ANNOTATED
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE AGE OF RAGE
A
disgraceful sign of the times?
By Mizue Nakamura
March 9, 2001
The following is a list of summaries of rage
related sites found on the Internet and personal reaction to the articles
contained in each site. The categories
of the rage sites are, air rage, tourettic rage, child rage, workplace rage,
parents’ sports rage, and computer rage.
Summary of contents
A former airline safety analyst with
Boeing, Dr. Todd Curtis, Ph.D., of Aviation Risk Assessment, created and published
AirSafe.com in 1996. A number of links about aviation safety and policy related
sites are provided. The links are divided by each category, such as, "Regulation
and Policy", and "Subject
List."
Clicking on "Air
Rage",
under the "Passenger
Issues", a
viewer can find a list of air rage information resources categorized, such as
online resources, suggested books, organizations, and media coverage.
The site contains sections, such as, "Products" and
"Advice Pages" that
provide advice on safely traveling on aboard. The sections "Accidents and
Incidents" and "Fatal
Events"
provide collections of recorded fatal events from over 100 airlines. They also
include a section that provides a guide to making complaints to airlines.
Specifics
The section "Online Resources"
shows a document of complaint filed by the United State District Court, eastern
distinct of New York against a passenger on a flight on United Airlines from
Buenos Aires to John F. Kennedy International Airport. This can be seen on "An
extreme case of passenger misbehavior."
According to the complaint,
on October 19, 1995, a passenger of a special aircraft jurisdiction of the
United States was already drunk when he got on the airplane, continued to drink
after getting on the airplane, and started to serve himself alcohol. In spite
of receiving a warning by a flight attendant that serving himself alcohol was
against regulations, and was advised not to drink anymore, he kept on drinking.
Then, when he was refused
another alcohol beverage, he verbally threatened the attendant. He interrupted
another flight attendant who was on his way to get first aid kit for an ill
feeling passenger by demanding more alcohol. When he was refused another
alcohol beverage by a female flight attendant, he pushed her on her chest,
causing her to fall into one of the seats. Then he defecated on a service cart
used by the flight crew. He used linen napkins as toilet paper and wiped his
hands on various service counters and service implements used by the crew.
Notified of these incidents,
the captain of the airplane suspended all food and beverage service on the
flight due to the possibility of infection. The captain also suspended FAA
required rest periods for the flight crew so that they could continue to attend
to him.
After I read this complaint, I thought
safety and the right of the flight crew to pursue their duty without
interruption and fear should be advocated. I was not familiar with air rage until
now, but it is easy to imagine that cases similar to this one happen very
often.
Summary of
contents
A flight attendant, Renee Sheffer, who had
been injured by an out of control passenger while she served aboard in 1997,
founded the SKYRAGE Foundation. She and her husband, Michael Sheffer, worked to
get a public attention to the problem of in-flight violence. The goal of the
SKYRAGE Foundation is to reduce the occurrence of in-flight disruption and
violence toward crewmembers and passengers.
The site contains sections, as "Rage
Page" that provides the latest air rage related
archives collected from various news media, and "Research" that
displays a list of past researches conducted by a professor, graduate students,
individuals, and organizations, such as Flight Safety Foundation. A list of the
titles of these will direct you to the research available in each. The "Research"
section contains aviation regulations in different countries and different
aviation laws in the U.S.A.
In addition, there are several related
site underneath the list of content on the left. I found one of the sites,
called Sky Help, useful. It
introduces a trauma intervention for airline crewmembers. There is also a list
of common reactions to traumatic events, distinct by categories, such as physical,
mental, and emotional. Finally, concrete advice on what to do after an event is
listed.
Specifics
Under the "Research"
section, in an article, Michael P. Sheffer of The SKYRAE Foundation, dated
March 10, 2000, titled The Problem Passenger: A History of Airline Disruption
1947 to Present, states that:
|
In
the spring of 1997, the Airline Pilot’s Association (ALPA), supported by the
Air Transport Association (ATA) discussed the issue at the first
International Conference on Disruptive Passengers in Washington, DC. The conference was attended by over 200
people from diverse organizations in order to gain a better understanding of
the problem, and determine how best to address the issue. Cited as possible causes of such incidents
were the following: 25%
related to alcohol intoxication 15%
involved seat assignments. 12%
due to hostile, abusive, or threatening behavior. 10%
in regard to tobacco issues. 9% carry on luggage. 8% passenger perception. 5% food complaints. 15%
undetermined. |
Interestingly, "RagePage-Guest
Editional" section contains the article, titled "Passenger’s Viewpoint",
written by a guest editor in this site. The occupation of the author, Karen
Tatom, is not mentioned, but she states in her article her opinion of the
potential causes of passenger rage on board from a passenger’s
point of view. She insists that she sees customers irritated because the pre
boarding process has been less than efficient. For example, she says, "too
many times I see passengers allowed to proceed to departure and then be stopped
at the gate. Also, she states that besides airplane delay, frustration caused
by lack of sleep, seat assignment, stretching space, and lower standards of
service provided by crewmembers were other reasons the passenger rage.
If the
crewmembers’ view
of the causes of disruption and the view of passengers’ are similar, it seems
that something can be done to work out the situation from both sides.
《AirWise》
Summary of
contents
The site contains “AirWise News” index,
which introduces the latest news related to airlines. It also contains flight
schedules, flight information, travel resources, and airline web sites. There is
a discussion forum that had a topic on air rage, but it did not seem to be
informative as a research source.
There is a search engine to look for a
related topic provided within the site. As a result of searching articles that
contained the word "rage", the
article, "Priest
Dies in Air Rage Incident", came out on the top of a list of 10 on the first page. The
following is the article from the web page.
Specifics
Feb3, 2001
A priest tried to break into
an airliner cockpit then died in his seat from a heart attack after he was
restrained by other passengers and crew.
It is alleged that
Nicaraguan Father William Gonzales, 34, had several drinks on the international
Brazilian flight to the capital Brasilia. He then tried to enter the cockpit
before being stopped by the crew and passengers and tied to his chair, said
Vasp Airlines. He suffered a heart attack in his chair, the airline said.
"First
he tried to enter the cockpit, then he tried to open the door and jump out of
the plane. He was contained by the crew," said passenger Therezinha Labuna.
Father Gonzales was based in
Brasilia and was returning from a visit to a seminary in Sao Luis.
I thought, "What if he had
succeeded in opening the door and jumping out of the plane?"
Whether his conduct was motivated by alcohol consumption or not has remained
mystery, but it is clear that one drunken passenger could have killed hundreds
of other passengers and crewmembers.
Summary of
contents
As the author states, "rage
attacks" is
not a term that is used in the formal diagnostic systems of the DSM-IV or
ICD-10, and as such, is not a diagnosis. A person who has rage attacks has
several discrete episodes of failure to resist aggressive impulses that result
in serious assaultive acts or destruction of property.
On the front page, there is a statement
that distinguishes rage attacks from tantrums, and a brief explanation on what
each section of the site is about. Thus the viewer can navigate to their
primary interest in this site.
The author of this site is Leslie E.
Packer PhD, a licensed psychologist who specializes in Tourette syndrome and
its associated conditions. The purpose of this site is to provide practical
information to the family members and educators of people with this syndrome.
Specifics
I found it interesting to take a look at
the "Non-medication Strategies"
section. In it the author gives ways to prevent rage attacks from happening.
1)
To create an environment that reduces exposure to the stimulus
that triggers a rage attack.
2)
Start by assuming that there is a cause, and then review past
episodes.
3)
Make a list of triggers or antecedents and take action to change
the environment by either avoiding altogether, reduce exposure to the trigger
or antecedent conditions.
The author says, in stead of teaching them
a skill to cope with a stressful situation, family members and educators needs
to let them avoid the situation that leads them having rage attacks.
I assume there must be a situation that is
not avoidable in our every day life, so this strategy may not be perfectly
applied to everybody at any time.
Summary of
contents
Self-help Magazine is written by mental
health professionals, behavioral health-care professionals, students and the
authors’
relations. This month, a psychologist introduces on the front page.
There is an "Articles"
section to click on the first page. This leads a viewer to many articles with
titles listed in alphabetical order. I found the article, "Bullies Spend More Time Watching TV Violence, Less
Time with Adults" interesting.
There is a search engine that is engaged
the "Search"
section on the front page is clicked. Using the key word, "aggressive
child", I
found many articles available within this site.
Specifics
There is a list of titles of interest on
the front page, such as "Children & Violence", and "Mass
Hysteria".
Clicking the "Children
& Violence", the article,
"Children and Violence"
written by the American Psychological Association Press was introduced. The
following is a citation of the article.
Research has shown a connection
between exposure to media violence and aggressive attitudes. The American
Psychological Association has presented testimony before the Senate Commerce
Committee hearing on the released report of the Federal Trade Commission on
entertainment marketing aimed at young people.
In the testimony, Jeff
McIntyre, a legislative and federal affairs officer in the Public Policy Office
of the American Psychological Association (APA), addressed the state of
psychological research pertaining to developmental issues in advertising to
children and the impact of media violence on children.
Over three decades of
research has shown that children's exposure to violence in the mass media may
desensitize them to violence, lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values
and behaviors and may have long-lasting effects on behavior and personality.
《Child Development Information》
Summary of
contents
Robert Myers, PhD, a clinical child psychologist,
founded the Child Development Institute.
Clicking on "Research", a
page with the title "Research Center" appears, and many of child development related links are
available. There is an alphabetical index of topics and an article by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, entitled, "Dealing
with the Angry Child" is available.
Also, there is a section where viewers can
look up past scientific research on different topics, such as attention deficit
disorder, education & school issues, health issues for children &
teens, and parenting issues. There is a forum discussion corner on the site,
under "Discussion
Group". Main
issues that are discussed there are about child development, and participants
seem to be parents seeking advice from professionals and other parents with the
same problems. Dr. Myers sometimes responds to the messages that have been
posted.
Using a search engine, several aggressive
behavior related articles can be found. For example, "Video Games and Children".
Specifics
According to an article "Violence in Children’s sports" by Ismat Abdal-Haqq, there are five
things coaches and physical educators can do to curb violence in youth sports.
|
Summary of
contents
The author of this site is Dr. Richard
Niolon, but further information about him was not available because the page
which introduces the author and this site was still under construction.
However, this site was still able to provide various fields of psychological
links and articles.
For example, in "Problem and
Help" section, there is a mental health category in it, and you can find
many links about child abuse issues and domestic violence issues under the
"Violence in the Family" category. Also, for students majoring in
psychology, there are some useful sites to refer to for researching papers. You
can easily find it under "Professional Resources" on
the front page. Under "General Psychology", there are links to APA and Psychology Documents on Line for help
finding documents on the Web.
Links to articles about child abuse and
domestic violence are available by clicking "Problems and Help" on
the front page. Then click "Mental Health" and "Violence
in the Family".
Clicking "Site Map" on the front
page, "Search the site" will appear. By clicking it, "Search
Psychpage" appears. After clicking it, a search engine of the site
appears.
Specifics
I found the article, "Dealing with anger and children" by Dr.Richard
Niolon, interesting. He states that what is important is to explain to a child
that getting angry is OK, but aggression (hitting his brother, for example) is
not OK. Telling children that they should not engage in an aggressive behavior
is not efficient. Adults need to tell them what they should do when they got
angry. Punishment is not effective way to communicate to children what we
expect of them. Explaining, modeling, and setting rules are. Then he presents
eight tips for dealing with the angry child, which he referred from other
authors’ work.
Summary of
contents
On the front page of this site, many articles
of workplace violence and many links to other web sites are displayed. The
author of the site is Larry J. Chavez, B.A., M.P.A. A general search engines,
as Yahoo, Lycos, and so on are available, but no search engine that allows
viewers to search articles within this site is available.
On the page of "Search", there
is a definition of workplace violence. Workplace violence is that which arises
out of disputes or adverse interpersonal relations between employees and
employers and around their place of employment.
Specifics
According to the "Workplace
Violence Statistics" on
the front page, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and d Health
(NIOSH) reported that employees murdered over 100
bosses and co-workers in 1997. Homicide, due to workplace violence, is the
leading cause of death for women in the workplace and the second leading cause
of death for men. The U.S. Department
of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (July 1994), states that those
victimized due to assaults occurring in the workplace costs about a half
million employees 1,751,100 days of work each year, and average of 3.5 days per
crime. This missed work resulted in over $55,000,000 in lost wages annually,
not including days covered by sick and annual leave.
Here are examples of workplace violence (In "Donate
To. Com",
listed on “National Media articles on Workplace Violence” with professional
contributions by Trainer Larry J. Chavez, Critical Incident Associates" on
the front page.)
＊
December 26, 2000, in the Wakefield, Massachusetts’s incident,
there are strong indications that the perpetrator blamed his employer,
specifically the accounting section for collaborating with the IRS in a wage
garnishment. 7 were killed.
＊
November 2, 1999, in the Xerox shootings I Honolulu, the
perpetrator singled out his own work group perceiving that they were
responsible for his impending termination.
7 were killed.
＊
April 25, 1995, at the Richmond, California Housing Authority, the
perpetrator shot his two female supervisors to death and allowed three
employees in the same room to live. 2
were killed.
＊
June 28, 2000, at the University of Washington School of Medicine
in Seattle, a medical doctor who was failing an internship program blamed his
mentor for his plight. 2 were killed.
《WebMD》
Summary of
contents
This site provides information related to health
and health care in general. Clicking on the "Self-Care", a
definition and a condition of different kinds of disease and mental disorder
are obtained. There is a page to provide help for people who need to choose a
health insurance that satisfies their needs.
Under "Medical Library",
there is a page of "Medical
Encyclopedia" which
provides "The
ADAM Medical Encyclopedia" covers more than 4000 topics, including disease conditions,
treatments, medical terms, and anatomy. There is a search engine, and many
interesting articles are available. For example, "Violent Video Games Linked to Aggressive Behavior".
Specifics
By putting a word "Parenting" in
the search engine, an interesting article about parents raging at children’s
sports events, titled "Experts Suggest Ways to Stop Parents’ ‘Sports Rage’" was
found.
According to the article, on July 12,
2000, one father beat another to death after the two argued over their sons’
hockey game in Boston. Parents invest a lot of money and time so their children
may have the chance to win athletic scholarships, can be one of the reasons
parents tend to be over involved in youth sports. Providing information for
coaches, parents, and athletes about appropriate behavior can solve the sports
rage problem. Setting an environment for the team in which it is not OK for
parents to scream at officials or each other is needed.
I think I can understand the parents love
their children very much, and that is why the strong love to their children
blind those parents who rage at other parents or coaches and allow themselves
to be engaged in such aggressive behaviors. Once they observe themselves became
hot watching their children’s game, they need to step behind and cool down.
《ninemsn》
Summary of
contents
This site is not particularly
about a computer rage, but more like an Internet magazine, providing many kinds
of information such as news, shopping, and finance. It is an online joint
venture between the Microsoft Corporation and Publishing and Broadcasting
Limited (PBL).
There is a search
engine, and I found the article about a computer rage. It contained an industry
survey below, which is on the same page of the article, shows that 54% said
they have experienced a stress facing computer problems, and 7% experienced
anger. According to a psychologist, Kate Baggs, the better way of handling the
computer rage is to fantasize about throwing the computer out from the top of a
building, rather than acting it out.
Specifics
Clicking
the part "industrial
survey" in the
article, the following appears.
|
What the research
says about our computer rage Reaction to computer problems ·
Frustration 52% ·
Concern 14% ·
Helplessness 12% ·
Anger 7% ·
Panic 5% ·
Surprise 3% Extreme
reaction to problems ·
Swear at computer/scream 23% · Hit
computer - no damage 12% ·
Call for help 8% ·
Walk away in disgust/leave 8% · Hit
computer - causing damage 6% ·
Abuse others 4% ·
Throwing or damaging objects in vicinity 2% ·
Attacking computer with an object 2% · Dropping
or throwing computer 2% ·
Send back to manufacturer 2% |
It seems to me that we all have experienced
anger while operating a computer. That’s why when I have to work on the report by using computer, I have
to get away from the computer and do something to make myself relax once in a
while. Otherwise, I get cranky and inefficient.
Overall Reaction 
Searching the sites on the topic of "rage"
available on Internet, I was surprised that there were various categories of
rage available for us to refer to. These sites I put above are just a small
number of categories that caught my attention. Is it a feature of the time we
are living in that people seem to become easy to be upset and express the anger
without hesitating, rather than attempting to control it? We hear the victims
of an out-of-control anger through media very often in our everyday life. Obviously, the education of anger management
is needed for the people regardless of age or sex, in order to prevent a
tragedy from happening.
E-mail: Mizue Nakamura