Anger Management

Question 1

What are the three phases of anger management?

Answer 1

• Cognitive preparation.
• Skill acquisition.
• Application practise.

Question 2

What is involved in skill acquisition?

Answer 2

Introducers are introduced to a range of skill and techniques to help them deal with the triggers more effecitvely.

Question 3

Who developed anger management techniques?

Answer 3

Raymond Novaco (1975).

Question 4

What pneumonic can be used to remember the three stages of anger management?

Answer 4

Calm People Should Avoid Angry People.

Question 5

How is the feeling of anger reinforced?

Answer 5

It is positively reinforced by the feeling of control within a situation.

Question 6

What is the aim of anger management?

Answer 6

It aims to identify triggers and allow offenders to deal with the situation in a positive and calm manner.

Question 7

Anger management is a form of which therapy?

Answer 7

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Question 8

What are the three sub-skills within skill acquisition?

Answer 8

• Cognitive skills.
• Behavioural assertiveness.
• Physiological methods.

Question 9

What is cognitive preparation?

Answer 9

The offender reflects on past experience and considers typical patterns of their anger, identify specific situations and triggers. The therapist works with them to identify the anger response to these situations are irrational.

Question 10

Which stage of anger management is this?
The offender may view someone looking at them as an act of confrontation, the therapist helps redefine their opinions of this and helps them view is as non-threatening.

Answer 10

Cognitive preparation - they therapist attempts to break the automatic response of the offender.

Question 11

What techniques are involved in skill acquisition?

Answer 11

Cognitive skills such as positive self-talk, Behavioural assertiveness training and Physiological methods of relaxation or meditation.

Question 12

What are cognitive skills?

Answer 12

Positive self-talk which encourages calmness.

Question 13

What is behavioural assertiveness training?

Answer 13

Training to help communication being more effective.

Question 14

What are physiological methods?

Answer 14

Methods of relaxation or meditation, promoting the idea that offenders are in control of their emotions rather than being ruled by them.

Question 15

Explain why anger management is a form of CBT?

Answer 15

Offenders recognise their triggers and implement cognitive techniques that deal peacefully with the situation whilst avoiding anger.

Question 16

What is application practice?

Answer 16

Offenders are given the opportunity to practise their skills within a monitored environment using role-play. A successful response is positively reinforced, the stage requires a certain level of commitment from the offender to believe each scenario is real.

Question 17

Why does application practice require a certain level of commitment from the offender?

Answer 17

Because they have to believe each situation is real.

Question 18

AO3 - Eclectic approach.

Answer 18

Anger management works on a number of different levels, it includes cognitive parts, behavioural parts and social parts. The multidisciplinary approach acknowledges that offending is complex and includes many elements.

Question 19

AO3 - Long-term effectiveness.

Answer 19

Blackburn (1993) pointed out anger management may have noticeable short-term effects, but long term effects are little. This may be due to the influence of artificial role play with few triggers that would be present on the outside due to he controlled environment.

Question 20

Why does anger management involve a certain level of bravery from the therapist?

Answer 20

Because their role is to ‘wind up’ an aggressive offender.

Question 21

AO3 - Comparison with behavioural modification.

Answer 21

Anger management tries to tackle a cause of behaviour, rather than focusing on the superficial surface behaviour, attempting to identify thought processes that underlie offending behaviour. This point of view means it is logical to assume anger management has more effect on recidivism rates than behaviour modification.

Question 22

AO3 - Anger as the cause.

Answer 22

Theories of anger often assume a casual relationship between anger and offending. However, Loza and Loza-Fanous (1999) found no differences in anger levels between ‘violent’ and ‘non-violent’ criminals. They said anger programmes provide justification for offenders actions.

Question 23

AO3 - Expensive and requires commitment.

Answer 23

Anger management programmes are expensive to run as they require the services of specialists to deal with angry, often violent offenders. Many prisons don’t have the funding for this whilst a behaviour modification programme requires little training or funding. The anger management programme also has a high dropout rate.

Question 24

AO3 - Variable methods.

Answer 24

The variable methods used by different prisons are not systematic and result in varied effectiveness due to the unreliable nature. Prisons with more funding may have smaller group sizes than less funded ones, they may also have better trained therapists. Affected by differences between prisons, a more standardised procedure is required to find the effectiveness of anger management.

Question 25

AO3 - Mixed results.

Answer 25

There are many studies of the effectiveness of anger management and they have mixed results, the studies of Taylor and Novaco (2006) or Landenberger and Lipsey (2005) show vey good results whilst Howells (2005) and Law (1997) show the contrary. This suggests there are individual differences which affect the effectiveness of the programme.