Anger Management

Question 1

What is Anger Management?

Answer 1

A form of cognitive behavioural therapy that involves teaching the client to identify the cognitive factors that trigger their anger, as well as learning techniques to manage this

Question 2

What is the aim of Anger Management?

Answer 2

To teach the individual how to cope with their anger, not prevent it

Question 3

What are the 3 Stages to Anger Management?

Answer 3

• Cognitive Preparation
• Skills Acquisition
• Application Practice

Question 4

Describe Cognitive Preparation

Answer 4

• The 1st stage of anger management
  The offender reflects on past experiences and considers the typical pattern of their anger, as well as what triggers this anger
• They also consider whether their anger was irrational, and if so the therapist makes this clear, thus redefining the situation as non-threatening and attempting to break what may be an automatic response

Question 5

Describe Skills Acquisition

Answer 5

• The 2nd stage of anger management
  The offender is introduced to a range of techniques and skills to help them cope with their anger
• There are 3 different types of techniques they are introduced to: cognitive (e.g. positive self-talk); behavioural (e.g. communication training), and physiological (e.g. relaxation or meditation)

Question 6

Describe Application Practice

Answer 6

• The 3rd stage of anger management
• The offender practises their skills in a carefully controlled environment, in which the therapist deliberately aggravates the offender, and then provides them with positive reinforcement should they deal with the situation successfully

Question 7

What evidence supports the use of Anger Management?

Answer 7

• Ireland, who compared a group of young offenders who underwent 12 sessions of the National Anger Management Package to a control group
• They were assessed on 3 measures: an interview; a self-report questionnaire, and a behavioural checklist completed the guards
• There was a 92% improvement on at least one measure compared to no improvement in the control group

Question 8

Why has Anger Management been praised compared to other methods of managing offender behaviour? (2 Points)

Answer 8

• It can be continued outside of prison
• It is arguably more holistic, as it combines cognitive, psychological and behavioural techniques, as well as addressing why the behaviour is occurring instead of merely just the behaviour itself

Question 9

Why has Anger Management been criticised?

Answer 9

• Blackburn argued that despite it having positive short-term effects, there is little evidence it reduces recidivism rates in the long-term
• This may be due to it relying too heavily on roleplay, which is not sufficiently generalisable to everyday life scenarios, casting doubt on the long-term effectiveness of Anger Management as a rehabilitative technique

Question 10

Why may Anger Management not be appropriate for all offenders?

Answer 10

It requires the offender to be motivated and to actively engagement with the therapy, which not all may be prepared to do (e.g. depending on sentence length)