Anger management Flashcards
What is anger management?
A therapeutic programme that recognises and manages anger.
What are the three stages of anger management?
Cognitive preparation, skill acquisition
and application practice
What is cognitive preparation?
Offenders reflect on past experiences and consider patterns of anger. They learn to identify situations that act as triggers to anger and the therapist makes it clear if they have irrational thoughts.
What is skill acquisition?
Offenders are introduced to a range of techniques to deal with anger-provoking situations. For example, positive self talk to create calmness, training in how to communicate effectively and methods of relaxation or meditation.
What was application practice?
Offenders are given a chance to practice their skills in a carefully monitored environment. Role play is likely to occur where the patient and therapist re-enact scenarios that may evoke anger. Successful negotiations of the role play led to positive reinforcement from the therapist.
What research support is there for anger management?
Keen studied young offenders who underwent an anger management program involving 8 2 hour sessions. Offenders reported increased awareness of their anger management and increased capacity to exercise self control.
Ireland compared the progress of offenders on an anger management program compared to a control group. 92% of the experimental group showed an improvement on at least one measure. There was no improvement in the control group.
What are the strengths of anger management?
It is an eclectic approach that incorporates social, cognitive and behavioural perspectives to address issues.
It addresses the thought processes and creates treatments to manage anger, meaning that it is more likely to reduce recidivism than behaviour modification.
What are the limitations of anger management?
There is limited long-term effectiveness as Blackburn found no evidence to reduce recidivism.
Anger may not cause offending as studies found no difference in anger between violent and non-violent offenders. Also, fraud is not motivated by anger.
Anger management can be expensive as it requires specialists to deal with offenders. It also requires commitment and so it may be difficult to implement for everyone.
