Date of Award

12-22-1999

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

First Advisor

Sue C. Jacobs

Abstract

Anger is a dominant, but under-researched, emotion in our society. Mental health providers devote a considerable portion of their time to helping clients deal with anger. However, neither they nor researchers are able to say what treatment is most efficacious or for whom. Gender, age, and culture are all involved in the experience and expression of anger and how anger manifests itself differently among individuals, and possibly in how anger is interpreted by mental health providers. One way to better understand client anger and clinician's conceptualization of that anger is through the examination of anger narratives. This study examined anger narratives to determine the degree to which individuals described their anger in terms of themes of Care and Justice (Gilligan, 1982). The participants for this study were 8 Ph.D. psychologists (4 men and 4 women), who rated thirty transcripts from an anger recall study for themes of Care and Justice (Jacobs', 1996). It was hypothesized that female clients would receive higher Care ratings than males, male clients would receive higher Justice ratings, and client gender would impact Care and Justice ratings overall. Finally, it was hypothesized that gender of clinician would effect ratings of Care and Justice and there would be an interaction between clinician gender and client gender in determining Care and Justice ratings. A significant effect was found for client gender, but not clinician gender in the ratings of Care and Justice. This study provided an alternative conceptualization for understanding client anger. Study limitations and avenues for further research are discussed.

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