NCJ Number
66930
Date Published
1978
Length
46 pages
Annotation
A STUDY IS PROPOSED WHICH WOULD DEMONSTRATE RELIABLE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THREE CLASSES OF VARIABLES TO EXTEN THE CORRECTIONAL UTILITY OF THE TYPOLOGY BASED ON MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY (MMPI).
Abstract
THE STUDY PROPOSES TO GENERATE DIFFERENTIAL DESCRITPIONS OF THE SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT OF PSYCHOMETRICALLY DEFINED GROUPS OF INMATES AND EXAMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEMBERSHIP IN THESE GROUPS AND SUBSEQUENT INSTITUTIONAL ADJUSTMENT. PRECEDENT CRIMINAL TYPOLOGIES INCLUDE TWO: WARREN'S, WHICH CLASSIFIED JUVENILE DELINQUENTS ACCORDING TO MATURITY LEVEL; AND QUAY'S, WHICH WAS BASED ON BEHAVIORAL AND BACKGROUND DATA YIELDING THREE DIMENSIONS OF CLASSIFICATION--NEUROTICISM, PSYCHOPAHTY, AND SOCIALIZED SUBCULTURAL DELINQUENCY. THE FOCUS OF THIS STUDY IS ON A THIRD TYPOLOGY, THE MMPI-BASED TYPOLOGY, SORTING CODE-TYPE PROFILES INTO GROUPS WITH MAXIMUM INTRAGROUP AND MINIMUM INTERGROUP SIMILARITY. THE MMPI WOULD BE USED TO ISOLATE 3 GROUPS OF 12 PROFILES, TAKEN FROM THE RECORDS OF THE APPROXIMATELY 500 MALE INMATES AT A TEXAS MIMINAL SECURITY INSTITUTION. THE THREE GROUPS REPRESENT QUAY'S BASIC DIMENSIONS OF PERSONALITY, THE NEUROTIC, THE PSYCHOPATHIC, AND THE SUBCULTURAL. DEPENDENT VARIABLES WOULD BE OBTAINED FROM COLLATERAL MEASURES COLLECTED FROM FIVE ADDITIONAL SOURCES: INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW SCHEDULE, BUREAU OF PRISON FORMS, INTERPERSONAL ADJUSTMENT RATING FORMS AND INCIDENT REPORTS, KOHLBERG'S MORAL DILEMMAS, AND THE BEHAVIOR PREDICTION SCALE. THE STUDY HYPOTHESIZES THAT THE THREE GROUPS WILL BE STATISTICALLY DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER ON THE BASIS OF AN OPTIMALLY WEIGHTED COMBINATION OF THE DEPENDENT VARIABLES, AND THAT INDIVIDUAL GROUP MEANS WILL SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFER FROM THE CORRESPONDING POPULATION PARAMETERS ON SUCH VARIABLES AS THE AGE AT FIRST ARREST, GRADE COMPLETED IN SCHOOL, TOTAL NUMBER OF COMMITMENTS, AND OTHERS. IN ADDITION, THAT THE GROUPS WILL VARY IN THE DEGREE TO WHICH THEY HAVE ADOPTED CONVENTIONAL CODES OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR, WITH THE PSYCHOPATH BEING EGOCENTRIC, MANIPULATIVE, AND SELF CENTERED; REGARD FOR THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS, THE SUBCULTURAL BEING RECURRENTLY IN CONFLICT WITH CONVENTIONAL CODES WHILE SUBSCRIBING TO SUBCULTURAL ONES; AND THE NEUROTIC, HAVING INFREQUENT AGGRESSIVE OUTBURSTS FOLLOWED BY REMORSE AND GUILT. THE LAST TWO GROUPS WOULD HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER LEVELS OF MORAL IMMATURITY THAN THE FIRST GROUP. TABULAR DATA AND REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED.