Psychological Reports, 1990, 67, 259-262.

O Psychological Reports 1990

ANGER REACTIONS OF IRANIAN ADOLESCENTS ' AZAR MAKAREMI Shiraz University Summary.-The purposes of this study were to examine the anger reactions of Iranian adolescents directed against their peer groups, parents, and teachers, or school faculties, and also to compare the results with Gesell's data from 1956. A questionnaire was developed according to GeseU's study to investigate the kinds of anger reactions 454 high school students (258 girls and 196 boys) expressed against their peer groups, patents and teachers, or school faculties. Adolescents used more crying against their fathers than mothers, peers, and teachers and more verbal aggression against their peers than their parents and teachers. For kind of anger reactlon against parents and teachers or school faculties chi squared was significant across sex of adolescents. Finally, the kinds of anger reactions against mothers and stronger peers were significantly related to mothers' education.

At the Yale Clinic of Child Development, Gesell (1956) extensively studied the emotional expressions of American adolescents. To study the emotional expressions, the subjects were straightforwardly asked "what do you do when you get angry?" The answers varied from crying, physical fighting, insulting, to inhibitory responses, such as leaving the environment or being- silent. In the Gesell study most of the subjects said their response depended on at whom they were mad. If at parents, some boiled over, some could not do much. If angry at peer group or siblings, there was usually physical violence. If angry at teachers, the adolescents reported doing a number of things: "sit and take it," "give her a cold look," "talk to myself," "say to heck with homework," "trying not to show it," "suffer in silence." Also, Balayan (1975) in a study of anger reactions of Iranian adolescents observed that most of the subjects preferred to be silent against parents and teachers. Some psychologists believe that the situation and the kind of anger behavior are related. Freedman, Carlsmith, and Sears (1970) declared that aggressive behavior depends on the situation, and one important characteristic of the situation is respect for others. Respect is stronger than aggressive impulse. A person would not beat his parents or his older brother because his respect for them is stronger than the aggressive impulse. Further, Campbell, BiIbel, and Muncer (1985) in a study about adolescents 15 to 18 years of age reported that situational differences were the most powerful of all the effects on their anger reactions and there was a common set of norms or rules about angry behavior under various circumstances. Svec and Bechard (1988) actually suggested a model for controlling aggressive adolescents, which is based on the 'Address correspondence to A. Makaremi, Department of Psychology, College of Literame and Human Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

cognitive interaction of person x situation x interactional task of the individual. Moreover, Tanner and Hillman (1988) reported that social skills training is an effective technique in reducing angry behaviors. Following the earlier studies, the present one was designed to investigate the various anger reactions of Iranian adolescents in different situations and also to compare the results of this study with those of Gesell's study. METHOD The subjects were 454 high school students (258 girls and 196 boys), selected randomly from five high schools in Shiraz. The mean age for sample was 16.8 yr. According to Gesell's study, the questions of this study were unmasked and straightforward. The questionnaire had seven items: when you get angry at your age group who are as strong as you are, how d o you express your anger; when you get angry at your age group who are weaker than you, how d o you express your anger; when you get angry at your father, how d o you express your anger; when you get angry at your mother, how do you express your anger; when you get angry at your age group who are stronger than you, how do you express your anger; when you get angry at your teacher or school faculty, how do you express your anger? A six-choice response format was used with each item: (1) verbal aggression, (2) leaving the situation, (3) crying, (4) being silent, (5) physical fighting, (6) other, to record anger reactions. The last response "other" .included any other answer that subjects had. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was provided by a coefficient alpha (Cronbach, 1951) of .58. Five high schools were selected randomly from among those in Shiraz. Students were selected nonsystematically from among fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. The questionnaires were in groups. All subjects but three completed the questionnaires. The total number of respondents was 451 (256 girls and 195 boys). RESULTS Table 1 presents the percentages of the subjects' responses. They used more verbal aggression against their peers (for equal strength peers, the most) than against their parents and teachers (for teachers, the least). The option of leaving the situation was more often chosen against stronger peers than against weaker peers and those of equal strength, parents and teachers. Subjects were silent against their teachers or school faculties, brothers, mothers, weaker peers, and stronger peers. F i n d y , the subjects reported more physical fighting occurred with peers of equal strength than with weaker and stronger peers, parents, and teachers. Chi squared was significant ( p < .05) across sex and kind of anger against peers of equal strength [ X , 2 ( n = 445) = 58.891, peers of weaker

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ANGER REACTIONS O F IRANIAN ADOLESCENTS

strength [X: (n = 441) = 16.783, stronger peers [X;

(n = 444) = 50.811, fathers

[X; (n = 433) = 31.521, mothers [X,Z (n = 444) = 21.871, and finally teachers or school faculties [x; (n = 446) = 45.961. Also, there were significant agreements across students' majors (mathematics, literature, art, economics and natural sciences) and the kinds of anger reactions against peers of equal strength [X2: (n = 434) = 60.241, stronger peers [X,' (n = 433) = 51.981, fathers [x,: (n = 422) = 35.791, and teachers or school faculties IX2; (n = 435) = 46.351. Further, there were significant values (p < .05) of chi squared across mothers' education and the kind of anger reaction against mothers [x,: (n = 429) = 38.531 and stronger peers h,,Z (n = 425) = 32.11. Mothers' education was categorized into five levels of illiterate, elementary school, high school, B.A. or B.S., and M.A., M.S., or Ph.D.). None of the comparisons involving fathers' education and parents' ages and occupations were significant. TABLE 1 SUB~ECTS' ANGERRESPONSESTO VARIOUSGROUPS:PERCENT Group Verbal Aggres-sion Equal Strength Peers Weaker Peers Stronger Peers Father Mother Teacher or School Faculty

39.0 32.6 25.7 10.0 19.3 6.4

Kind of Expression of Anger Leaving Crying Being Physical SituaSilent Fighting tion 15.3 13.2 21.3 15.5 14.4 4.9

8.0 1.1 8.9 10.0 7.8 6.9

26.2 44.1 33.1 58.3 56.0 77.4

7.8 6.1 6.7 0.4 0.9 0.2

Other

3.7 2.9 4.3 5.8 1.6 4.2

Present results are consistent with prior work. Adolescents preferred to remain silent against adults such as parents and teachers, which observation is consistent with those of earlier studies (Gesell, 1956; Freedman, Carlsmith, & Sears, 1970; Balayan, 1975; Campbell, Bilbel, & Muncer, 1985). All the findings for both boys and girls as to kinds of anger reactions are supported by earlier results (Berkowitz, 1962; Schellenberg, 1970; Moskowitz, Schwartman, & Ledngham, 1985). Finally, the influence of academic major and of mothers' education on the kind of aggressive behavior shown supports previous work on the influences of childrearing on aggressive tendencies of children (Davis & Dollard, 1940; Sears, Maccoby, & Levin, 1957; Sears, 1961; Svec & Bechard, 1988; Tanner & Holliman, 1988). REFERENCES BALAYAN, M. (1975) Adolescence psychology. Isfahan: Mashal. BERKOWITZ,L. (1 962) Aggression. New York: McGraw-Hill. CAMPBELL,A,, BILBEL,D., & MUNCEX,S. (1985) Predicting our own aggression: person, subculture or situation? British Journal of Social Psychology, 24, 169-180.

CRONBACH, L. J. (1951) Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychomeh.ika, 16, 297-334.

DAVIS,A,, & DOLLARD,J. (1940) Chiklren of bondage. Washington, DC: American Council of Education. J. M., & SEARS,D. 0. (1970) Social psychology. Englewood FREEDMAN . L., CARLSMITH, NI: Prentice-Hall. GESELL,A., ~ G , - FL., . & AMES,L. B. (1956) You~h.London: Hamish Hamilton. M o s ~ o m z D., , SHWATZMAN, A. E., & LEDINGHAM, J. E. (1985) Stability and change in aggression and withdrawal in middle childhood and early adolescence. lournal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 30-41. SCHELLENBERG, J. A. (1970) Social psychology. New York: Random House. SEARS,R. R. (1961) Relation of earl socialization experiences to aggression in middle childhood. Journal ofAbnorma1 a n l ~ o c i aPsychology, l 63, 466-492. SEARS,R. R., MACCOBY, E. E., & LEVIN, H . (1957) Patterns of child rearing. New York: Harper & Row. SVEC,H., & BECHARD,J. (1988) An introduction to a metabehavioral model with implication for social skills training for aggressive adolescents. Psychological Reporh, 62, 19-22. TANNER, V. L., & HOLLIMAN,W. B. (1988) Effectiveness of assertiveness training in mod&ing aggressive behaviors of young children. Psychological Reports, 62, 39-46.

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Accepfed July 16, 1990.

Anger reactions of Iranian adolescents.

The purposes of this study were to examine the anger reactions of Iranian adolescents directed against their peer groups, parents, and teachers, or sc...
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