Essay Example on Anger Management: A Case Study on Treatment Process

Introduction

Anger is a behavior that is harmful since it adversely affects relationships. Uncontrolled anger is a psychological problem that requires treatment. Mainly, this paper is a case study that analyzes the treatment process of a participant exhibiting anger issues.

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Target Behavior The target behavior Focused on in this treatment phase report is the participant's issue with anger management. According to Wiseman and O'Gorman (2017), anger is a term describing an instinctive reaction to threats. In some cases, anger is necessary for survival. However, anger is a problem since the participant has challenges in controlling it. In most instances, they end up doing or saying regrettable things. As Wiseman and O'Gorman (2017) argued, uncontrolled anger is bad for one's mental and physical health since it can give rise to verbal and physical violence hence causing harm to the people around them. Further, some of the factors that often trigger the participant's anger include a situation where people do not agree with them on minor issues. Such anger issues are harmful to one's health and have a substantial role to play in damaging relationships.

Treatment Method

Action Learning (AL) is the treatment method selected to deal with anger management issues exhibited by the participant. The treatment model involves intensive reflection, which enables an individual to become determined to seek help and assistance for anger management. Importantly, the participant embarked on behavior change after intense deliberation of their emotional responses. The crucial part of the treatment method involves getting an appraisal for the exhibited behavior and familiarizing with words such as depression, mental abuse, and self-destructive for use when describing a particular behavior. Reflection of the terms and phrases mentioned above helped the participant is linking their moods and anger to their surroundings. The treatment method is crucial since it enabled the participant to identify the source of anger, which, in turn, helped them avoid the angry outbursts and responses. As Wiseman and O'Gorman (2017) argued, the reflective cycle outlines the importance of action learning and keeps the participant updated on the facts involved in the treatment method. The possible treatment outcome is the discovery of the interventions for use in various circumstances through the development of reflective cycles that will lead to the construction of psychological ideas.

Experiment Narrative

The participant kept a short paper in the pocket. The paper had a table that the participant filled the table based on the number of times they practiced relaxation and exercises as control measures for anger management. The participant recorded the number of times he practiced relaxation techniques and exercises as anger management techniques. Importantly, the treatment schedule was consistent among the treatment phases. More so, the treatment was divided into two-time frames separated by baseline observation. The observations were relaxation and exercise. The treatment period commenced after the baseline phase. The first phase of treatment took place for a week and was followed by the second baseline phase, which was getting exercises and lasted for a week as well. Both treatment phases aimed at facilitating anger management.

Dimensions

The dimension of the frequency of relaxation and exercise practices as a form of anger management was measured throughout the experiment. I recorded the progress and ran the program for a week. I was successful in following the schedule during the data collection process. However, this was just the beginning of the intervention, and I believe that I will improve over time.

Summary of Results

To ensure that the treatment is a success, the participant motivates himself to be free from any form of anger. In instances where he gets upset when addressing an issue, he often adds ten minutes for treatment as a way of training myself to be free from anger. All the progress made was noted to track how well I managed to control my anger.

During the treatment phase, most of the instances of anger outbursts declined significantly. By the end of the period, it is worth noting that the target behavior was no more. Importantly, after treatment commenced, the participant had a few outbursts, especially when dealing and solving issues with friends and family. When the anger outbursts happened, the participant added ten more minutes for treatment as a form of reinforcement or punishment. During the second day, the frequency of anger outbursts reduced, and relaxation and exercise activities increased substantially. From the third to the seven days, one can articulately state that the target behavior declines, and eventually, no occurrences and cases of anger outbursts were noted. Primarily, these results can be seen in the figure below.

Figure 2. Duration of control measures and treatment.Treatment stopped temporarily to allow for the commencement of the second baseline phase. At the time, anger issues increased slightly. However, the frequency of the anger noted at the time was lower when compared to the rate of rage before the entire treatment process began. In the second phase of treatment, relaxation and exercises were frequent when compared to the first phase. Anger issues reduced largely. With the reduction of the target behavior, one can see that treatment was successful in the two stages of treatment.

Various observations were made during the process. One of the most critical considerations during the treatment process was that anger was the participant's habit. In most cases, the participant had anger outbursts for no substantial reason. The first four days of treatment had the most situations characterized by anger outbursts. Most of the occurrences were a habit and were done unconsciously. Another essential observation was that relationships were strained following the participant's regular outbreaks, particularly when angry. However, with frequent relaxation and exercise practices, the participant managed to control their anger.

Primarily, the results gathered from this project show that the treatment administered to the participant was proper since it helped to ensure that the participant reduced his anger outbursts. Essentially, the practice of adding additional time for treatment aided in making the treatment a success since the client would control his anger to avoid having to add time for relaxation and exercise activities. It may be possible that the participant could engage in regular anger outbursts in some occasions. However, the target behavior declined even without punishment or reinforcement. The primary goal of the study, which was to reduce the target behavior, was achieved.

Conclusion

The treatment process of anger management, which included relaxation and exercise, was a success. The target behavior, uncontrolled anger, significantly reduced after treatment. Some of the reinforcement included adding additional time in the event where the target behavior was exhibited in the participant. The reinforcements helped to ensure that the treatments are a success.

Reference

Wiseman, M., & O'Gorman, S. (2017). First things first: anger management group work in a mainstream high school setting. Pastoral Care in Education, 35(2), 124-136. doi: 10.1080/02643944.2017.1306875