What Works for Anger Management

Prévention du crime Ottawa 110 avenue Laurier ouest, 2ieme étage Ottawa (Ontario) K1P 1J1 It should be noted that, in general, there is surprisingly little known about the treatment of anger disorders. In the mental health field, anger and its related behaviours and problems have not been empirically researched to the extent of (for example) anxiety and depression, about which much more is known. This trend appears to be changing and, in the near future, we may expect a great deal more attention being paid to anger and potentially effective treatment programs. The following articles are in chronological order (where dates are known): Summary The author discusses the artificiality and potential lack of generalizability of most laboratory experiments involving the assessment of anger. The author suggests that, due to the nature of anger and its subsequent negative behaviours, there are several techniques that may be beneficial to anger reduction. (in no particular order of importance): 1 – Assertiveness Training 2 – Social Skills Training 3 – Cognitive-behavioural approaches (which are more effective when combined with relaxation training). Relaxtation training alone has not shown to be particularly useful in decreasing anger. Summary Subjects consisted of 12 youth (girls and boys) between the ages of 11 and 17. There were two groups, each exposed to 5 weeks of training at staggered starts with 6 sessions falling in those 5 weeks. Each session was one hour in length (there is a brief outline of each session in the article from page449-450), and consisted mostly of relaxation training and changing self-talk.