ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4957-0622

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA in Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Raymond A. DiGiuseppe

Second Advisor

William F. Chaplin

Abstract

Anger has detrimental effects on individuals, and 7.8% of the United States population experiences intense, poorly controlled anger (Birkley & Eckhardt, 2015; Bogdan et al., 2016; Rissman, 2017; Okuda et al., 2015). Despite this, anger remains absent as a standalone disorder within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) though is highly prevalent in five disorders within the DSM. Evidence supports the use of cognitive behavioral approaches, namely Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), as forms of treatment (Fernandez & Johnson, 2016; David & Szentagotai, 2006). Within REBT, Albert Ellis proposed that Demandingness was the primary irrational belief contributing to disturbed anger (O'Kelly et al., 1998). Previous studies have tested and produced limited findings regarding Ellis' theory. This study is the first to test it with different types of anger based on the Anger Disorders Scale (ADS) created by DiGiuseppe & Tafrate (2004). Additionally, the current study used seven cognitions hypothesized to lead to anger by the Anger Cognitions Scale-Revised (ACS-R) (DiGiuseppe et al., 2023). This secondary analysis sought to test Ellis' theory on the primacy of Demandingness to determine if it would be the most beneficial cognition to target in treatment. One thousand eighteen participants completed the ACS-R, which assessed the following cognitions: Frustration Intolerance (FI), Negative Consequences of Anger (NCA), Hostile Attribution (HI), Inflammatory Labeling (IF), Overgeneralization (OG), Demandingness (DEM), and Awfulizing (AWF). Furthermore, participants' anger was assessed using the ADS subscales: Total Anger, Anger-Vengeance/Aggressive Acts, Anger-In, and Anger-Reactivity/Verbal Expressive. Mediation, reverse mediation, principal component, and regression with partial correlation analyses were conducted and produced mixed findings for the cognition(s) that most contributed to anger. The mediation and reverse mediation analyses revealed that FI most strongly predicted disturbed anger while principal component analyses revealed that NCA was the strongest cognition on which anger loaded. Regression with partial correlations indicated that FI was the cognition that had unique variance contributing to several types of anger, thereby producing limited support for Ellis' theory. Implications of these findings for treatment settings are discussed and focus on the cognitions clinicians could target in treating anger.

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