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Rationale and Research for the need to
address character education and anger (emotional) management
training comprehensively, through the cognitive, behavioral and emotional
components, namely: recognizing and restructuring negative automatic
(often unconscious) personal dialog BEFORE
delivering the cognitive behavioral training.
The
following information and references were taken in part from the Prepare
Curriculum, Arnold P. Goldstein 1988 chapter 5, anger control training,
which is heavily research based (studies referenced are available upon
request).
Recognizing negative self talk, correcting the distortions and actively
choosing productive automatic self thoughts (referred to as covert
self-verbalization) need to be a major component of any effective anger
management program. Tough Choices
is the only program to date that addresses this need comprehensively
before training the participants in the necessary skill acquisition
components (the Novaco three-stage sequence) which employs the practice of
cues, triggers, reminders, and reducers.
Available anger management programs to date have focused primarily on this
skill acquisition sequence alone. The studies on generalizability with
this method are weak and it has not proven to be effective with
chronically angry or emotionally constricted subjects.
Source: Coates, 1979; Urbain & Kendall 1981
Source for evidence on the efficacy of the
three-stage sequence: 1) cognitive preparation, 2) skill acquisition and
3) application training sequence) Novaco, 1977, 1978
The
following information supporting the need for curriculum time spent on
negative self-talk is excerpted from the Prepare Curriculum,
(Arnold P. Goldstein 1988 chapter 5, anger control training) which is
heavily research based.
Anger arousal is a response to perceived environmental demands…external
circumstances provoke anger only as mediated by their meaning to the
individual. (Novaco, 1979, 252-253)
Novaco's attempt to apply self-instructional training to the management of
anger was based not only upon the general success of such training in
altering self-regulatory processes, but also upon a separate series of
studies consistently showing the marked influence (increases and
decreases) of covert self-verbalization. He found that affectively loaded
implicit self-statements increased both respiration rate and depth.
Schwartz (1971), using similar procedures, found increased heart rate to
result, and May and Johnson (1973) reported similar findings plus an
effect of inner speech on skin conductance. Russell and Bandera (1974)
also found such skin conductance changes.
These findings, viewed in the context of the work of Luria, Meichenbaum,
and others, led Novaco (1975) to conclude that “a basic premise is that
anger is fomented, maintained, and influenced by the self-statements that
are made in provocation situations” (p. 17).
Author's note: Simply stated, after 20
years of implementing anger management and character education classes to
diverse adolescent and adult populations I have found that the three-stage
sequence for managing anger is effective (generalizable) with people who
are dealing with HEALTHY anger. This sequence alone is not very
effective for managing unhealthy, constricted or deep seated anger
(which is why most students are referred to anger & behavior
management classes).
Only
AFTER the participants have done the difficult work of recognizing
their negative thoughts, facing their fears, letting go of grudges,
experiencing forgiveness, and really understanding all of the negative
consequences of unhealthy anger, can we begin to use the cues, triggers,
reminders etc. sequence.
Students need to be clear thinking enough
to decide that their angry behavior is change worthy before we can teach
them how to manage their emotions and build character.
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Anger Management
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