Now that you have completed Chapter 10, take your learning a step further by testing your critical thinking skills on the following practical problem-solving exercise.
Although everyone feels angry from time to time, when everyday anger turns destructive or occurs with increasing frequency, it can have a variety of unhealthy effects. In addition to reducing the overall quality of a person’s life, uncontrolled anger can damage relationships and make people feel as though they are at the mercy of an unpredictable force.
Hostility and anger may also directly affect the health of a person’s heart. In one study, Duke University researchers asked patients with ischemia to wear wireless heart monitors for 48 hours, and to keep a diary of their emotions—sadness, tension, frustration, happiness, and feelings of control—during that time period. The researchers found that the patients who had stressful feelings were twice as likely to have a bout of ischemic pain an hour later as the patients who didn’t have stressful feelings.
In another, long-term prospective study of medical students at Johns Hopkins University, researchers found that those who experienced depression during their time at Johns Hopkins were, on average, twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease or suffer a heart attack 15 years later, as students who didn’t experience depression. Other studies that examined the effects of depression on the heart have found that depressed people who already have heart disease are up to eight times more likely to develop ventricular tachycardia—a dangerous heart arrhythmia—than heart disease patients who are not depressed.
The effect of positive emotions on the heart is also a subject of research. One ongoing study at the Institute of HeartMath has reported that feelings of love and gratitude in coronary patients may actually make the beating of their hearts more uniform and consistent. This change is similar to the “relaxation response”—a state that is physiologically the opposite of the “fight-or-flight” response, in which blood pressure is reduced and blood flow to the heart is increased.
The American Psychological Association’s Web site includes an outstanding series of essays called “Psychology and Everyday Life,” which offer solid and direct advice on hostility and the heart, based on the latest research. It also discusses strategies for anger management, such as cognitive restructuring. As part of this exercise, check out the information at www.apa.org/pubinfo/anger.html and then prepare answers to the questions that follow.