AM Flashcards
(3 cards)
Research Support for the success of anger management programmes –
Ireland et al., (2000) conducted a natural experiment and compared a group of 50 prisoners who had completed an anger management course and a group of 37 who had not taken the course. The prisoners
were given a cognitive behavioural interview and completed a self-report questionnaire on anger management. The prison officers also completed a Wing Behavioural Checklist rating 29 angry behaviours for the week before the interview. Prisoners who had completed the
anger management course rated themselves lower on the anger questionnaire and were rated lower by the prison officers. There was no significant reduction in either of these measures in the control group. This offers support for the idea that the anger management
programme seemed to be effective in helping prisoners
Short- versus long-term goals –
However a criticism of anger management as a way of dealing with offending behaviour, is that most assessments of the success of the programmes focus on the short-term goal of reducing aggression in prison, and these are the ones mainly reported. Fewer studies have looked at long-term effects on recidivism rates, partly because
it is more difficult to follow up. It is most likely that the success of such programmes is due to the general therapeutic support, not just to anger management. This suggests that in order for us to have a full understanding of the effectiveness of anger management programmes,
more research needs to be carried out into the long-term effects on recidivism.
Limitations of anger management programmes
A further problem with anger
management programmes is that cognitive based therapies in general are not for everyone; some offenders do not like having to reflect on their styles of thinking and find it difficult to make the effort involved in changing attitudes and behaviours. Such individuals may well drop out of voluntary anger management programmes. One alternative is the use of drama-
based courses, which are less reliant on verbal ability and more engaging. A number of such courses with offenders have proved successful. This suggests that for anger management programmes to be most successful they should be carefully tailored to the specific offender.
