Personality and Symptoms of Psychological Ill Health Among Adult Male Offenders

Abstract

The current study investigated the relationship between personality and symptoms of psychological ill health in adult male offenders. Male offenders (N = 161) housed at two medium-high-risk institutions completed the Ten Item Personality Inventory and the Symptom Checklist Outpatient Rating Scale. Emotional stability emerged as the strongest individual predictor of psychological ill health and predicted each of the subscales measured (somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, anger-hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism) and overall symptoms. Although agreeableness predicted depression and anger-hostility only, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience did not predict any aspect of psychological ill health investigated. The findings contribute to the current literature and provide further information about the relationship between personality and symptoms of psychological ill health in adult male offenders.

Does Work Stress Change Personalities? Working in Prison as a Personality-Changing Factor Among Correctional Officers

“…Different studies have indicated a correlation between neuroticism (the personality dimension of emotional stability) and health-related quality of life (Buneviciute, Staniute, Brozaitiene, Girdler, & Bunevicius, 2013;McCann, 2014). Costa and McCrae (1990) found a strong correlation between the Neuroticism factor and indices of Borderline, Paranoid, Schizoid, and Schizotypal personality disorders, while Brewer (2011) found that the Neuroticism factor is the only one of the five personality factors that successfully predicted the entire scale for Psychopathology among offenders. Accordingly, McCann (2014) held that individuals with high scores of neuroticism are in an at-risk group for different psychopathologies and for psychological distress in general.…”

Voices From a Minority

“…To maintain the health of male nursing students, their physical, social, and psychological well-being should be considered. If they have low self-esteem or a negative self-image during their studies, they may experience mental distress and subsequently fall physically ill (Brewer, 2011;Janzen & Kelly, 2012). The aim of this study was to enhance the psychological well-being of male nursing students by giving voice to this minority group, so as to achieve the goal of holistic care for all.…”