Anger management

• What is based on

  • The idea that cognitive factors may influence offending behaviour
  • Novaco (1975) - suggests cognitive factors trigger the emotional arousal which precedes an aggressive act
  • He believes anger can be quick to surface in anxiety-inducing or threatening situations
• What is anger management

  It is a form of CBT in which the individual is taught how to recognise when they are losing control and encouraged to develop techniques to bring about conflict-resolution without the need for violence
• What are the three stages of anger management

  1. Cognitive preparation
  2. Skill acquisition
  3. Application practice
• Cognitive preparation

  • Reflection on past experience, consider patterns in anger
  • Offender learns to identify situations which acts as triggers to anger
  • Therapist makes clear how this event has been interpreted irrationally i.e. a therapist would redefine a situation where the offender may have seen someone as confrontational
• Skill acquisition

  • The offender is given a range of techniques and skills to deal with anger-provoking situations more rationally ans effectively
  • Three ways of managing: cognitive techniques (positive self-talk to encourage calmness), behavioural (communication training) or physiological techniques(taught relaxation)
  • Encourages offender to be in control of actions
• Application practice

  • Role play to practice skills learnt - therapist and offender re-enacting anger/violence situations
  • Offender needs to commit this and see each situation as real and bravery needed from therapist to wind up the offender
  • A successful role play leads to positive reinforcement
• Research supporting - Keen et al

  • Studied offenders 17-21 who took part in a national anger-management programme - 8 two-hour sessions
  • First 7 sessions over a 3-week period and last 1 month after.
  • initial issues = offenders not taking it seriously and forgetting
  • end = results were positive = offenders reported increased awareness of anger management difficulties and increased ability to exercise self-control