Evaluation of Anger Management Group - Research Paper Example

Evaluation of Anger Management Group Anger management involves steps towards the identification of anger signs by an individual and taking steps aimed at calming down and dealing with the situation amicably. Anger management group’s aim at evaluating helping individuals affected by anger issues. Counselors are often involved in helping individuals manage their anger and involve appropriate techniques and measures with a common technique being the use of anger management groups. The study expounds on the mechanism for evaluating the effectiveness of anger management group using a survey to reach a solution to its effectiveness in gauging the progress of the participants in the anger management.

The evaluation of the anger group management will aim at answering the question:Is the anger management program effective for both group adult women and adult men? The dependent variables that the study will use as a measure of finding out the effectiveness of the group management efforts in the evaluation will include three independent variables gender, age, and level of education and the dependent variables will be the training sessions attended by the survey participants. Each variable will be measured using nominal for gender, scale for age, ordinal for the level of education, and scale for training sessions to provide a basis for the relation of independent variables to the dependent variable and allow for the formation of a conclusion on the effectiveness of the intervention on management of anger.

The study will make use of Violent Intentions-Teen Conflict Survey (Pre/post Test and L3) for the collection of data on the anger management groups from the respondents that will allow the generation of a conclusion on the effectiveness of the group in meeting its goals of managing anger (Dahlberg, et al., 2005). The researcher will provide the survey to the respondents and a copied returned during the session. The survey used by other studies in the past to measure intentions to use nonviolent strategies to control anger and conflict.

Pre/Posttest measure strengths include allowing for the versatility of the collection of information, it is simple allowing for simple analysis of the data, providing basis for comparison, and allows for flexibility in the use of control groups depending on the needs of the research. The main weakness of the measure is that the clients would remember their answer if there is no duration between the pre/posttest. Another weakness of pre/posttest is the possibility of affecting the results resulting in negative impact on the external validity of the research.

The appropriate research design for use in the study is the Quasi-Experimental Design (Pre/Posttest because it allows the researcher to have a direct interaction with the target population of the anger management group activities to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Since the effectiveness of an intervention is sought for, a quasi-experimental research design is most suitable. Quasi-experimental design has a number of strengths that will aid in the success of the evaluation including the use of preselected members of the anger management group, offers the possibility of using a control group and it is easy to manage (Black, 1999).

Despite the above-mentioned strengths, the quasi-experimental design also has weaknesses including lack of randomization, questionable validity, and limited possibility of comparison owing to lack of randomization. The quasi-experimental design will have an impact on the internal validity of the research through the familiarity of the respondents to the measure augmenting their performance and not because of the effectiveness of the group. Changes in the participants from maturation, historical events that could change the participants, and luck are the other threats to internal validity inherent in the use of quasi-experimental research.

Quasi-experimental design has threats to external validity through the knowledge of the participants knowing they are participating in a study owing to a pretest and the interaction between undertaking pretest and attending the group sessions may cause changes affecting the results. Quasi-experimental design is used because it allows the researcher to evaluate the changes in the respondents allowing for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the anger management program. ReferencesBlack, T. (1999).

Doing Quantitative Research in the Social Sciences: An Integrated Approach to Research Design, Measurement and Statistics. New York: Sage. Dahlberg, L., Toal, S., Swahn, M., & Behrens,C. (2005). Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools, 2nd ed., Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.