Masculinity, shame, and fear of emotions as predictors of men's expressions of anger and hostility

Male participants (N = 204) were assessed using measures of masculine ideology, masculine gender-role stress, proneness to shame, and fear of emotions. These variables served as predictors of men's anger expression and overt hostility. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that masculinity, proneness to shame, and men's fear of emotions predicted 19% of the variance of overt hostility, with men's fear of emotions emerging as a significant predictor after accounting for masculinity factors. Men's fear of emotions predicted a small but significant portion of the variance of men's anger, whereas factors of masculinity and shame proneness did not. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of future research directions and clinical interventions for men's anger and hostility. masculinity, shame, fear of emotions, anger, hostility