Psychologists give their views – Is Trinidad and Tobago becoming more angry?

Is TT society becoming more angry?

Are more people turning to violence as a result of anger?

The police service said of the 473 murders in TT for 2023 so far, six per cent were the result of altercations, four per cent were part of domestic violence situations, and nine per cent were acts of revenge. Murder/suicides remain a part of TT’s crime landscape, road-rage incidents have led to death in at least two cases in 2023, and school fights continue to be broadcast on social media.

A police spokesman, asked if there had been increased reports of incidents in which people had turned to verbal or physical violence, said it would be difficult to analyse the data collected about crime in that way, since anger could take many dimensions and be demonstrated in different ways. They said it would take deep analysis by the Crime and Problem Analysis (CAPA) Unit.

UWI psychology lecturer and clinical psychologist Dr Katija Khan said anger is not always a bad thing, as it is an emotion or mental reaction.

“All emotions are useful because they help shape and guide how we think, feel, react and behave on a daily basis. In the case of anger, it alerts us to threats to our well-being and motivates us to act and is an important part of our ‘fight or flight’ survival response.

“For example, if some has treated us unfairly, or hurt, offended, threatened us or someone we care about, it is very reasonable to become angry, as this can spur us to act to handle the conflict, protect ourselves or address the wrongdoing.

"Anger can be destructive, however, when the response is disproportionate or involves aggression or violence that causes unwarranted and unjustifiable harm."

Khan said society is still dealing with the financial, social and psychological after-effects of the pandemic. She said people who are stressed or overwhelmed may find it harder to cope, and to control their anger.

“Environmental factors also affect levels of anger and aggression. There is a well-established relationship between temperature and aggression and violence. The recent heatwaves from climate change make us more irritable and uncomfortable, and this makes us more inclined to aggressive thoughts and behaviours.

“Our personal histories are also relevant. Those of us who have a history of trauma or unresolved anger, or who grew up in households where the common response to anger was aggression and violence, may find themselves more easily triggered by current stressors and find it harder to control their anger.”

Children are not born angry

Trauma is defined as an emotional response to a terrible event like rape, an accident, a natural disaster, bullying, harassment, life-threatening illness, being attacked, or the sudden loss of a loved one, among others.

The American Psychological Association said immediately after a traumatic event, shock and denial are typical, while longer-term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships, and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea.

Recently, studies have shown trauma can be passed down to following generations through alterations in people’s genes, leaving them more susceptible to certain diseases and mental health issues. This is called epigenetics, which controls how or why genes are expressed, according to Psycom.net.

Khan said people react to anger in different ways.

“Some react verbally through shouting, using an aggressive tone, cursing, using insults or threatening language. Others may resort to violence through hitting, fighting others or damaging or destroying things.

"Violence could also be turned inwards, through self-harming. Some may also opt for a passive-aggressive response like giving the silent treatment and ignoring persons.”

She advised people who are feeling angry or angrier and feeling like lashing out in some way to take care of their physical and emotional needs.

“Both, however, require you to have good self-awareness. You need to recognise when you are hungry, tired, sleep-deprived, hot or dehydrated, as they can all affect your mood and lead to more irritability and anger.

"Stay hydrated and nourished and get enough rest and sleep so that you are not as easily irritated and triggered.

“Figure out why you are angry and whether it is a reasonable or proportionate response. Are you angry with your child because they were late, or are you angry because you see it as a sign of wilful disrespect or disregard, which then provokes an aggressive form of discipline? Road rage often stems from driver personalities, as drivers with high anger levels tend to display more hostile and aggressive behaviour on the road, leading to more incidents.”

Khan said people need to consciously choose healthier ways to deal with anger.

“If you have grown up in an environment that responds to anger with aggression and violence, you first have to unlearn that.

"If you have unresolved trauma from your past which makes you more inclined to respond angrily in situations, you have to heal from and unlearn that.

"This is not an easy task, but it is doable. We can retrain our brains to respond differently to anger.”

She said strategies to deal with anger and stress may include more self-care for rest, relaxation or recharging, or taking a time-out when people realise they are getting riled up and reassessing the situation when they are calmer.

“If your relationships and functioning are negatively being affected by anger on a regular basis, you should also seek professional help. Community-based interventions can also target constructive anger management, especially for youth.”

Adults are not the only ones being affected by anger. Childline programme manager Leevun Solomon said children and youths (up to 25) reach out to the helpline for assistance for various issues, including dealing with abusive parents, bullying, sexuality, information about sex and abortion, revenge porn/pictures, abortion and family-related problems.

“Our category of family-related problems includes contacts related to behavioural challenges, or what was once known as a ‘child beyond control.’ In the last six months we have received close to 100 contacts from family members regarding the delinquent behaviour of a child between the ages of six and 17 years.

"The issue of behaviour challenges has been the top three reasons for calls and chats, after health and psychosocial problems and abuse. Calls regarding some form of anger mismanagement are rarely straightforward: it’s usually coupled with other family-related issues.

"From my professional position, it usually stems from some form of bad parenting or even the total absence of parental supervision. These calls are usually from a mother or other female relatives, most times an aunt or grandmother.”

Solomon said ChildLine provided general counselling to children and youth, separately from the helpline service.

“Of our current caseload, more than 50 per cent are related to behavioural problems which may manifest themselves in the form of poor anger management. There has been an increase in people accessing our services over the last nine months.

“However, I don’t want you to get the idea that poor anger management, especially among our target population, is an isolated problem. We have so many young children dealing with grief and loss, and low self-esteem, who are victims and/or witnesses to all forms of abuse and violence. I cannot put enough emphasis on how dire the need is for parental guidance in our beloved country.

"Children are not born angry. They are simply a product of their environment.”

No data on anger levels

TT Association of Psychologists president Kelly Mc Farlane said people lash out in anger when they don’t regulate their emotional responses effectively. She noted that having a full range of emotions is healthy, but recurrent extreme aggressive behaviour is not.

“People also have extreme reactions to anger when they don’t have other more appropriate methods of coping or solving problems; have learned that their behaviours are appropriate, either from their upbringing or from having been positively reinforced for negative behaviours; or have mental health conditions, especially personality disorders, that make it very difficult to manage thoughts and behaviours adaptively.

“It is okay to feel anger, but merely feeling something does not give one the right to behave any way that they desire and suffer no consequences.

"Firstly, your perception of the situation could possibly be wrong, which would affect the way that you feel and behave, and secondly, extreme negative behaviours can and do lead to much greater problems in the short and long term.”

She said there were several ways people could choose how they relate to and react to things that made them angry.

“One must first make the decision that they wish to manage themselves in a different way before big behavioural changes are made.

"It is important to develop insight of your triggers and the way that your emotions escalate, and then to predetermine alternative responses through the use of resources, support, coping strategies and conflict-management skills.

“Remember that gaining control of your behaviour is not something that you do only for others; it is mostly for your own benefit. Regulating your emotions and managing your behaviour will improve your health and quality of life in many ways.”

Outgoing association president Charles Collier said psychologists can’t say definitively whether levels of anger in society have risen, as there has been no data collected on a national level from which scientifically valid conclusions can be drawn.

“Since measurement of changes in anger would require that we repeatedly gather data over a period of time, we therefore cannot draw scientifically valid conclusions about such changes either.

"Furthermore, we do not currently gather data about violent confrontations or altercations, or their causes. This necessarily means that we also cannot draw valid scientific conclusions about the causes of perceived anger within the population.”

Collier said in TT there are numerous potential sources of anger and related emotional experiences that can fuel it.

“These can include frustration, anxiety, powerlessness, hurt, sadness and a sense of injustice. Some of the factors that may lead to anger may be contemporary, while others may be historical.

"Contemporary sources of emotional distress may arise from many different layers of our lives. Some sources may be personal to the individual, while others may be bound up within the dynamics of our families, or communities, or schools, or places of religion, or public organisations and institutions.

“Many sources may be at an even broader societal level, such as within our cultures, policies, laws, or governmental structures. There may even be global factors to consider, such as the covid19 pandemic and the effects that it has had on individuals, families, communities, education, the economy, and more.”

He said it was especially important to consider the impact of larger societal forces when considering anger and violence.

“When sources of anger and other emotional distress seem to hold more power than the individual, there is a tendency for them to displace and act out their anger, not with the powerful entity that caused it, but with others who are perceived to hold less power and therefore be safer. This implies that the more frequently people have distressing interactions with powerful people, institutions, and systems, the more frequently they are likely to express anger and aggression toward each other.”

Collier said there are numerous historical factors that may be linked to emotional distress generally, and to anger and aggression in particular.

“Many of our historical challenges are almost certainly linked to our contemporary problems.

"Our national history is riddled with oppression, injustice, and violence, and these all tend to cause trauma.

"Trauma, unaddressed, tends to cause a wide range of emotional difficulties, including anxiety, depression, and of course, anger. There is a strong case to be made that our trauma-soaked history, with which we have never truly grappled, may be a deep well of pain from which our anger frequently overflows, not only as individuals, but as groups, and as a nation overall.”

He said TT’s trauma-soaked history refers to events such as the decimation of the native population when the islands were colonised, the treatment meted out to enslaved and indentured people, colonialism, and even events as recent as the 1990 attempted coup and increasing levels of crime.