Objective: Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is a disorder in children that is associated with symptoms of anger, Non-compliant behavior   and irritability. The making choice (MC) program was designed the social information processing (SIP) model to manage aggressive behaviors. This research investigated the effectiveness of this interventional model in mitigating anger and irritability in children with ODD. Method: This is a quasi-experiment study. It comprises 24 male children between the ages of nine to 12 years old. The participants were divided into cognitive behavioral intervention group (N=8) and MC intervention group (N=7) and a control and control groups(N=9). 12 sessions of MC intervention and 12 sessions of cognitive behavioral intervention were held weekly. The Stringaris’ irritability scale and Nelson's anger questionnaire were completed before and after treatment sessions. Results: The repeated measure ANCOVA was employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention. Accordingly, in both variables, the main impact of the time factor was significant (p<0.001). In addition, in the group effect, considering the value of F and the significance level of the score of irritability and anger, there was a significant difference between the two experimental and control groups (p<0.001). Furthermore, there was an interaction between the group and time (p<0.000). In the pre-test stage, there was no significant difference between the two groups concerning the variable of anger (p=0.49) and irritability (p=0.72). However, the post-test and follow-up revealed a difference between the experimental and control group in regarding to anger and irritability. The results suggested that the children in the intervention group demonstrated a considerable reduction in their anger and irritability than the children in the control group. It is recommended to study the SIP-based interventions to help reduce and treat other behavioral and emotional disorders in children.
Keyword: Making-Choices, social information processing, Anger and Irritability