Objectives. The Self-Expression and Control Scale (SECS) has been cons
tructed to investigate the role of anger expression and anger control
in the aetiology and progression of hypertension, coronary heart disea
se and other chronic diseases. Design and methods. This questionnaire
was presented to a Dutch community sample (N = 946). A first version o
f the questionnaire with 64 items was reduced to 40 items on the basis
of principal component analyses and analyses of internal consistency
This final 40-item version of the questionnaire consists of four subsc
ales of 10 items each. The subscales are: anger-in (AI, the internatio
nalization of anger), anger-our (AO, the externalization of anger), co
ntrol-anger-in (CAI, control over the internalization of anger) and co
ntrol-anger-out (CAO, control over the externalization of anger). Addi
tionally, differences between the community sample of Dutch residents
and a sample of coronary heart disease patients (N = 257) on the four
subscales were examined. Results. The psychometric properties of the S
ECS proved to be highly acceptable, and the convergent and discriminan
t validity quite promising. Males and older persons scored statistical
ly significantly lower on AO and higher on CAI and CAO chan females an
d younger persons. The community sample of Dutch residents scored sign
ificantly higher on AO than a population of coronary heart disease pat
ients. Conclusions. The anger control scales seem to allow a more diff
erentiated assessment of anger, which may be of crucial importance for
future research on anger and health.