Genetic Basis of Anger

Although we do have a tendency to assign genes to the existence of anger, there isn’t a lot of scientific evidence to prove that that’s true. You might have heard the “He gets it from his father” line when you see a little boy throwing an angry fit. The truth is that there is no connection between heredity and anger.

Anger also does not have a neurological basis. There is nothing to prove that some people are physiologically more pre disposed to anger. There has been research done into the presence of a condition called “intermittent explosive disorder.” Here, a person seems to have a tendency to show angry reactions including violent ones. There is more research going on into the existence of this condition, but no findings have been conclusively proven yet.

Another curious feature of anger in human beings is that two people who are in the same situation can react in two very different ways to the situation. One might react in an angry manner venting fury, while the other might not show signs of anger at all. This can be explained by the theory that one person might read hurt and anguish into the situation causing his anger to be provoked, while the other person does not read any other meaning into it, and is therefore unaffected by it.

Symptoms of Anger

Anger has some of the most visible physical symptoms of emotional reaction. You are always likely to tell if a person is angry because of the very real physical and facial changes that take place. Here are just a few ways you can tell if a person is in the beginning stages of anger:

•	The person clenches his muscles. His facial muscles are stretched taut, and his body is stiff and controlled.
•	The person clenches his teeth, making for a tight jaw line, always a give away that the person is getting angry.
•	The hands are clenched.
•	The face flushes to a deep red color.  The color is not confined to the face alone, but spreads over the face, neck and ears.
•	The voice begins to get raised in inflection. He might not be shouting yet, but there is definitely a higher pitch to the voice that wasn’t there before.