VOA标准英语2009年-Sociologist Studies What Makes People

Rose Hoban | Durham, North Carolina 16 December 2009

Literature is filled with images of the angry young man or woman.  New research into human psychology¹ suggests the hot-headed youth of fiction have a basis in scientific fact.

Rushing adds stress and leads to anger

Scott Schieman, a sociologist² at the University of Toronto, has made a career of studying angry people.  He's dedicated³ his research to finding out what makes people explode in a rage or simply feel annoyance⁴.  Schieman, an American, conducted extensive surveys of about a thousand Americans of all ages. He asked about many factors that can contribute to feeling angry and he found three main reasons why younger people reported being angry more often than older respondents.

"The big one was being rushed for time. And this comes out of, in a way, theory and evidence about people saying, 'Look, I feel rushed, I feel too many demands at work, I feel too many demands in family life,' and they don't have any hours left after all of the demands being placed on [them].  So that feeling rushed for time was the strongest predictor of anger, and it was much more frequent among people in their 20s and 30s," Schieman says.

He adds the other two big stressors for young people are financial strain and problems at work.  He also found that people who have young children at home tend to express anger more frequently. 

Older, wiser and better able to cope

Schieman says the findings make sense.  As people age, he notes, they tend to cope a little better with the pressures of life.

"There is something about aging that [enables] people [to leave] relationships that aren't as healthy, they become more selective in terms of emotional experiences.  So it's sort of like, out with the problematic, and in with the more relaxed, calm," he says. 

Schieman also found that people with more education tend to experience anger less frequently.

"When well-educated individuals do experience anger, they tend to be more likely to act pro-actively. In other words, they try to change the situation; they try to talk it over with others. And so some of the theoretical thinking behind that is just that education equips individuals with more cognitive⁵ flexibility⁶, they can think through a variety of different options, potentially control emotions better, think through different opportunities for resolution, that kind of thing," Schieman says.

But he says respondents of all ages and education levels know what it feels like to be annoyed.  He says everyone faces annoyances⁷ whether it's a traffic tie-up, a balky appliance or rudeness, and neither age nor education seemed to protect people from these everyday frustrations⁸..

Schieman's research will become a chapter in a reference book called the International Handbook of Anger.
 

1 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。

2 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

3 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

4 annoyance   

n.恼怒，生气，烦恼

参考例句：

• Why do you always take your annoyance out on me?为什么你不高兴时总是对我出气？
• I felt annoyance at being teased.我恼恨别人取笑我。

5 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

6 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

7 annoyances   

n.恼怒( annoyance的名词复数 )；烦恼；打扰；使人烦恼的事

参考例句：

• At dinner that evening two annoyances kept General Zaroff from perfect enjoyment one. 当天晚上吃饭时，有两件不称心的事令沙洛夫吃得不很香。 来自辞典例句
• Actually, I have a lot of these little annoyances-don't we all? 事实上我有很多类似的小烦恼，我们不都有这种小烦恼吗？ 来自互联网

8 frustrations   

挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意

参考例句：

• The temptation would grow to take out our frustrations on Saigon. 由于我们遭到挫折而要同西贡算帐的引诱力会增加。
• Aspirations will be raised, but so will frustrations. 人们会产生种种憧憬，但是种种挫折也会随之而来。