Anger is what is called a "secondary emotion." This means that anger is a product of one or more emotions that ultimately end up causing up. No one is ever angry just because they're angry.
So I present to you the Gottman Institute Anger Iceberg.
As you can see, there are a lot of emotions that anger can stem from. The reason why your character is angry, will determine how they act and react more than the fact that they are angry alone. If you know why they are angry, then you can figure out how to best prod them to get specific results, and how they will behave in certain scenarios.
Embarrassed
Someone who get's angry because of embarassment wants to combat the drop in their self esteem by cutting it off and using anger as an alternative. Most people would rather be angry than embarrassed, after all.
Scared
Anger is often a self-defense mechanism. If you're scared, you might become angry to show that you are not scared, and that the thing or person scaring you should be scared of you instead. It can also come into play as a fight or flight response.
Shame
Shame can make you feel defensive, and then anger can be used to misdirect from your hurt feelings and insecurities so that people don't see them and only think that you are angry instead.
Tricked
No one wants to feel tricked, and finding out that something isn't the way that you thought it was isn't a pleasant feeling. Especially if someone has been lying to you, or if you think they have. Anger is a way to take out feeling tricked in a way that might make a little more sense on the surface.
Frustrated
This one is pretty easy to understand. We've all been there. Even the most level-headed cahracter of them all will get angry after enough frustrations occur.
Grief
In short, it is simply easier to feel angry than sad. Anger feels more purposeful, and sadness it often seen as being weaker. It's important to acknowledge anger and bitterness and other feelings in the grieving process.
Overwhelmed
When you feel overwhelmed, it can trigger a fight or flight instinct. This can result in panic/anxiety or, you guessed it! Anger. Anger helps pump you up for fight, and can be quite the asset when you need it, but lashing out because you're overwhelmed (as relatable as it is) will have negative effects on the people around you.
Depressed
Surprisingly enough, a symptom of depression can be anger. Anger is a convenient way to cover up weakness, and often feels nicer than apathy and emptiness.
Disgusted
Disgust caused by a violation of morals and/or ethics can cause anger (righteous or not). This is because anger is (yet again) a convenient way of dealing with it.
Stressed
Stress can make anger. A lot of people with have a breakdown or meltdown when the stress is significantly high enough. By that time, the stress is no longer a means of motivation, and merely causes hardship which manifests as anger.
Distrustful
Distrust means a lack of trust. If you distrust someone, then it means that you think they're suspicious, more or less. If you trusted someone before, then you might not trust them now based off of their past actions. This can breed anger. Assuming that someone would do something wrong against you, can put you on the offensive, which means: anger.
Grumpy
People are usually grumpy when they are tired, and being tired means that you have less self-control thatn you would if you had sufficient sleep. You're more easily frustrated and thrown off balance metaphorically. So anger can be means of covering that up.
Attacked
When you're attacked you either go on the defensive or offensive. Anger is an easy way to do both of things.
Trapped
They say that cornering an animal is a bad idea for a reason. People are same. When they feel trapped, they tend to lash out because they want to push back what is making them feel trapped.
Rejected
Believe it or not, rejection causes the same kind of pain as the physical kind. When someone rejects you, they essentially devlalue you and say that they don't really care about you, your needs, or your wants. Pretty easy to understand why someone might be mad about that, right?
Guilt
In this case, anger is a means of forcing your pain onto another person. You feel guilty, and so anger is the best way to guilt-trip or the like into feeling your pain.
Helpless
Helplessness is pretty close to being trapped. Helplessness can be easily seen as a weakness, and by now we know that anger is a commonly used cover up for weakness.
Nervous
Being nervous means you can actually expend a lot of energy. This means that you are more likely to have things get on your nerves and make you angry. Anger can also be a front so that people don't see your perceived weakness.
Anxious
This is pretty much the same as a couple of other reasons we have discussed, because anxiety has multiple symptoms that can result in anger. Namely, lack of sleep, nervousness, etc.
Envious
This is hostile envy. You become envious to the point of being aggressive towards someone else.
Offended
Anger because of feeling offended is really common. Someone insults someone else and then boom, you end up with a big fight. We're all guilty of this one, and if you have siblings, you know what I'm talking about.
Insecure
Insecurity is essentially perceiving yourself to be weak in some way.
Trauma
Trauma has the ability to cause feelings of violation and unsafeness. These emotions, in turn can cause anger. Anger at the way the person was violated, anger at the circumstances, or anger at feeling weak and unsafe.
Annoyed
Annoyance is very similar to irritability. Something can get on your nerves on too many times, and then you explode.
Disrespected
Disrespect, when taken personally, can arouse anger. that anger surfaces because the person feeling it wants to make them respect them, and/or show them why they should be respectful.
Unsure
This is pretty much the same as being insecure, but can have multiple facets that can be explored through characterization.
Disappointed
This happens when you don't want to accept something that happened. So you confront it with anger.
Lonely
It's easy to blame others for feelings of loneliness. No one wants to blame themself, so they become angry at others and blame them instead.
Worried
This is often seen in parents. They'll worry about their child, and become more agressive because they want them to be OK.
Hurt
Agression is a behavioral response to hurt. Someone who feels hurt doesn't want people to poke them and prod them into even more pain, so they become agressive and push them away instead.
Uncomfortable
This is very similar to what we went over with hurt. It's a way that people cover up how they really feel, and inflict the feeling upon someone else.
Regret
Someone regretting something will be angry because they blame themself or someone else. It's an easy way to take out their feelings on a target.
Keep in mind however, that ultimately, people become angry and agressive because they feel threatened. It's like how some animals try to make themselves appear bigger to predators. anger releases adrenaline, and that makes people feel powerful and strong.
And remember, always research things in-depth!
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