Like any feeling or emotion, the experience of anger is subjective. What is clear is that anger causes distress and in turn leads to reactions and potentially helpful or hurtful behaviours to manage the distress. The purpose of an anger thermometer (or any other feeling thermometer) is thus to be able to quantify and measure the subjective experience of distress to help create a common language that can then be examined, processed, and discussed.
What is an anger thermometer?
An anger thermometer is essentially a tool that can be used with children, teenagers and adults to explore and learn about this challenging emotion. Just as one uses a thermometer to measure temperature, the thermometer serves as an indicator of the anger temperature or intensity of the feeling experienced within.