Y2: Psychology: Criminal: Howells et al (2005)

• To see whether anger management is more effective in producing change than no treatment

• To see if pre-treatment offender characteristics can predict any improvement in treatment

• 418 Australian male offenders

• Sentences ranging from 1 month to 26 years

• Mean age of 28.8 years

42% committed violence without bodily harm.

6% committed injuries causing death.

73%

1) STAXI
- How the offender’s anger is expressed
2) WAKS
- Understanding of how to deal with their anger
3) STRS
- Treatment readiness

IV = Anger management vs. no anger management

DV = The effectiveness and progress of the programme

• 418 male Australian offenders were put on an anger management programme 73% of which had never been on one before

• The AM programme lasted 10, two hour sessions that were focused on the cognitive approach

• It was based on Norace (1997) with structured exercises looking at skills of identifying provoking situations, relaxation, assertion, prevention of relapse and restructuring

• During this time some ppts completed a checklist of the content covered

• Ppts in experimental and control answered 6 different questionnaires through self-report (such as WAKS to measure understanding of how to deal with anger and STRS to measure treatment readiness)

• Those in the control group were put on the waiting list received treatment after the study

To demonstrate and check what was covered to ensure the sessions were carried out as per the manual to provide the content they should.

• There was no statistically significant differences between pre-treatment and post-treatment however those who were motivated to change improved the most

• There was a slight improvement for those in treatment condition where gains could still be seen 2 months after

• Treatment group improved by 1.5 in controlling their anger compared to 0.5 increase for control

• Treatment group improved by 1.8 in their understanding of anger compared to 0.95 increase for control

• The overall impact of the anger management programme was small

• Offenders who were motivated to change showed greatest improvements and those who were poorly motivated showed less or no change

P - High
E - 418 ppts is a large sample 
E - Generalisable to wider population 
P - Low
E - Only used men
E - Sample is androcentric and so not representative of females.

P - High
E - Standardised programme that involves 10 two hour sessions with focus on identifying triggers
E - Can be replicated easily to test for consistency as all programmes were delivered the same way
P - Low
E - Control group showed similar improvements as treatment group
E - Questions reliability of whether treatment works and so may be ineffective

P - Yes
E - Showed that there were no significant differences pre and post treatment however those who were motivated to change showed greatest improvement
E - Therefore this could be useful to inform those designing the programmes about the importance of treatment readiness

P - High
E - Range of scales like WAKS and STRS to measure things such as aggressive traits, the intensity, and motivation to change
E - This means that data is rich in qualitative and quantitative forms
P - Low
E - Uses self-report data such as ppts stating their understanding of how to deal with aggression effectively in the WAKS scale
E - This data will be open to social desirability as many want to look better than they are because some may have been forced onto the programme

P - Good
E - The control group were still offered the anger management programme 2 weeks afterwards
E - This ensures that all ppts benefit from taking part