Lesson 11: Anger Management

Question 1

What does Novaco suggest?

Answer 1

Cognitive factors trigger emotional arousal which usually precedes aggressive acts. In some people, anger is too quick to surface, especially in situations that they perceive to be threatening but aren’t. (Hostile Attribution Bias)

Question 2

What is anger management?

Answer 2

• Form of CBT
• Individual is taught to recognise when they are losing control and encouraged to develop techniques to bring about conflict resolution without violence

Question 3

What is the first phase of anger management?

Answer 3

Cognitive Preparation:
(-) Offender learns the triggers for their anger.
(-) They reflect on events in the past when they were angry and consider if their interpretation of them were rational.
(-) The therapist helps to redefine the situation as non-threatening

Question 4

What is the second phase of anger management?

Answer 4

Skill Acquisition:

• Offender introduced to range of techniques to help them handle anger provoking situations more rationally
• Techniques could be behavioural, cognitive or physiological e,g assertiveness training to communicate better, positive self talk for calmness, relaxation and meditation respectively

Question 5

What is the third phase of anger management?

Answer 5

Application Practise:

• Offender practises skills they learned in a carefully monitored environment
• Role plays are used to reenact scenes in the past that caused the offender to become violent
• The offender must take this seriously and see it as real and the therapist must be brave in winding up the offender
• Successful negotiation is met with positive reinforcement

Question 6

Evaluation (+)

Answer 6

• Multidisciplinary approach which acknowledges that offending is a complex social and psychological behaviour. Any attempts to address it must include different elements
• Anger management gets to the root cause of offending behaviour rather than focussing on superficial surface behaviour

Question 7

Evaluation (-)

Answer 7

• Anger may not cause offending. Many crimes are not motivated by anger (financial). Even murder: Harold shipman murdered 215 patients because he wanted to alleviate their suffering.
• Success is dependent on commitment and cooperation of participants
• Programmes are expensive to run as they require a highly trained specialist who is used to dealing to violent offenders.