美国国家公共电台 NPR Got Anger? Try Naming It To Tame It

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Suppose you have a stressful day. You get home. You walk in the door and hear this.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING, BABY SCREECHING)

INSKEEP: As you listen to that...

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING, BABY BABBLING)

INSKEEP: ...Do you start feeling just a little bit irritated - maybe even angry?

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KINDERGARTEN COP")

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: (As Kimble, yelling) Shut up.

INSKEEP: That is Arnold Schwarzenegger expressing his anger in the film "Kindergarten Cop." Whether it's your home life or politics or Twitter, anger surrounds us. And over the next month, NPR will explore this emotion to learn from it. Today NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff reports on a method that could transform your relationship with anger.

MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE¹: We're going to start with the infamous² scowl³, you know, where you scrunch⁴ up your eyes and your forehead when you're angry. The common theory is that no matter where you're born - San Francisco, India, Tanzania - you're born knowing how to make this expression.

LISA FELDMAN BARRETT: Everyone will scowl in anger most of the time, and they will also recognize a scowl as anger.

DOUCLEFF: That's Lisa Feldman Barrett. She's a psychologist at Northeastern University. She says for decades, many scientists thought anger was a universal emotion hard-wired in the brain. When something is unfair - say, somebody takes credit for your success at work - your body automatically launches the anger program.

(SOUNDBITE OF BLOOD PULSING)

FELDMAN BARRETT: Your blood pressure will go up.

DOUCLEFF: Your heart will start pounding.

FELDMAN BARRETT: Maybe you'll breathe heavily.

(SOUNDBITE OF PERSON PANTING)

DOUCLEFF: Maybe you'll feel hot, and your face will turn red. Then a switch flips⁵ on in your brain and...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KINDERGARTEN COP")

SCHWARZENEGGER: (As Kimble, yelling) Shut up.

DOUCLEFF: We all know what happens next. Feldman Barrett says there's no doubt this type of anger exists.

FELDMAN BARRETT: That's the sort of stereotype⁶ of what anger is.

DOUCLEFF: But it's not the full story.

FELDMAN BARRETT: There is no single bodily change in anger. What it feels like to be angry depends on the situation. So sometimes anger is very unpleasant, and sometimes it's very pleasant.

DOUCLEFF: So, for example, you can feel exuberant⁷ anger when you're getting ramped⁸ up to compete in sports or a sad anger when your spouse⁹ doesn't appreciate you. Maybe you even cry when you're angry.

FELDMAN BARRETT: Sometimes, if you're like me, you know, you'll sit and imagine the demise¹⁰ of your enemy. All right, so (laughter) - and very quietly, right? So that was a joke.

DOUCLEFF: Feldman Barrett says your body reacts differently depending on a few things - what's causing you to be angry, what your past experiences have shown you about that situation and how your culture has taught you to respond. As a result, there is enormous variation in the types of anger here in the U.S. and around the world. Remember that scowl we were talking about? That's probably not universal. For example, many people in India don't squint¹¹ when they're angry but open their eyes very wide to give an intense glare.

FELDMAN BARRETT: There are many, many emotion categories that exist in other cultures that don't exist in English - in our culture.

DOUCLEFF: For instance, in Mandarin¹² Chinese, there's a word specifically for anger directed towards yourself...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Mandarin).

DOUCLEFF: ...Which is like anger mixed with regret. And the ancient Greeks differentiated¹³ between a short-term anger that doesn't stick around...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Greek).

DOUCLEFF: ...With a long-term anger that's permanent.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Greek).

DOUCLEFF: And then there are the angers of India. Abhijeet Paul teaches South Asian literature at Middlebury College. He says Indians are really creative when it comes to anger.

ABHIJEET PAUL: There's a very common form of anger which means, like, when the eggplant meets the oil.

DOUCLEFF: When the eggplant, like, hits the hot oil in a pan?

PAUL: Yeah, like you suddenly become, like, really angry at hearing something shocking or learning about something that you really, really deeply dislike.

DOUCLEFF: So like when you read the news headlines or check Twitter and there's something almost outrageous¹⁴, your eggplant may hit the hot oil. Paul says Indians also have another interesting type of anger, political anger...

PAUL: (Foreign language spoken).

DOUCLEFF: ...That you feel against the ruling class, the boss man. And you would never express that type of anger toward a neighbor or a family member.

PAUL: That is not good.

DOUCLEFF: Now here's the cool thing. Learning about all this - all these different types of anger is actually useful. Maria Gendron studies psychology¹⁵ at Yale University. She says giving names and labels to all your various angers can help you regulate them - not let them take over or overwhelm you. And it gives you clues about how best to respond.

MARIA GENDRON: There's definitely emerging evidence to show that even just the act of putting a label on your feelings is a really powerful tool for regulation.

DOUCLEFF: The idea is to take a state that's broad and general, like saying, I'm so angry, and making it more specific, more precise, nuanced. And you don't have to use the labels that already exist. You can just make up your own. Give your different types of anger names and start using them. Let me show you how it works.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING, BABY SCREECHING)

DOUCLEFF: The screaming baby and barking dog you heard at the beginning of the story...

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING, BABY BABBLING)

DOUCLEFF: Those belong to me. And when my husband comes home at night and hears that, it triggers a lot of anger. I decided¹⁶ to break it down and name it.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)

DOUCLEFF: The dog is barking.

(SOUNDBITE OF BABY SCREECHING)

DOUCLEFF: The toddler is screaming - two sounds together.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING, BABY BABBLING)

DOUCLEFF: We decided to call this new type of anger disonophous from the Latin for two sounds.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING, BABY BABBLING)

DOUCLEFF: Gendron says psychologists have a name for this strategy of precisely¹⁷ defining your emotions.

GENDRON: Emotional granularity.

DOUCLEFF: Studies show that the more emotional granularity you have, the more you can find subtle variations in your anger - the less likely you are to yell or act aggressively.

GENDRON: If you're making that a practice in your family - right? - of coming up with words and then using them together, that actually is kind of a mechanism¹⁸ - right? - that actually can regulate physiology¹⁹, can resolve the kind of ambiguity²⁰ about the situation.

DOUCLEFF: What emotional granularity does is it lets you see your anger with higher resolution, kind of like watching HDTV versus²¹ regular TV. Higher resolution gives you more information about your emotions.

GENDRON: What it means - whether we value that experience or not and give you choices - right? - about what to do next.

DOUCLEFF: And this last part is key. Being granular with your anger helps you figure out what's the best way to handle the situation. Here's what we did at my house.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING, BABY BABBLING)

DOUCLEFF: Now when my husband says, I have disonophous anger, Michaeleen - instead of me getting angry back, I know what we can do. Put the dog outside, pick up the baby and we all get some peace and quiet. Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CARMINA BURANA: O FURTUNA (FORTUNA IMPERATRIX MUNDI)")

LONDON PHILHARMONIC CHOIR²²: (Singing in Latin).

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 infamous   

adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的

参考例句：

• He was infamous for his anti-feminist attitudes.他因反对女性主义而声名狼藉。
• I was shocked by her infamous behaviour.她的无耻行径令我震惊。

3 scowl   

vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容

参考例句：

• I wonder why he is wearing an angry scowl.我不知道他为何面带怒容。
• The boss manifested his disgust with a scowl.老板面带怒色，清楚表示出他的厌恶之感。

4 scrunch   

v.压，挤压；扭曲（面部）

参考例句：

• The sand on the floor scrunched under our feet.地板上的沙子在我们脚下嘎吱作响。
• Her mother was sitting bolt upright, scrunching her white cotton gloves into a ball.她母亲坐得笔直，把她的白手套揉成了球状。

5 flips   

轻弹( flip的第三人称单数 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• Larry flips on the TV while he is on vacation in Budapest. 赖瑞在布达佩斯渡假时，打开电视收看节目。
• He flips through a book before making a decision. 他在决定买下一本书前总要先草草翻阅一下。

6 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

7 exuberant   

adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的

参考例句：

• Hothouse plants do not possess exuberant vitality.在温室里培养出来的东西，不会有强大的生命力。
• All those mother trees in the garden are exuberant.果园里的那些母树都长得十分茂盛。

8 ramped   

土堤斜坡( ramp的过去式和过去分词 )； 斜道； 斜路； （装车或上下飞机的）活动梯

参考例句：

• With the arrival of George Lucas, the pace has ramped up. 随着乔治·卢卡斯的到来，速度大大加快。
• They also sold corporate bonds as the global financial crisis ramped up. 在全球金融危机加剧之际，他们还抛售了公司债券。

9 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？

10 demise   

n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让

参考例句：

• He praised the union's aims but predicted its early demise.他赞扬协会的目标，但预期这一协会很快会消亡。
• The war brought about the industry's sudden demise.战争道致这个行业就这么突然垮了。

11 squint   

v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的

参考例句：

• A squint can sometimes be corrected by an eyepatch. 斜视有时候可以通过戴眼罩来纠正。
• The sun was shinning straight in her eyes which made her squint. 太阳直射着她的眼睛,使她眯起了眼睛。

12 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

13 differentiated   

区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的过去式和过去分词 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征

参考例句：

• The development of mouse kidney tubules requires two kinds of differentiated cells. 小鼠肾小管的发育需要有两种分化的细胞。
• In this enlargement, barley, alfalfa, and sugar beets can be differentiated. 在这张放大的照片上，大麦，苜蓿和甜菜都能被区分开。

14 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。

15 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

16 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

17 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

18 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

19 physiology   

n.生理学，生理机能

参考例句：

• He bought a book about physiology.他买了一本生理学方面的书。
• He was awarded the Nobel Prize for achievements in physiology.他因生理学方面的建树而被授予诺贝尔奖。

20 ambiguity   

n.模棱两可；意义不明确

参考例句：

• The telegram was misunderstood because of its ambiguity.由于电文意义不明确而造成了误解。
• Her answer was above all ambiguity.她的回答毫不含糊。

21 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

22 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。