When Anger Management Requires Going Deeper by B. Golden - Article Example

In the pop psychology article, "When anger management requires going deeper," the main intention of the article is to focus on deeper ways of managing anger for people who have more weighty issues rather than the usual methods. The author describes that the conventional methods of managing anger include counting from one to ten, taking deep breaths, taking timeouts, engaging in exercises, or visiting anger management sessions. He states that these methods only help up to a certain point and they are of importance under various circumstances.

Individuals with serious anger management need to explore further and grasp the factors which lead them to have anger. The author states that such people need to let their anger which is tied to suffering experienced in the past, either a long time ago or recently (Golden, 2018). He goes on to support his view that holding on to such anger for a long time makes an individual have a low threshold for experiencing a threat, and this comes with specific implications and consequences. Such people are always aware of threats that do not exist in the real sense while others are very fast in pointing out false judgments towards threats.

They cannot also find happiness in their lives; they experience depression due to having a hard time letting their anger out and also face problems in achieving their life goals. The author gives some solutions which are of importance to help such individuals to let go of their anger. Some of the solutions include having a sense of forgiving others, being self-compassionate, and mastering skills that help in letting the anger go. Additional solutions include opening up to the good things that happen in our daily lives and grieving and mourning, a method that helps people realize that we do not have the mandate to change the events that have happened in the past, but we have the ability to control our past events to make our current, and future lives are better (Golden, 2018).

 In the empirical article "Advances in anger management," the main issue discussed is that many psychologists come across different patients with anger management and they may or may not have a clear picture of how they can treat the issues. The article suggests that there are few psychology publications that deal with issues of anger management. Psychologists argue that, unlike other medical conditions, there are no categories for diagnosing anger. Psychologists point out that normal people undergo anger during certain durations in a week and such anger can either be problematic or normal.

The article points out that people with problematic anger experience reactions which are long-lasting, are very intense, and are also experienced more frequently. Such anger results in harmful vices such as abusing drugs, having verbal responses that are negative, and engaging more in physical aggression. In a nutshell, individuals with problematic anger always end up having bad relationships, their jobs are affected, and also experience poor health (Holloway, 2003). In the article, some psychologists are optimistic that a diagnostic category that is anger-related is of importance, but other experts differ with it.

Some psychologists believe that a diagnostic category is not necessary for that being angry can be a result of a different disorder. Other experts also point out that such a diagnostic category can be used unjustly, for example, in a court proceeding to defend someone for his or her behavior that is violent.  The article argues that there are three vital strategies that have vast research on managing anger. They include developing skills, cognitive therapy, and relaxing. When psychologists employ such methods on their patients after some sessions, they end up having the ability to relax without any help.

In the article, there are four stages that are given which can aid psychologists in addressing the issue of anger management. The first stage is changed preparation where psychologists should increase their patient's motivation and make them aware of their anger. The second stage is changed, and it includes teaching their patients how to relax (Holloway, 2003). The third step is when psychologists help their patients in accepting and adjusting their anger, and the last stage is maintaining change.

In the last stage, the psychologists always teach their patients how they can be able to prevent actions that might bring up anger from the past. In conclusion, the merit of both the pop psychology article and the empirical article is that both information helps in improving the lives of people with anger management issues.