Howells

anger management programme

effectiveness of AMPs

- to see if brief AMP can help reduce anger and if changes in prisoners could be predicted by pre-treatment readiness

- males in Australia
- sentencing ranging from one month to 26rs +4mo
- mean age of 28.8
- convicted mostly for violent offences

- 10, 2-hour sessions delivered by trained facilitators
- identifying triggers, relaxation techniques, cognitive restructuring, assertion and relapse prevention

by self-report questionnaires

- MOAS
- STRS

Overall there was no significant difference between pre and post-treatment scores between the two groups

the results showed that the degree of improvement was found to be predictable from pre-treatment measures of treatment readiness

it was believed that the act of completing anger assessments may have a small beneficial effect in itself - self awareness

the programme was too short and the sample included high risk offenders with multiple issues

to maximise success of AMPs they should be thorough programmes and used on motivated ppts

21 completed the 6 month follow up but this was for logistical reasons not a high drop out

yes, the questionnaires are easily replicable with another sample to test for consistency in findings regarding the effectiveness of AMP

Measures of aggression and treatment readiness came from multiple questionnaires which makes the conclusions more credible

It was self report data so people can lie to make themselves look like they are benefitting from the treatment or not as aggressive as they really are (demand characteristics + social desirability)

allows for a baseline measure and more credible conclusions can be drawn regarding the effectiveness of AMPs

immediately before and after intervention and again 2 + 6 months later