were discussed and recommendations given.