Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism in Relation to the Adjustment of Criminals (From Readings in Social Defense, P 210-223, 1981, Navin C Joshi and Ved B Bhatia, ed. - See NCJ-90685)

• NCJ Number: 90697
• Author(s): V Mohan
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: A H Wheeler and Co. Pty Ltd
• Language: English
• Country: India

Annotation

This study examined the relationship between adjustment (as measured in the areas of family, health, occupation, social interactions, and emotional development) and personality (as measured by psychoticism, extroversion, and neuroticism) and criminal behavior, using a sample of 160 male inmates in India.

Abstract

The testing instruments used were PEN (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1970), to measure extroversion (E/I), neuroticism (N), and psychoticism (P), and Bell's Adjustment Inventory (1937), to determine home, health, occupational, social, and emotional adjustment. Criminal tendencies were analyzed in terms of failure in socialization and Reckless' containment theory of crime, which maintains that criminal behavior emerges as a result of the failure of social institutions to exert proper behavioral conditioning and the failure of the individual to develop internal behavioral controls. Testing results showed that on home, health, occupational, social, emotional, and total adjustments, the inmates scored significantly less than a comparative normal sample. The inmates scored very high on P, and in comparion to normals showed negative correlation with home adjustment. On E/I the differences between the normals and the inmates were not significant, although Eysenck theorized that offenders would be more extroverted. The inmates scored higher on N, and N correlated negatively with all adjustments while correlating positively with P. The inmates also had a marked tendency to lie in the testing. Tabular data are provided. (Author summary modified)