Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/59363

Title

Prisoners' personality: a factor analytically derived structure

Author(s)

Heskin, K. J.;  Bolton, N.;  Banister, P. A.;  Smith, F. V.

Abstract

This study analyzed personality data from the authors' cross-sectional study of long-term imprisonment in order to elicit a wider and less theoretically bound picture of personality function and change within prison. 175 long-term prisoners were administered the Eysenck Personality Inventory (Form B), the 16 PF (Form B), the Hostility-Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ), and the 58-item Femininity scale from the California Psychological Inventory. The data were analyzed using 2 programs described by M. B. Youngman (1971): FTAN, which performs a principal components analysis and then Kaiser's varimax rotation; and FASC, which uses the resultant factor matrix to assign factor scores to all Ss. Those variables that are a function of others (HDHQ Total Hostility, Extrapunitive Hostility, Intropunitive Hostility, and Direction of Hostility) were omitted from the analysis since their inclusion would have yielded spurious correlations and factors. Results show a factor structure that appears to be peculiar to prisoners. The top 3 of the 5 factors accounting for 57.86% of the total variance were Anxiety (21.48%), Extrapunitive Hostility (12.02%), and Extraversion (9.42%). It is suggested that factors that appear to be important in analyses of the general population are not necessarily important in prison populations.

Publication type

Journal article

Source

British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 16, no. 3 (Sep 1977), pp. 203-206

Publication year

1977

Keyword(s)

Factor analysis;  Incarceration;  Males prisoners;  Personality change;  Personality traits;  Prisoners

Publisher

British Psychological Society

ISSN

0007-1293

Copyright

Copyright © 1977.

Peer reviewed