dealing with offending behaviour: anger managment Flashcards
What assumption is made when using CBT to treat anger managment, how has this assumption led to treatment
cognitive factors trigger the emotional arousal which generally precedes aggressive acts. In CBT the individual is taught to recognise the cognitive factors that trigger their anger and are then encouraged to develop techniques to deal with these factors in a non agressive way.
what are some cognitive bias’s an aggressive individual may have
hostile attribution bias - interpretation of non verbal and verbal cues as aggression.
minimilisation - downplaying the seriousness of a crime or action to reduce feelings of guilt.
what are the three stages of anger management
- cognitive preparation
- skills acquisition
- application practice
(developed over several sessions)
what approach is centred in anger management therapy
cognitive approach
outline what occurs during the first stage - cognitive preparation
offender is encouraged to reflect on past experience and consider typical pattern of their anger.
offender identifies situations that trigger anger eg. noisy pub, city ect.
therapist makes it clear to offender of any irrational beliefs or cognitive distortions they may have - this helps to redifine the situation as non agressive, re-educate ways of thinking and hopefully break what is an automatic response for the offender.
therapist may explain the physiological arousal process of anger - fight or flight response.
outline what occurs during stage 2 of CBT - skills acquisition
offender is introduced to techniques to help them deal with anger provoking situations more rationally
cognitive techniques - positive self task, counting to 10
behavioural techniques - training in how to communicate more effectively with others and appropriate responses
physiological - dealing with physical reaction by using relaxation techniques, meditation ect.
what is the aim of CBT
to re-educate ways of thinking and
break faulty thinking patterns which drives agressive behavioural responses.
outline what occurs during stage 3 of CBT - application practice
offenders given opportunity to practice their skills in a role play scenario. this may involve the offender and therapist re-enacting scenarios that led to violence and anger in the past and the offender using the acquired relaxation techniques, communication skills ect.
(AO3) what are some practical barriers that may limit the efficacy of anger managment.
role play involves lots of motivation from the offender and good rapport between offender and therapist (which may rely on the offenders communication skills) to allow the offender to take the role play seriously and open up, this may not always occur which effects the efficacy.
in addition cannot fully re-create a real life anger inducing scenario such as a busy noisy pub. therefore this lacks mundane realism and limits the efficacy of the treatment as offenders are not given a realistic chance to put their skills into practice. As a result it is unlikely anger managment leads to a long term behaviour change.
Outline a study that provides research support for efficacy of anger managment. (AO3)
Ireland compared the progress of two groups of offenders:
- took part in CBT
- non treatment control
12 sessions were completed
outcome assessed using: interview, behavioural checklist completed by prison guards and self report questionnaire.
what did Ireland find about the efficacy of anger managment therapy (AO3)
92% of experimental group showed an improvement on at least one measure,
48% showed an improvement on checklist and self report
no improvments within control group.
what can we conclude/not conclude from the findings of Ireland’s study (AO3)
tells us that angermanagment is useful in controlling prison populations and managing aggression.
However, only tells us about the short term efficacy of anger managment in an institution. Does not tell us about the long term change or effect on recidivism rates.
what is an issue with individual differences and anger managment (AO3)
there will be individual differences in the motivation levels of criminals to interact with the CBT. some criminals may just be participating in order to reduce their sentance, which means their engagment would lack sincerity and thus invalidate the entire process. others may generally acknowledge their anger problem.
Why does anger managment not work with all criminals (AO3)
anger managment assumes the crime was committed as a result of impulse and lack of planning. As a result this therapy works best with impulsive criminals as it teaches good coping strategies to deal with automatic faulty thinking that drives and aggressive behaviour response.
However does not work with criminals that use aggression in a premeditated way to benefit themselves. This treatment may have the opposite effects and may equip the offender with additional control mechanisms and the increased capacity to manipulate a situation to their advantage.
CBT may be most effective when used in conjungtion with other rehabilitative programmes. What other methods are there (AO3)
- education eg GCSE’s, qualifications
-numeracy and literacy skills
-restorative justice
A more hollistic way of treating an offender is by using a combination of CBT, and other methods of rehabiliation. This is more meaningful to an offender rather than just ‘ticking a box to reduce sentancing’ as it is more active and rewarding in the long term.
