On slapping, and anger

Recently, we were all witness to the fresh news of 2022 wherein a comedian, who presented in the Academy Awards (or Oscar's), was slapped by an awardee known actor because of the former roasting the wife of the latter. We all knew that shot where the awardee slapped the comedian and uttered the words: "keep my wife's name out yo f*c*ing mouth". Mixed and polarized reactions from everyone circulated social media within 12 hours after that incident was live-streamed. As for me:

I've had that kind of outburst lately.

I'm not condoning what that awardee candidate did, because that's surely inappropriate and unnecessary. Though as humans as we are, we are reached to our breaking point - and snaps. I then saw through the reactions online, how such outbursts can let you off some steam internally, in exchange for being the talk of the town for inappropriate reasons. In this scenario, I learned to really choose your battles.

The other thing that relates me to that incident is that some outbursts are supposed to protect the self from trauma. In a scale developed by Del Pilar (2017), the trait correlate of anger (defined as dalas makaramdam ng galit or proneness to experience anger) is interstitial with Neuroticism (a.k.a. emotional instability) and agreeableness. This means that outbursts may possibly be related to past experiences from the extent of our own traumas and the extent of how agreeable we are to certain circumstances. Eventually, the anger develops at a trait level.

Honestly, I'm still working on managing my temper (especially on the roads), and it's a long work in progress so I'm also learning to ease out. I believe that understanding further what triggers and eases our outbursts is one way to manage that shadow in me, in us. Hopefully, this incident reminds us to take a pause and think before acting our emotions.

References:

Del Pilar, G. E. (2017). The development of the Masaklaw na Panukat ng Loob (Mapa ng Loob).?Philippine Journal Of Psychology,?50(1), 103-141. Chicago