But Anger Motivates Me Flashcards
‘People get angry in response to rule breaks, rejection, criticism, insults… it can make them stand up for themselves rather than be oppressed and exploited.’ Why is this dumb?
You would still notice them even if you weren’t pissed off. Not being angry about something doesn’t equate to not caring. There are emotions other than anger to colour your life and motivate your actions.
What’s an example of anger obscuring?
You loose your car. You’re not going to look for it less if you’re not angry. The irritation just ruins the moment with no added value.
Anger motivates vengefulness. Any problems here?
The goals of revenge and living well rarely align, and indeed often conflict.
There is often an irreconcilable difference between what is most in your interest and most contrary to your enemy’s.
But what about where vengeful outcomes and your best interests align?
Then you would have pursued them anyway. Eg returning faulty iPhone.
Why have an anger instinct at all?
When man was in small cliquey sociétés, a vengeful reputation may have been an advantage
Anger distracts and inhibits abilities to work on tasks unrelated to whatever you’re angry about
Primary function of emotions is it skew attention towards the object.
But the emotional overlay is a kind of mental handicap.
Nature of anger is to lock in ok retaliating rather than adapting. We become combative, competitive, stubborn.
Anger makes you less motivated to avail yourself of the wide range of solutions.
We become fixated on the means, not the end.
What are the 2 important qualities of blame?
- There are almost always many different factors
- We’re naturally biased towards emphasising those which absolve us of responsibility
What are some examples of internal and external locus of control?
Exam fail, date rebuff, missed forehand..
Things happen TO you, AROUND you, BY others.
Typically this only applies to the negatives and the positives and an internal locus.
Self serving attributional bias.
MEG.
What’s the actor-observer bias?
My behaviour is because of specific temporary factors, other people’s behaviour stems from their permanent global qualities.
