Laura Davis and Janis Keyser Laura Davis and Janis Keyser are nationally known authors, lecturers and workshop leaders. A Sourcebook of It sounds like your son is as confused about his angry outbursts as you are. His anger and tears when you try to talk about them seem to indicate that he feels embarrassed and helpless to change them. From your question, it is not clear whether these angry outbursts are new or whether they are actually dangerous to him or to others. Anger can be triggered by many factors.
Some people are temperamentally more volatile, more sensitive and more easily angered.
Finally, there are stressful circumstances with friends, sports, school, or home which can cause increased feelings of anger. In thinking about anger, it is important to remember that it is usually a secondary emotion. The underlying emotion is more likely to be rejection, fear, failure, frustration or sadness. For boys, society is often more accepting of anger than it is of these other underlying emotions and so anger may be what your son shows most readily. However, it's important to bear in mind that there are other feelings underneath that need to be expressed and resolved.