David Boudreaux Defends Dissertation on New Measure of Attitudes Toward Anger Management

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David Boudreaux successfully defended his dissertation yesterday, Refinement of the Attitudes Toward Anger Management Scale. Using a sample of college student volunteers, he confirmed the factor structure of the scale developed for his master's thesis and obtained additional evidence in support of its reliability and validity.

It is hoped that this measure will ultimately provide clinicians will a tool for assessing client perceptions of anger management. Now that we know something about how the measure works with college students, the next phase of development will likely involve data collection in non-college and clinical samples.

David recently started his predoctoral internship at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, FL. He had very positive things to say about his experience so far and recommended this site to future students interested in VA internships.

Congratulations, David!

Paper on Attitudes Toward Anger Management Scale Published

The paper based on David Boudreaux's master's thesis, which was accepted for publication in May by Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, has been published. The citation is:

Boudreaux, D. J., Dahlen, E. R., Madson, M. B., & Bullock-Yowell, E. (2014). Attitudes Toward Anger Management Scale: Development and initial validation. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 47, 14-26. doi: 10.1177/0748175613497039

David plans to continue developing the Attitudes Toward Anger Management Scale for his dissertation, as additional work on the new measure is needed before it can be used in clinical and research settings. Additional information about the scale will be provided here as it becomes available.

Attitudes Toward Anger Management Scale Soon to be Published

Evidence-based treatments for clinically dysfunctional anger have been available for some time; however, they are often designed for highly motivated individuals who acknowledge having a problem with anger and a desire for assistance. While some individuals with anger problems are motivated, many others are ambivalent about seeking or actively participating in treatment. The importance of assessing treatment motivation is evident to clinicians who provide anger management services, and measures of treatment readiness are beginning to appear.

Attitudes toward anger management services are likely to influence one's willingness to seek professional help for dysfunctional anger and impact the nature of the working alliance. Assessing attitudes toward these services may help us identify obstacles to help seeking and better engage angry clients early in treatment.

A paper based on David Boudreaux's master's thesis describing the development of the Attitudes Toward Anger Management Scale (ATAMS), a new measure designed to assess attitudes toward seeking professional help with problem anger, was just accepted for publication in Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development. The paper describes the development and initial validation of the measure.

Additional work on the ATAMS is needed before the instrument can be recommended for use in clinical settings, but we are encouraged by the initial results and will soon begin collecting additional data.

The citation is below, and the paper is available in pre-release .pdf format by clicking on the title:

Boudreaux, D. J., Dahlen, E. R., Madson, M. B., Bullock-Yowell, E. (in press). Attitudes toward anger management scale: Development and initial validation. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development.

Help Seeking for Anger Problems

David Boudreaux, a first year doctoral student working in the lab, proposed his master's thesis today. David's thesis is titled Help Seeking for Anger Problems Among College Students.

Help Seeking for Anger Problems Among College Students

In spite of the importance of client motivation being widely recognized in the anger management literature, there have been surprisingly few studies examining motivation and readiness to change. Part of the problem is that we lack psychometrically sound instruments for assessing these constructs in the context of anger. David's thesis involves the development and initial validation of a new self-report scale designed to assess attitudes and intentions toward seeking anger management services.

Congratulations to Two New Lab Alumni

Michelle Augustin and Greg Futral both graduated with their doctorates in Counseling Psychology this month. They were valuable members of the lab, and their contributions will be missed even as we wish them the best moving ahead with their careers.

Michelle's dissertation, "A Psychometric Investigation of the Young Adult Social Behavior Scale (YASB)," was a confirmatory factor analysis and validation of a self-report measure of relational aggression suitable for college students. Greg's dissertation, "Increasing Readiness to Change Anger: A Motivational Group Intervention," involved a treatment study in which a brief motivational enhancement group was compared with a no-treatment control.