Anger Issues Test: Screen How Often You Feel, Express, and Hold in Anger
The Anger Issues Test explores how you feel, express, and manage anger using questions informed by STAXI-2 dimensions. Get an instant self-assessment result and an optional report.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Anger Issues Test is a free, confidential 16-question self-assessment, informed by the validated STAXI-2. It takes about 7 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 3 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Four dimensions of anger, not just a temper score
Anger is a normal, healthy emotion. The question is not whether you feel it, but how often, how intensely, how you express it, and what it costs you. This assessment looks at four dimensions the research uses to make sense of that.
How often & how hot
Your tendency to feel anger frequently and intensely, sometimes called trait anger. This is the baseline temperature, not a single bad day.
How you express it
Whether anger tends to come out toward people and things around you, or gets held inside and brooded on. Both can carry a cost.
How you control it
Your ability to recognize anger early, calm yourself down, and respond in ways you feel okay about afterward. This is the most changeable part.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Informed by the validated STAXI-2 | Rarely | Yes, four dimensions |
| Separates expression-out from expression-in | No | Yes |
| Measures anger control as a strength | No | Yes |
| Frames anger as a normal emotion | Often pathologizes | Yes |
| Clinician-reviewed interpretation | Rarely | Yes, clinician reviewed |
| Optional in-depth personalized report | No | Yes, written to your exact scores |
| Confidential (no data sent) | Often tracked | Runs in your browser |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–64 in total. Your result falls into one of 3 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–21 | Low anger signs | Your answers suggest your anger is generally well within a healthy range. You feel it, like everyone, but it does not seem to be running the show. |
| 22–42 | Moderate anger signs | Your answers suggest a moderate level of anger that may be causing some friction. This is common and very workable. |
| 43–64 | High anger signs | Your answers suggest anger is frequent, intense, or hard to control, and may be costing you. The good news is that this is one of the most changeable patterns there is. |
How Anger Issues Affect Relationships and Work
The Anger Issues Test helps you reflect on how anger affects everyday interactions. Anger rarely stays contained to the moment it happens. A pattern of snapping, going cold, or needing to win every disagreement wears down trust over time, even when each individual blowup seems small. Partners and coworkers often start managing around the anger, tiptoeing or avoiding certain topics, which quietly shrinks the relationship rather than fixing anything.
At work, frequent irritability or a reputation for a short fuse can affect how much responsibility or trust colleagues extend, regardless of how good the underlying work is. Learning to recognize your own triggers and early warning signs, and building a pause before you respond, protects both the relationship and your own reputation. Our Conflict Style Quiz can help you see your default pattern under pressure, and our Relationship Satisfaction Test looks at the broader health of a specific relationship.
Anger Issues vs Intermittent Explosive Disorder
Most anger, even frequent or intense anger, does not meet the bar for a diagnosis. Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is a specific, diagnosable condition involving repeated, sudden outbursts of aggression that are grossly out of proportion to the situation, are not planned, and are followed by genuine distress or regret. A clinician diagnoses IED by looking at the pattern and frequency of outbursts over time, not from a one-time questionnaire.
If your outbursts feel explosive, unplanned, and genuinely frightening to you or the people around you, rather than the more familiar friction this test screens for, our Intermittent Explosive Disorder Test walks through that specific pattern, and it is worth bringing either result to a clinician.
How to Interpret Your Anger Test Results
The result summarizes the patterns you reported, including outward expression, holding anger inside, and difficulty calming down. The educational bands on this page are specific to this adaptation. They are not STAXI-2 norms, diagnostic thresholds, or a prediction that you will hurt someone.
Consider the situations behind your answers. A lower overall result should never dismiss threats, intimidation, property damage, or an incident that left someone afraid. A higher result is a reason to look more closely at your experiences and their consequences, rather than a label for your character.
What to Do After an Anger Issues Test
Choose a recent disagreement and write down the trigger, your early physical warning signs, what you did, and what happened afterward. The Anger Log tool offers a place to organize this reflection. Consider a pause before responding and a clear agreement about when to resume a difficult conversation, if it is safe to do so.
You can find the related assessments mentioned above in the tests hub. If anger keeps disrupting your life, the Psychology.com therapist directory can help you look for professional support. Bring concrete examples as well as your result so the conversation includes what happened and what you want to change.
Methodology & sources
The items in this test are informed by the dimensions of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, Second Edition (STAXI-2; Spielberger, 1999), a widely used measure of anger. It distinguishes trait anger (how readily and intensely a person feels angry) from how anger is expressed, separating anger expressed outward (anger-out), anger held inside (anger-in), and anger control. Our items are an educational adaptation reworded for readability; they are not the copyrighted STAXI-2 itself and do not reproduce its proprietary items.
This is an educational screener, not a clinical instrument or a diagnostic tool. Anger is not a disorder in itself, and there is no diagnosis called anger issues. What matters is whether the frequency, intensity, expression, and consequences of your anger are causing problems for you or the people around you. The result is meant to support self-reflection and help you decide whether working with a professional could help.
Validation of the original STAXI-2 does not establish the accuracy of this educational adaptation. Its published clinical norms and psychometric estimates should not be transferred to this page. Use the profile to organize concerns for discussion.
References
- Spielberger CD. State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2): Professional Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources; 1999.
- Spielberger CD, Reheiser EC. Assessment of emotions: anxiety, anger, depression, and curiosity. Appl Psychol Health Well-Being. 2009;1(3):271-302.
- Deffenbacher JL, Oetting ER, DiGiuseppe RA. Principles of empirically supported interventions applied to anger management. Couns Psychol. 2002;30(2):262-280.
- Lee AH, DiGiuseppe R. Anger and aggression treatments: a review of meta-analyses. Curr Opin Psychol. 2018;19:65-74.
- PAR. State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2). Publisher instrument description. parinc.com/products/STAXI-2
- American Psychological Association. Strategies for controlling your anger: Keeping anger in check. apa.org/topics/strategies-controlling-anger
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 16). Anger Issues Test. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/anger-issues
Anger Issues Test FAQ
Are anger issues a mental-health diagnosis?
No. Anger is a normal emotion, and anger issues is not a formal diagnosis. Anger can, however, be a feature of other conditions and can cause real problems in relationships, work, and health when it is frequent, intense, poorly controlled, or harmful. This test helps you reflect on those patterns.
What counts as an anger problem?
It is less about how angry you feel and more about frequency, intensity, how you express it, and the consequences. If anger comes often, escalates fast, is hard to control, or damages your relationships, work, or wellbeing, it is worth addressing, and it is very workable.
Is this test a diagnosis?
No. It is an educational screening for self-reflection only. It is informed by the STAXI-2 dimensions but is not that instrument, and it cannot diagnose anything. Only a licensed professional can assess what is driving anger and what would help.
Can anger be changed?
Yes. Anger control is one of the most changeable parts of emotional life. Approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy, anger management programs, and skills for recognizing triggers and calming the body have solid evidence behind them. A professional can help you practice those skills and understand the circumstances that make anger harder to manage. Progress varies, and this self-assessment cannot predict how you will respond to support.
Is the test really confidential?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser. Your individual answers are scored in your browser and are never sent to us or linked to you. They stay in this tab so you can return to your result, and closing or clearing the tab clears them. If you ask us to email the PDF, we receive your summary scores with your email address, never your individual answers. No account is needed.
What causes anger issues?
Anger issues rarely come from nowhere. Common contributors include chronic stress, poor sleep, unresolved past hurt or trauma, learned patterns from a family where anger was modeled or handled unpredictably, and conditions such as anxiety, depression, or ADHD that lower frustration tolerance. Identifying what regularly triggers your anger, whether it is feeling disrespected, overwhelmed, or unheard, is often the fastest route to managing it well.
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