anger management

• Anger management:

  • Happens inside and outside of prison. 
  • Doesn’t aim to prevent anger but to recognise and manage it 
• Anger is cognitive and behavioural:

  Cognitive:

  • Cognitive thoughts --> emotional arousal --> aggressive acts 

  Behavioural:

  • Getting angry is reinforced by feelings of being in control of a situation 
  • So … we can use CBT to 'manage' anger by altering/challenging the thought processes and alter the behaviour 
  • Recognise the cognitive factors which trigger anger and loss of control - encouraged to develop behavioural techniques to result in conflict resolution
• 3 stages of CBT in anger management:

  Cognitive preparation -

  • Offender reflects on past experiences and identifies triggers of anger 
  • Identify offender's irrational thought processes
  • Therapist tries to break automatic responses in triggering situations 

  Skills acquisition-

  • techniques to deal with anger.
  • Cognitive: positive self-talk to encourage calmness
  • Behavioural: communication training to effectively communicate 
  • Physiological: dealing with physical reactions to anger - breathing techniques 

  Application practice-

  • Skills offender has learnt are practiced through role play
  • If they effectively deal with anger, therapist positively reinforces them 
• supportive evidence:

  Compared progress of 2 groups of offenders, one took part in anger management program and the other was a control. outcomes assessed in 3 measures 92% of experimental group showed improvement in at least 1 measure. No improvements for control group - anger management is an effective way at dealing with offending behaviour as it addresses the root cause of anger - Research has external validity meaning it can be effectively be applied to dealing with offenders 
• limitation of using anger management:

  Howells et al conducted an investigation with Australian offenders and found that participation in anger management programme had little overall impact when compared with a control group. But some significant progress was made for those who had extreme levels of anger before the study this suggests that anger management is only effective at dealing with offending behaviour when offenders fit a certain profile meaning that it may not be effective at reducing anger and therefore recidivism in all people 

   
• anger management Is expensive:

  Anger management progremmes require highly-trained professionals who are adapted to dealing with violent offenders. Prisons therefore may not have the resources for these programmes. this suggests that anger management is unlikely to work in most prisons