Category: Anger
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Lee, A. H., & DiGiuseppe, R. (2018). Anger and aggression treatments: A review of meta-analyses. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, 65–74. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.04.004
Raymond DiGiuseppe, ABPP, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Professor
St. John's University
Queens, New York
Michael Wydo, ABPP, Psy.D.
US Dept. of Justice / Federal Bureau of Prisons
San Pedro, California
Thomas DiBlasi, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
St. Joseph's University
Merrick, New York
Raymond Chip Tafrate, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Central Connecticut State University
West Hartford, Connecticut
Katharine Romero, M.A. (she/her/hers)
Doctoral research fellow
St. John’s University
Queens, New York
Raymond DiGiuseppe, ABPP, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Professor
St. John's University
Queens, New York
Michael Wydo, ABPP, Psy.D.
US Dept. of Justice / Federal Bureau of Prisons
San Pedro, California
DSM5 fails to provide diagnoses for anger disorders, and there are only a few disorders for aggressive behavior. Despite this absence, CBT has emerged as the gold standard for treating anger problems, and most non-medication approaches to treating excessive aggressive behaviors rely on anger management approaches to CBT (amCBT). However, most advocates of specific CBT include a manual with a group of interventions and apply it to all clients or apply it to groups of clients in all types of settings. Thus, the amCBT in use today is relatively routinized. The same behavioral exercises are included, and the same cognitions are challenged regardless of individual or group differences in the clients. This one size fits all approach has resulted in amCBT being effective, but with effect sizes being smaller than those for CBT treatment of others disorders and a large percentage of clients not responding to the treatment. This symposium attempts to provide more nuanced approaches to treatment in three different ways.
First pares on criminal justice involved clients presented here examine the role of the specific characteristics of anger that are prominent in such groups. Wydo’s paper examines the role that revenge plays in anger by prison inmates and suggests that the desire for revenge is an important characteristic to include in anger treatments. Revenge is often excluded in most amCBT approaches now. Tafrate and Jones look at the social context of behavior and the type of anger expression. Their paper suggests that social context behaviors and anger expression are the important variables that distinguish juvenile offenders. Factors should be assessed and targeted for treatment.
Second, the paper by DiGiuseppe suggests that amCBT treatments have relied on the same type of dysfunctional cognitions that are targeted in treatments for all emotional disorders. This paper suggests that amCBT needs to expand its horizon and consider targeting cognitions unique to anger, such as the CoH, which has great incremental and predictive validity in anger.
Third, the paper by Romero uses a latent profile analysis to identify eight separate profiles of anger subtypes extracted from a large clinical sample using 18 different subscales. She argues that these subtypes would benefit from different approaches to treatment
The paper by DiBlasi and Sinn suggests the importance of individualizing treatment. They instructed angry clients to write an anger-evoking memory and used the information from this exercise to guide treatment. This assessment led to improved outcomes using two different interventions.
This symposium hopes to demonstrate that we can increase the success of anger intervention by assessing different constructs and using them to provide improvements amCBT