Examining the relationship between anger and violent thoughts and fantasies: A pilot study

Abstract

The aim of this pilot study was to explore the prevalence and quality of violent thoughts and fantasies of a non-violent community sample. A secondary aim was to identify the extent to which violent thoughts and fantasies were related to anger.Nineteen adults took part in the study which used a repeated measures design. Participants were asked to complete an anger assessment (STAXI-2; Spielberger, 1999) and to take part in two semi-structured interviews which enquired about the experience of violent thoughts and fantasies.A thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) yielded a number of themes including ‘desire’ and ‘elaboration’. When paired with psychometric results a relationship between violent thoughts and fantasies and high experience/low control of anger was found. This study provides evidence that violent thoughts and fantasies are associated with anger control rather than anger expression. A model designed to expand on the analysis and explore in more detail the antecedents and progressive links between anger, violent thought and fantasies has been developed and is presented herein and may be of use to professionals working with violent fantasies in clinical and non-clinical settings.