Intelligent Anger is an educational board game designed to teach young people specific skills that will help them look objectively at anger-provoking situations and react in a thoughtful, assertive, and respectful way.

It is not the anger that gets kids in trouble, but rather the actions they take when they are angry, that determine whether they can solve the problem or make things worse. In addition, many people misread situations and become angry when it is inappropriate. Intelligent Anger is based on the Social Information Processing Model of anger and aggression. This model holds that many young people are prone to aggressive behavior because they lack good cognitive skills for dealing with anger provoking situations.

Specifically, children with anger control problems tend to have problems in the following areas:

Perception and Focus: They attend more to hostile cues than others, and they interpret ambiguous actions as hostile.

Goal Selection: They focus on hostile goals, such as getting even, and ignore goals such as resolving problems in peaceful ways.

Generating Alternatives: They have limited response repertoires and make decisions without careful thought and making decisions

Implementation: They often do not have the skills to resolve problems effectively, such as the ability to disagree in an assertive, but not aggressive way.

The game helps players focus on the cognitive skills they need to overcome the above shortcomings. They learn skills that will help them think and make good decisions at each of the above stages.

Players will learn:

• to be more objective & to look for the good as well as the hostile
• to consider goals that solve problems rather than to react with hostility
• to make better decisions
• to take action that benefits themselves rather than action designed to harm others or get even.

In the game, players advise Jeremy, a fictitious student, how to deal with a series of potentially anger-provoking situations. Players advise Jeremy on how to view the situations objectively, set goals, make good decisions, and take assertive action that is respectful to others. Players receive play money and advance their horses on the race track on the game board for giving good advice. Players enjoy tackling the challenges that Jeremy faces as well as winning trophies in the races. Players are not permitted to bet on the horses.

A Teacher's Guide with complete lesson plans is included.

Opened games are NOT returnable.