Army male enlisted personnel were tested in two experiments to assess the psychological correlates of volunteering for a hazardous combat simulation, (Experiment 1) and a riskless, psychological experiment (Experiment 2). Subjects were given a biographical and personal habit questionnaire, the IPAT Anxiety Scale, Rotter's Locus of Control Scale, and Torrance and Ziller's life experience inventory. Results from Experiment 1 indicated that volunteers were significantly less anxious, and more willing to take risks than were nonvolunteers. Noncommissioned officers, smokers, laterborn children, and children of lower socioeconomic class parents were significantly overrepresented among the volunteers for this hazardous experiment. In Experiment 2, which solicited volunteers for a routine, nonhazardous experiment, the only variable to discriminate the volunteers from the nonvolunteers was mothers' education level. Results are in agreement with findings, using college students, that volunteer samples differ significantly from nonvolunteer samples, and that the characteristics that discriminate these two groups vary as a function of situational factors.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the personality characteristics, demographic, psychiatric, and criminal background, and current institutional adjustment of a sample of emotionally disturbed criminal offenders. Subjects were 43 emotionally disturbed and 43 nondisturbed military male inmates matched on age, confining offense, and length of sentence. Results indicated that the emotionally disturbed offenders committed more crimes against persons, fewer drug offenses, and were more likely to be divorced compared with the general population of inmates. Relative to control inmates, emotionally disturbed offenders achieved more highly elevated MMPI profiles, were rated as more disturbed behaviorally, evidenced a more extensive history of family and personal psychiatric difficulty, and demonstrated poorer adjustment to incarceration. Recommendations for future research in this area are discussed.
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