Men's anger: A phenomenological exploration of its meaning in a middle class sample of American men

This study explored the meaning of men's anger, using the methodology of eidetic (descriptive) phenomenology. A community sample of 19 middle-class American men, ranging in age from 20 to 50 years, participated in audiotaped interviews. Two prominent themes, right versus wrong and being controlled versus having control, were contextualized by the world in which masculinity has been socially constructed and emotion is regulated accordingly. Interwoven throughout anger narratives were descriptors of the intense physical arousal felt within the body. Time was an important contextual ground for men's anger experience, with sharp contrasts drawn between anger then and now. Findings suggest that men's anger is often misunderstood. Both substantive and stylistic gender differences were noted when findings of this study were compared with previous studies of women.