The relations between anger, coping with anger, and aggression, and the BIS/BAS system

In two studies, the relations between the experience and expression of anger and the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Approach System were investigated with self-report data. In a first study, our results replicated previous findings that trait anger relates positively to both BIS and BAS, and generalized these findings to a measure of trait anger based on contextual anger responses. In a second study, the relations between anger coping-styles, anger expression, and BIS/BAS were examined. It was hypothesized that coping with anger involves low activity of either BIS or BAS, resulting in the anger coping styles of anger-out and anger-in, respectively. Measures of anger-out were found to be positively related to a measure of BAS and negatively to a measure of BIS, whereas the opposite pattern of associations was obtained for anger-in. Furthermore, corresponding to an anger-out coping style, both physical and verbal aggression were found to be positively related to BAS, and negatively to BIS.