Anger Management

Many occupational therapy techniques and theories addressing anger have been incluenced by general misconceptions about anger within the field of psychology and the general public. Until occupational therapists develop a unique perspective for defining anger and understanding how anger affects one's ability to function in one's occupational roles, they will continue to depend upon other professions to provide information on addressing anger problems. Part one of this two-part series on anger management formulates a construct of normal anger pertinent to occupational therapy practice and identifies complexities and misconceptions which have obscured the nature of anger. The second article presents basic concepts of anger management and mismanagement, provides clinical applications of these concepts, and delineates how anger affects human occupation. To accomplish this purpose, the Model of Human Occupation was used as a framework for integrating information on anger from the social sciences into a perspective of anger useful for the occupational therapist.