Master of Arts (Counselling & Guidance)

This study examines the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)-Relaxation as an intervention strategy for students with a predisposition towards anger. The literature reveals that anger treatment using CBT is a common approach, with moderate treatment efficacy. Based on fifty studies involving over a thousand subjects, it was found that CBT produced a grand mean weighted effect size of 0.70. suggesting that the average CBT recipient fared better than 76% of untreated subjects in terms of anger reduction. However, the use of CBT in the context of schools in Singapore has been sparsely explored. This study, carried out with first year students in a secondary school, aims to close this gap.

Sixty secondary one students who scored in the upper quartile on the Trait Anger Scale (STAXI-2; Spielberger, 1998) were identified to participate in this programme. These pupils were randomly assigned to either the Experimental group or the Control group. The students in the Experimental group participated in eight weekly one-hour intervention sessions. The Experimental group received intervention that focused on relaxation techniques, self-talk and problem solving skills, while the Control group did not receive any treatment.

The findings, which were collected immediately after the intervention showed that adolescents who participated in CBT-Relaxation demonstrated lower level of Trait Anger, that CBT-Relaxation was effective in helping the students reduce their anger expression, and that Trait Anger correlated negatively with general Anger Expression.