Domain-specific anger expression assessment and blood pressure during rest and acute stress Stephan Bongard a, *, Mustafa al’Absi b a Department of Psychology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Kettenhofweg 128, PO Box 11 19 32, D-60054, Frankfurt am Main, Germany b Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Duluth, MN, USA Received 14 September 2001; received in revised form 5 March 2002; accepted 15 April 2002 Abstract Anger expression has been linked to hypertension, although assessment of anger expression has not accounted for situational influences. We predicted that anger expression style varies across social situations. Two studies assessed reported anger expression in three domains (home, work, and during free time) and compared findings to those obtained using a global assessment. Participants reported expressing anger more openly when at home and they tend to exert greater control when at work. The domain-specific assessment was also more sensitive to sex differences than the general assessment. The second study examined the influ- ence of this domain-specific anger expression assessment on blood pressure (BP) at rest and during acute challenge. In addition to replicating the first study, the second study showed that open anger expression par- ticularly at work was associated with elevated BP. These studies represent a first step towards improving assessment of anger expression and determining how anger might relate to hypertension risk. # 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Anger expression; Blood pressure; Situational effects; Sex differences; Hypertension risk This paper focuses on assessment of anger expression style in different social situations and its relation to blood pressure levels at rest and during acute stress. The concept of anger expression style has become a central construct in the fields of behavioral medicine and health psychology during the past 20 years. Although the number of publications has steadily increased during this period, 1 no compelling pattern of results has emerged. 0191-8869/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00106-X Personality and Individual Differences 34 (2003) 1383–1402 www.elsevier.com/locate/paid * Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-69-798-22519; fax: +49-69-798-23363. E-mail address: bongard@psych.uni-frankfurt.de (S. Bongard). 1 Research on Medline using the keywords ‘‘anger expression’’, ‘‘anger coping’’, ‘‘anger-in’’, or ‘‘anger-out’’ came up with four entries for the 5-year-period 1980–1984, 40 entries for 1985–1989, 60 entries for 1990–1994, and 99 entries for 1995–1999.