Anger Management

• Anger Management


  Aggressive emotional responses are cognitive processes and can be controlled with CBT

  • Cognitive Preparation - learn to assess thoughts for triggers, and reinact triggers
  • Skill Acquisition - learn to control anger through relaxing techniques, improving communication to avoid conflict
  • Application Practice - play out scenarios that would trigger, using calming techniques to prevent anger
• Anger


  May have physical effects correlating with increased heart rate, blood pressure, and levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline
• (+) A03: Ireland (2004)

  Self report questionnaires before and after intervention, and behavioural checklists for staff

  • 48% of experimental group showed improvement
• (-) A03: Ireland Procedure

  Uses self report which can create social desirability bias, reducing the validity of the findings as may not be accurate, imrpoved anger management also linked to earlier release; staff may have different views of behaviour improving and interpret behavioural categories differently, making that subjective
• (+/-) A03: Practical + Economic Application


  Allowed offenders to control anger outside of the prison, having practical applications, reducing recidivism which benefits the economy as less costs for recidivism; however it requires specialist psychologists to help improve anger, which can be costly for the economy, putting strain on staff