Development of the Mahan and DiTomasso Anger Scale (MAD-AS) provided a valid and preferable alternative to the existing, lengthy tests of anger which are currently available. However, the MAD-AS was developed on a clinical, psychiatric population, and only one other study to date has attempted to utilize this test on a normal population. With strong links between anger and adverse physical health, and an ongoing controversy over whether anger expression versus anger suppression contributes more highly to the development and maintenance of hypertension, a prospective study measuring anger with established hypertensive subjects is being proposed utilizing both the MAD-AS, as an experimental instrument, and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory - 2 (STAXI-2), as an established instrument. This study hopes to lend not only more validity to the MAD-AS with a medical population, but also more evidence to the above controversy
