Personality traits predicting anger in self-, ambiguous-, and other caused unpleasant situations

Abstract

This study examined how the experience of anger is differentially related to self-esteem, trait anger, and empathy depending on who is responsible for the anger-eliciting event. Participants engaged in a directed imagery task in which they reported on their anger experience in response to six scenarios that depicted unpleasant situations in which oneself is responsible, in which responsibility is ambiguous, or in which someone else is responsible. The results demonstrated that a low self-esteem predisposed participants to experience anger only when oneself was responsible for the unpleasant event. Anger experience was related to trait anger in all studied situation types, but most strongly in situations that were ambiguous with respect to who is responsible for what has happened. Finally, empathy was found to be most strongly related to anger experience in unpleasant situations in which someone else is responsible. These findings demonstrate the importance of taking into account contextual information for predicting emotional experience on the basis of traits and illustrate how emotional experience is the result of the interaction between person and situation.

Introduction

A common critique on personality traits is their limited predictive power for concrete behaviour and responses (Mischel & Shoda, 1998). One reason that has been advanced for their limited predictive power is that they may only affect an individual’s behavior and reactions in specific, trait-relevant situations (e.g., Kenrick & Funder, 1988), situations that draw on particular sensitivities or vulnerabilities associated with the trait. As a result, the predictive power of personality traits may be limited to or highest in such specific, trait-relevant situations. A key task for personality psychologists, then, is to identify those situations in which particular personality traits most strongly influence an individual’s reaction to the event.

In the present study, we present an analysis of traits that predispose people to experience the emotion of anger in reaction to specific contexts or events. Anger is an emotion that is frequently experienced by most individuals and that can have major interpersonal, societal, and even health consequences (e.g., Spielberger et al., 1985). Identifying which traits predispose individuals to experience anger in which situations can provide useful information for prevention and intervention programs aimed at altering the disruptive impact of anger. In what follows, we will first discuss the concept of responsibility which we expect to play a crucial role in qualifying the experience of anger, followed by a discussion of personality traits—self-esteem, trait anger, and empathy—which we expect to be differentially related to anger in events characterized by specific instances of responsibility.