contemporary study: howells Flashcards
1
Q
what was investigated and where?
A
- investigating prison and community offender populations
- in australia
2
Q
what was the focus of the study?
A
- real treatment
- provides insight into an offending population
3
Q
when was the study carried out? what does this reflect?
A
- when there was an increase in use of anger management interventions for offenders, following emphasis on a rehabilitative approach to managing offenders compared to more traditional perspective of punishment
- this reflects an on-going psychological research interest in evaluating whether such intervention to indeed effect a behavioural change for offender
4
Q
what were the main aims of the study?
A
- to determine whether anger management is more effective than no treatment in producing change
- to investigate whether improvement in treatment can be predicted from pre-treatment offender characteristics, e.g. whether they are ready to engage in treatment
5
Q
how many offenders participated?
A
- 418 male offenders
- with a mean age of 28.8 years
6
Q
where were the offenders referred to?
A
- all had been referred to prison or community probation equivalent anger management programmes in australia
- 86% were from prison-based anger management programmes, with others being community correction-based
7
Q
what were the offenders’ sentences ranging from?
A
- one month to 26 and 4 months
8
Q
what did the offenders’ violences consist of?
A
- 14% had committed a non-violent offence
- 42% had committed violent but without bodily harm
- 30% had committed violence with bodily harm
- 8% had committed grievous bodily harm
- 6% had committed injuries causing death
9
Q
who has not previously completed anger management programme?
A
73%
10
Q
how many completed the post intervention assessment?
A
- 285/418 completed post intervention assessment
- 78 completed 2 months follow up
- 21 completed 6 month follow up assessment
- small numbers at the follow up sessions were kept smaller rather than the low numbers showing dropout from study
11
Q
what did the control sample consist of?
A
- ppts who were on a waiting list for the programme
12
Q
how long did the programmes last?
A
- approx 20 hours (10 sessions)
13
Q
what did the programmes consists of?
A
- content of programmes was very similar, despite being carried out in different geographical areas
- programmes based on cognitive behavioural and used treatment manuals based on material developed in new zealand and derived from Novaco’s framework 1997
14
Q
what did the participants complete?
A
- outcome measures (completed questionnaires about experiences with anger and their triggers) before and after attending programme, with follow-up assessments at 2 and 6 months after finishing group
15
Q
who was given support?
A
- those with literacy issues and questionnaires were verbally administered
16
Q
what did the staff complete?
A
- staff (either prison or community) completed an observational rating for each ppt
17
Q
what did results show?
A
- offenders who completed anger management programme showed SIGNIFICANTLY grater improvement in anger knowledge than those in control group (mean change of 1.80 compared to 0.95)
- some improvement among those in control group who did not complete treatment
- although there was relative improvement in ability to manage their anger using appropriate skills among treatment group, this was NOT SIGNIFICANT when compared to control group
18
Q
what were the results shown in the follow up sessions?
A
- at 2 months follow up stage, the initial improvement was observed again and was SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT
- showed that treatment was helping to manage anger and ppts were continuing to make progress after course had finished
- HOWEVER, same effect was not seen at the 6 month stage
19
Q
what were the results over prediction?
A
- to predict how much change someone will make in treatment (predictive validity) was more accurate among those who had the most negative anger symptoms before attending the programme
- there was a positive correlation between treatment readiness and progress made after course completion
20
Q
what is the conclusion of the study?
A
- overall impact of the anger management programme was small and completion of an anger management questionnaire, even without treatment, may have a small benefit
- improvement shown by those completing programmes is not always maintained some months after course had finished
- however, another conclusion made was that anger management programmes are educational and that is what was successful - they are educational in giving knowledge about what anger is, what effects it has and perhaps how to make changes
- readiness for anger management can affect how successful an anger management programme is and can predict its success
