Question

Practicing Think back on a time when you were angry, or a child you work with was angry. Try to identify how the situation progressed through each of the steps in the cycle of anger. How was the situation resolved? Now, using the same situation or a different one, use the cycle of communication to help anger come to a positive resolution. If doing this with children, they should be at least 4 years old and able to communicate their feelings and thoughts. You will of course have to prompt them through the communication cycle. Finally, write about these experiences. How did these two tools help you?

Answer 1

We need to help the child who was angry - An example experience is Child who gets angry at Sibling for knocking over a block tower.

1. We need to influence the situation selection by making sure the child is n’t tired or hungry and therefore more prone to responding angrily.

2. Situation modification could include Anticipating the mishap and instructing the child to move the block tower to a place where it is likely to get knocked over.

3. Attention Deployment might mean suggesting a snack or going outside to distract the child from the rumbled tower.

4. Cognitive change might involve explaining to the child that the sibling knocked it over by accident or that the tower can be easily rebuilt in an better way.

5. Response Modulation could involve helping the child to rebuilt the tower or encouraging the child to use her words to ask the sibling to move over or to help pick up blocks.

With in this frame work , the first four steps constitute antecedent- focused emotion regulation, because they target process involved in the generation of emotion.

The final step is response - focused regulation because it involves adjusting what people do to cope with an emotion that has already fully emerged.