Dealing with Offending Behaviour (AQA A Level Psychology): Exam Questions

Peter is talking about his offending.

Peter says, “I don’t know why it happens. Sometimes when I hear people telling stupid jokes in a bar, I just get cross and punch them. I get into a rage and feel my pulse racing. If only I had another way of dealing with it. I just need to get used to controlling myself.”

Explain how an anger management therapist could help Peter.

A psychologist used a set of negative images to assess angry attitudes before and after participants took part in a 30-minute anger management session.

In a repeated measures design, 15 participants were tested before and after the session using a single set of images.

Explain how two sets of images could be used in this study and why this would be an improvement

Each participant had a different total score in the before condition, where the maximum score was 40 and the median score was 23.

How many of the participants had a score < the median in the before condition? Explain your answer.

Oli is in prison for violent and aggressive behaviour. He becomes angry very quickly and gets frustrated easily. He often feels threatened when he is near other people.

Explain how an anger management therapist might help Oli using anger management

Prison staff compared two methods of managing anger in offenders. One group of offenders took part in cognitive therapy. Another group of offenders took part in discussion therapy.

After one month following the training, levels of anger for each individual were rated by prison staff on a scale of 0 – 100.

The results are given in Table 5 below: Table 5: Ratings of anger in offenders given either systematic CBT anger management training or general advice

Complete Table 5 by calculating the median for the two groups. Show your working. Why did the psychologist use the median as a measure of central tendency rather than the mean?