Date of Award

1-1-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education, Counseling Psychology

First Advisor

Cynthia McRae, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Kathy Green

Third Advisor

Patton Garriott

Fourth Advisor

Mohammad Matin

Keywords

Anger, Forgiveness, Group counseling

Abstract

Although the costs of uncontrolled anger are well-known, interventions for anger are less frequently studied and less effective than interventions for either depression or anxiety (NAMA, 2012). One hundred eighty-seven patients requesting anger management treatment at an outpatient counseling center in Denver participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to one of two treatments: an experimental treatment integrating forgiveness therapy and anger management, or anger treatment as usual. Treatment consisted of twelve 90-minute sessions held once a week in small groups led by group facilitators. Participants in both treatment conditions reported clinically significant decreases in state anger and increases in anger control and forgiveness, with the experimental treatment outperforming treatment as usual on all outcome variables. These findings suggest that adding a forgiveness component to anger treatment may increase the efficacy of treatment for anger. Furthermore, results of this study suggest that forgiveness therapy may be efficacious not just with victims, but with offenders as well.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Michael Schaefer Ballard

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

142 p.

Discipline

Counseling Psychology

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