1. National anger management package

2. Anger management a therapeutic programme
used with a range of clients from convicted violent criminals to aggressive school children.
It assumes that violence is caused by anger, and that if violent individuals learn to control their anger, their violent behaviour will decrease.

3. Anger management programmes
based largely on cognitive-behavioural therapy techniques,
A special anger management programme has been devised for use in prisons,
its main focus being to
try to reduce the amount of violence within prisons,
improve self-control which will continue once offenders are released.
This is called the National Anger Management Package.

4. Aims of the NAMP Course members should:
Increase their understanding of how and why they become angry
Realise the importance of monitoring their own behaviour so that they notice the first signs of becoming angry
Develop strategies for controlling their anger
Use role play to practise coping with provocation
Consider how their lives will improve if they learn to control their anger and aggression
Typically such a course will involve around 8 two-hour sessions, spread over a couple of weeks. The programme usually results in some improvement in prisoners’ behaviour.

5. Where are they used?
Anger management programmes are not just used in prisons. They can be used with:
people who are having relationship problems due to poor control of anger,
with young children and adolescents who have angry and aggressive outbursts at school.
They can involve one-to-one therapy or group therapy.

6. Techniques used in anger management programmes
Desensitisation
a cognitive-behavioural technique that involves imagining a provoking situation, then using relaxation techniques to avoid an angry or aggressive response.
like the systematic desensitisation techniques used for the treatment of phobias, but involves a strong cognitive element when imagining the provoking situation.

7. Techniques
Role-play
acting out situations that have the potential to provoke anger.
This can be done with the therapist, or in a group situation.
t needs to be done carefully, to avoid any risk of the behaviour getting out of control in the therapy session.

8. Techniques Cognitive restructuring
deliberately challenging faulty thought processes, such as the idea that other people are useless, or hostile.
Aggressive people often interpret the neutral behaviour of others as having hostile intent, because they have poor social skills and are not able to interpret other people’s behaviour accurately.
These faulty cognitions need to be recognised and altered. This is rather like the cognitive restructuring therapy Beck uses with depressed patients.

9. Techniques
Rehearsal
re-enacting aggressive episodes, and the events that led up to them,
developing alternative strategies for dealing with provocative verbal exchanges – such as walking away.

10. Evaluation of anger management
+ There is evidence that it is effective, such as Ireland’s study, which showed an improvement in the behaviour of 92% of young offenders in an institution
+ It uses techniques that help the individual take responsibility for his or her own behaviour, such as avoiding situations, changing their faulty thought processes, or developing alternative strategies for dealing with provoking situations. This means the person should be able to continue taking control of their actions after the therapy is over.
+ It uses a mixture of techniques taken from a wide range of perspectives in psychology, using the best ideas from each: restructuring thought processes from the cognitive approach, role-play and desensitisation from the behavioural approach

11. Evaluation cont..
- Whilst Ireland’s study gave evidence for short-term improvement in aggression, it is not clear whether such improvements will last, or whether they will continue outside the institutional setting
- Anger management programmes assume that violent behaviour is caused by anger. Whilst this is sometimes true, there are many other possible causes of violence. For example the methodical serial killer is not acting impulsively: his/(her) crimes are carefully planned. So this means of controlling aggression is suitable for only a limited number of aggressive people.