Anger management Flashcards
What’s the short-term aim of anger management?
To reduce anger and aggression in prisoners.
What’s the long-term aim of anger management?
Rehabilitate and reduce recidivism.
What is the key aim of cognitive approaches? What is the key aim of anger management?
To change the way a person thinks.
The key aim is to change the way a person handles anger and aggression.
The situation may not be changeable but a person can change the way they think and therefore change their behaviour.
Novaco identified three key aims for anger management programmes. What are they?
Cognitive restructuring.
Regulation of arousal.
Behaviour strategies.
What does cognitive restructuring involve?
Great self-awareness and control over cognitive dimensions of anger.
What does regulation of arousal involve?
Learning to control the physiological state.
What do behavioural strategies involve?
Problem-solving skills, strategic withdrawal and assertiveness.
What’s the first stage of stress inoculation?
Conceptualisation.
What does the conceptualisation stage of stress inoculation involve?
Clients learn about anger generally, how it can be both adaptive and non-adaptive.
They analyse their own patterns of anger and identify situations which provoke anger in them.
What’s the second stage of stress inoculation?
Skill acquisition (and rehearsal).
What does the skill acquisition stage of stress inoculation involve?
Clients are taught various skills to help manage their anger, such as self-regulation and relaxation.
They are also taught better communication skills so they can resolve conflicts assertively without being angry.
What’s the third stage of stress inoculation?
Application (and follow through).
What does the application stage of stress inoculation involve?
Clients apply the skills initially in controlled and non-threatening situations such as role-plays of situations that previously made them angry.
They receive extensive feedback from the therapist and other group members.
Later clients can try out their skills in real-world settings.
What did Taylor and Novaco report in terms of the success of anger management programmes?
75% improvement rates (based on six meta-analyses).
What did Landenberger and Lipsey analyse? What did they find?
Analysed 58 studies using CBT with offenders.
20 of these studies looked at therapies where anger control was a key component.
Found that having an anger control element was significantly related to amount of improvement.
What’s a key limitation of anger management programmes?
Some offenders don’t like to reflect on their style of thinking.
Such individuals may drop out of voluntary anger management programmes for offenders.
What’s one alternative of anger management programmes?
Drama-based courses which are less reliant on verbal ability and are more engaging.
What’s one way to cope with individuals dropping out of anger management programmes?
To assess “readiness to change” before the start of an anger management programme.
What did Loza and Loza-Fanous claim? What was their sample? What did they find?
Research that has linked anger and crime is based on laboratory studies using students.
In their own study, of almost 300 males in prisons, they found no difference between violent and non-violent offenders in terms of anger.
What did Loza and Loza-Fanous suggest was a danger with anger management programmes?
Such programmes can be harmful because offenders attribute their violent behaviour to anger rather than taking personal responsibility.
Offenders may be required to take part in an anger management programme as a condition of probation. What is the issue with this?
Such participation is against the ethical code of therapists.
However, the Anger Management and Domestic Violence Professionals ethical code does say “based, when appropriate, on valid informed consent”.
Therapeutic interventions are intended to help the client. What issue could this cause for the therapist?
When such interventions are used within prisons there are conflicts for a therapist.
This is because they have a duty to the institution and to their client.
When is breaching therapeutic confidence acceptable?
In serious situations.
What benefits do anger management programmes have for prison staff and other prisoners?
They have the potential to reduce aggression and violence.
This creates less of a hostile environment.
What is the annual cost to the economy of reoffending?
At least £9.5 billion per year.
Why are anger management programmes beneficial to society?
Any method that may reduce even a small amount of offending or reoffending offers benefits to society.
If offenders learn to control their anger better once they are released from prison, this may prevent them from committing further crimes.
