An integrative approach to threat assessment and management: security and mental health response to a threatening client

Workplace violence threat assessment and management practices represent an interdisciplinary approach to the diversion of potentially dangerous employees and clients. This case study illustrates such an intervention in a complex situation involving a social service agency and its client. Following a curtailment of services and an arrest, the client developed an escalating homicidal anger toward the agency administrator. Once a Tarasoff warning was received, the agency contacted a security company who organized a threat assessment and management plan involving interdisciplinary collaboration. Information developed in the course of the assessment was presented to prosecutors, who facilitated the client's arrest and involuntary psychiatric commitment until he was judged to be no longer dangerous. This case ultimately involved an integration of the services of security, law enforcement, mental health professionals, prosecutors, the courts and the state mental health system in leading to a successful diversion of the client from a path of intended violence.     

Unshared Loss and Marital Conflict*

The authors have noted in marital therapy a pattern wherein a variety of losses are not mourned and are not shared between partners; instead one spouse uses the other for externalization of internal conflict regarding the losses. Loss is neither acknowledged nor mourned, but tends to be experienced as disenchantment with and anger at the spouse. Therapy should entail the sorting out of projections so that the person can resume the ownership of his or her problems. The conjoint format is helpful for dealing adequately with projective distortions; more importantly, it can facilitate mourning and the sharing of losses.     

Education and the activation, course, and management of anger

Using data from the 1996 General Social Survey, I examine education's association with the activation, course, and management of anger. I argue that education--as a source of stratification (status) and as a personal resource (human capital)--organizes the conditions that influence anger-related processes. In analyses of anger activation, education is associated with lower odds of family-related anger. The well educated have fewer children and more income--factors associated with a lower risk of family anger. Conversely, education is associated with higher odds of work-related anger, but income and personal control account for that association. In analyses of the course of anger, I document a nonlinear association between education and anger duration. Adjustment for the sense of control--which is negatively associated with anger duration--sharpens that parabolic association. Education is positively associated with perceived appropriateness of anger and negatively associated with the display of anger. In both cases, adjustment for control accounts for education's effect. The sense of control also suppresses education's significant positive effect on anger processing. In analyses of anger management, education increases the odds of cognitive flexibility and problem solving, but its effect on communication depends on the sense of control. In sum, education organizes personal and social circumstances that influence anger-related processes.     

Do infants express discrete emotions? Adult judgments of facial,vocal, and body actions

Adult judges were presented with videotape segments showing an infant displaying facial configurations hypothesized to express discomfort/pain, anger, or sadness according to differential emotions theory (Izard, Dougherty, & Hembree, 1983). The segments also included the infant's nonfacial behavior and aspects of the situational context. Judges rated the segments using a set of emotion terms or a set of activity terms. Results showed that judges perceived the discomfort/pain and anger segments as involving one or more negative emotions not predicted by differential emotions theory. The sadness segments were perceived as involving relatively little emotion overall. Body activity accompanying the discomfort/pain and anger configurations was judged to be more jerky and active than body activity accompanying the sadness configurations. The sadness segments were accompanied by relatively little body movement overall. The results thus fail to conform to the predictions of differential emotions theory but provide information that may contribute to the development of a theory of infant expressive behavior.This article is based on the second author's master's thesis. The authors thank Dennis Ross for his expert assistance in the data analyses.     

Exploring the Moderating Influence of Delinquent Peers on the Link Between Trauma, Anger, and Violence Among Male Youth: Implications for Social Work Practice

This study’s objective was to explore the influence of delinquent peer exposure, on the relationship between male youths’ histories of trauma, anger, and violent behavior. Using a nationally representative sample of male adolescents aged 12–17 and self report interviews, information was gathered on their levels of exposure to violence, stressful life events (SLE), anger, depression, delinquent peer exposure, and violent behavior. Results of a moderation analyses revealed that youth who reported higher levels of exposure to trauma, anger, and delinquent peers were at an increased risk for anger and for violent offending. Delinquent peer exposure exerted a significant interaction effect on the relationship between anger and violent offending. The implications for prevention and intervention efforts are delineated.     

Training for Abusive Caregivers:

This article proposes a model for elder abuse intervention based on a recently implemented caregiver training program. Caregivers at-risk for abuse were offered traiing through mental health centers on biopsychocosil issues in aging, problem-solving, stress and anger management, and utilization of community resources. Participants were compared with similar caregivers on measures of psychosocial well-being to examine the efficacy of training. Participants experienced some reduction in symptoms of psychological distress and caregiving burden over time while symptoms worsened or remained unchanged for non-participants. Suggestions are made for utilizing this approach in cases of founded abuse.     

Anger—Has It a Positive as Well as Negative Value? (Recent Research into Causes,Associated Features,Diagnosis and Treatment, 1998–2003)

Abstract

Contrary to popular belief, anger has both positive and negative aspects, and hence, there is a value to anger. Properly directed anger can lead to positive action and produce feelings of being in control of situations perceived to be threatening. On the other hand, there are a large number of negative repercussions with the feeling and expression of anger, i.e., negative physiological reactions such as increased blood pressure and heart rate. Anger appears to be age and gender related and is likely precipitated by a particular situation. There are a number of diagnostic out treatment approaches to anger management that are discussed here with reference to their usefulness with adult and child and adolescent populations. Programs that are used early and long enough appear to promise good results in preventing further expressions of anger or internalised anger.     

Racialising emotional labour and emotionalising racialised labour: Anger,fear and shame in social welfare

This paper brings together the empirical work of Yasmin Gunaratnam with hospice social workers and that of Gail Lewis with local authority social workers. It uses a conceptually expanded notion of 'emotional labour' to explore and theorise links between different forms of emotion management and racialised subject positions and practices in social care for both those categorised as 'ethnic minorities' and as 'white'. The analytic framework draws upon the political scholarship of Audre Lorde and Thandeka and the psychoanalytic work of Melanie Klein to explore talk about the production of anger, fear and shame. A common focus in the writing of these different authors is the self/other relation and the attention given to personal, interpersonal, inter-group and intra-group dynamics. The paper argues that the irrational and unconscious aspects of racial dynamics cannot simply be countered by appeals to the rational. There is a need to recognise and integrate rather than 'split' positive and negative emotions about the self and 'others'. Such integration is seen as a source of internal strength and psychic health making for the possibility of caring and constructive relationships in social care organisations through which the complexities of difference can be recognised and valued.     

Effects of trauma exposure on anger, aggression, and violence in a nonclinical sample of men

This study assessed the impact of traumatic exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms on anger, aggression, and violence among civilian male college students. Results suggest that civilian men who have been exposed to a potentially traumatic event (PTE) and report symptoms of PTSD indicate more trait anger, more internal anger and hostility, and more aggression and violence than men who do not report symptoms of PTSD. Results are contrasted to those found in clinical samples of male veterans with PTSD and discussed in terms of understanding and treating anger and aggression in non-clinical, trauma-exposed populations.     

A Computer-Integrated Approach to Program Evaluation

Abstract

Outcome evaluation of group work intervention in residential agencies. Development of a management/clinical information system and related computer applications.

Program evaluation as discussed in this article describes a service delivery-focused approach to program evaluation which is actually designed and implemented in a residential treatment agency for delinquent youth, the evaluation approach represents a practical strategy which applies much of the current thinking and research in the area of user focused evaluation. The approach has been refined by incorporating the product of the authors' experiential learning and pragmatic adaptations which evolved out of field testing the model over several years.

The authors present the overall approach to evaluation and the development of the evaluation model within an agency context. The author's then describe the development of a computer-based system which is designed to serve as both a management information system and a clinical information system. Basic aspects of the computer-based evaluation system are presented. Throughout the article, the authors discuss process-related issues pertaining to the introduction of evaluation to both management and staff and movement toward the implementation of an automated evaluation system.     

Yoga,quality of life,anxiety, and trauma in low-income adults with mental illness: A mixed-methods study

We used a mixed-methods convergent parallel design to explore the effect of yoga on quality of life, trauma, and anxiety in low-income adults with mental illness. Participants included a convenience sample (N = 18) of parents at a community mental health agency who participated in a six-week yoga intervention. Participants completed standardized measures of quality of life, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) pre- and post-intervention. Focus groups were conducted to further explore barriers to and the effects of participation in the yoga intervention. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests indicated a statistically significant decrease in anxiety and PTSD after the yoga intervention, but no significant changes in quality of life or trait anxiety. Qualitative results reveal five themes related to participation in yoga classes, including barriers to participation and ways to improve the class. Qualitative results corroborate quantitative findings, suggesting improved relaxation and anger management for participants who strongly endorsed the benefits they experienced.     

Ärgerberatung in Organisationen — systemische und strukturationstheoretische Implikationen

This essay presents, based on theoretical-structural perspectives and on the usage of a systemic approach, practical methods and implications for consultants dealing with anger in organisations. The goal of this essay is to make theoretical debates useful for the concrete consultancy practice. The topic of the first step deals with the following central question: Why do consultants need a theory anyway?! The heart of this essay deals with the chances and limits of a conflict resolution training based on the systemic approach using the structural theory as a baseline. Finally, the author presents a diagnostic and intervention method which shall enable new perspectives on anger episodes.     

Clinical assessment of maladjusted preschool children

The authors stress that total assessment prior to intervention is crucial, including standardized testing, observations of behavior, developmental history, and play interview. Techniques presented provide a holistic approach for evaluating the referred preschool child.     

Posthypnotic suggestion: A method for the study of nonverbal communication

A method for studying emotional expression using posthypnotic suggestion to induce emotional states is presented. Subjects were videotaped while roleplaying happiness, sadness or anger or after hypnotic induction of one of these three emotions. Judges then rated these videotapes for emotional tone. Results indicated a main effect for emotion expressed, with happiness and sadness more easily identified by judges than anger. Accuracy was also greater for happiness and sadness in the hypnotically induced condition. However, role-played anger was more easily identified than hypnotically induced anger. An interaction of channel (body/face) and emotion indicated that identification of sadness and anger was easier for judges when the body alone was shown. Findings are discussed in terms of display rules for the expression of emotion.We gratefully acknowledge Irving Kirsch, Ross Buck, and Paul Ekman for their helpful comments on a draft of this article. Special thanks to Reuben Baron, without whose support neither this article nor our careers in psychology would have been possible.A preliminary report of this study was presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, August 1984.     

The understanding of internal control principles by pastors

Although the concept of internal control is as relevant to churches as it is to profit‐seeking organizations, many authors have indicated that churches typically have weak systems of internal control. Pastors usually serve in the position of chief professional officer of their churches, and the implementation and maintenance of an adequate system of internal control is ultimately the responsibility of management. This study is a preliminary effort to determine whether pastors understand general principles of internal control and are able to recognize strengths and weaknesses in systems of internal control. The results show that pastors have a reasonable ability to recognize strengths and weaknesses in internal control systems in churches.     

Marital Intimacy and the Deadly Love-Anger Cycle

The view is advanced that the fundamental cause of marital failure in our time is the inability to resolve the anger which is inevitably generated in an intimate relationship. The nature of anger, its impact on a love relationship, and its constructive management in marriage are examined. The concept of training couples in "marital fighting" is rejected in favor of a three-step procedure which the author has tested out in his own marriage, and taught to other couples, with very satisfactory results.     

Controlling Anger and Happiness at Work: An Examination of Gender Differences

This article examines gender differences in the emotion management of men and women in the workplace. The belief in American culture that women are more emotional than men has limited women's opportunities in many types of work. Because emotional expression is often tightly controlled in the workplace, examining emotion management performed at work presents an opportunity to evaluate gender differences in response to similar working conditions. Previous research suggests that men and women do not differ in their experiences of emotion and the expression of emotion is linked to status positions. An analysis of survey data collected from workers in a diverse group of occupations illustrates that women express anger less and happiness more than men in the workplace. Job and status characteristics explain the association between gender and anger management at work but were unrelated to the management of happiness expressions in the workplace.