Anger and its management

Anger: The Assessment and Treatment of Problematic Anger, Part 1

Many occupational therapists working in the field of mental health are now using anger management interventions as an Integral part of the treatment offered. The challenges of anger and aggression have become particularly topical because of the recent legislative changes in the provision of care of mentally Ill people. Research shows that anger is a predictor of aggression, so a method of assessing high levels of anger must in turn help to illustrate one of the risk factors of aggression.

Part 1 of this article draws attention to the assessment of anger, introduces a newly developed measure — the Novaco Anger Scale, and offers a user's perspective based on a recent study.

Assessment of anger and aggression in male offenders with developmental disabilities

Systematic assessment of anger among people with developmental disabilities has been lacking, especially for hospital inpatients. Reliability and validity of anger self-report psychometric scales were investigated with 129 male patients, mostly forensic. Anger prevalence and its relationship to demographic, cognitive, and personality variables and to hospital assaultive behavior were examined. High internal and intermeasure consistency, and some concurrent validity with staff ratings, were found. Retrospective validity regarding physically assaultive behavior in the hospital was obtained. Hierarchical regressions revealed that patient-reported anger was a significant predictor of assaults postadmission, controlling for age, length of stay, IQ, violence offense history, and personality variables.

A review of the assessment and treatment of anger and aggression in offenders with intellectual disability

Rates of aggression amongst people with intellectual disability (ID) have been found to be high in studies conducted on several continents across a number of service settings. Aggression is the primary reason for people with ID to be admitted or re-admitted to institutional settings, and it is also the main reason for individuals in this client group to be prescribed behaviour-control drugs. Anger is a significant activator of aggression, but little is known about the emotional aspects of the lives of people with ID. There are many reasons for this, but a lack of reliable and validated assessment measures is chief among them. The present review found that very little work has been conducted to date concerning the development of robust tools for assessing anger and aggression in this population. A narrative review of interventions for reducing aggression and anger in people with ID showed that there is virtually no evidence to support the use of psychotropic medications. Research has shown that behavioural interventions can be effective; however, they are intrusive and have not been tested in naturalistic settings with higher-functioning clients and low-frequency aggression. More recently, cognitive-behavioural interventions have shown promise, but the mechanisms for effective change have yet to be delineated. Priority research questions relating to assessment, treatment and therapeutic skills in working with anger and aggression problems are offered by the present review.

Adolescents' experiences of anger in a residential setting

There is a substantial literature, covering a range of populations, looking at the phenomenon of anger and its expression. However, remarkably little is known about adolescent experiences of anger. The present study looks at adolescent anger within the confines of a residential establishment. Using a qualitative methodology to consider young peoples' own account of anger-provoking incidents, a description is given of typical settings, reactions, and outcomes in angry incidents. The implications of this information for both staff training and anger management programmes is explored.