The study's participants were divided into three different treatment groups, where all treatment groups had emotion regulation over the internet.
The study's emotion regulation was four weeks long and included therapy for eleven minutes a week, per participant.
Hear more about the study and its treatment groups in the clip above.
Different focus
One group would note and identify their feelings when angry.
In the second group, the participants were taught to reinterpret situations, while the third group combined the strategies from group one and group two.
- For those who had problems with acting out anger, this combined treatment proved to be the most effective, says Hugo Hesser, professor at Örebro University, who led the study together with Johan Bjureberg at Karolinska Institutet.
Anger is not dangerous
- Anger is a very important emotion that informs us about how we should act in different situations.
It enables us to identify challenges and problems in everyday life.
Because there really isn't a problem with the anger itself, it's how we handle the anger.
That is what is important.
The inward-directed anger that is not outward-directed can be more difficult to access, says Hugo Hesser.
- There is very little research on inward anger, those who clench their fists in their pockets but boil inside.
Because physiologically, we are still activated and this can lead to heart problems and pain problems in the long term.
It is our next step to find good treatment for them as well.