Anger Management

Question 1

What is anger management in cognitive behavioral therapy?

Answer 1

Novaco suggests that cognitive factors trigger the emotional arousal which usually precedes aggressive acts. He argues that some people are too quick too anger, especially in situations which they perceive as threatening but are not actually threatening.

Anger management is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy, the person is taught to recognize when they are loosing control and are encouraged to resolve the situation without violence.

Question 2

What are the 3 stages of anger management

Answer 2

Cognitive preparation

skill acquisition

application practice

Question 3

1st stage of anger management cognitive preparation

Answer 3

The offender learns to IDENTIFY THE TRIGGER FOR THEIR ANGER. They can reflect on past events and think if the way they interpreted events where rational , the therapist helps them redefine the situation as not threatening.

Question 4

2nd stage of anger management skill acquisition

Answer 4

The offender is shown a range of techniques and skills to help them handle situations that could make them angry rationally. Techniques could be cognitive (positive self talk for calmness), behavioral (assertiveness training for better communication) or psychological (meditation for relaxation) .

Question 5

3rd stage of Anger management application practice

Answer 5

The person practices the skills they have learnt in a carefully controlled and monitored environment. Role plays are used to reenact scenes in the past which caused them to commit violence. This requires the psychologist to be brave and try to anger the offender while the offender needs to treat it as real. If successful in not being violent this behavior will be positively reinforced by the psychologist.

Question 6

Strengths of anger management

Answer 6

• ) It is a multi disciplinary approach including cognitive, behavioral and social elements. This ACKNOWLEDGES THAT OFFENDING BHEAVIOUR IS COMPLEX BEHAVIOUR and to address it you need many different elements
• ) It tries to get to THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE OFFENDING BHEAVIOUR ,unlike behavior modification which focuses on superficial surface behavior, by looking at the thought process that led to the anger/violence.

Question 7

Weaknesses of anger management

Answer 7

• ) Many crimes are not motivated by anger such as financial crimes and not even all murders could be caused by anger such as Harold Shipman killing 215 people to alleviate their suffering. So anger management CAN’T BE USED FOR ALL TYPES OF OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR.
• ) Anger management programs are EXPENSIVE and require trained specialists who know how to deal with violent offenders. Many prisons will not have the resources to run such plans.
• ) The success of anger management depends on the commitment of those who participate. IF THEY ARE APATHETIC OR UNCOOPERATIVE IT WONT WORK.