ARE PEOPLE IN PRISONS OFFENDERS OR PATIENTS?

:
THE EYSENCK THREE·FACTOR PERSONALITY
TRAIT EXPLANATION
S. E. IDEMUDIA
Department of Psychology
University of Ihadan. Ihadan

Abstract
This study examined the question of whether people locked up
in prisons are otTenders of patients against the backllfOUllCl of
Eysenck three-factor personality trait theory. ThIs was
predicated on the assumption that prisoners when compared
with nOPlDal control group will be ditTerent on pello...llty
measures and psycho·pathology; and also, that prisoners with
high PEN. will suffer more psychological disturbances than
prisoners with LOW PEN. Instruments used were the £ysenck
Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), with three dimensions:
psychoticism (P); Extroversion· Introversion (£); and
Neuroticism (N), Awaritefe Psychological Index (API), _and
Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire now known as Crown and
Crisp Expenental Index (CCEI). One hundred and fifty
prisoners, randomly selected from four prisons and another one
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hundred and fifty non· prisoners from the general populatibn

were inv6lved in this study. Mean age for the prisoner group
was 27.8 while mean age for the control group was 22.S. Results
obtained show that prisoners were significantly different from
non'prisoners on all personality dimensions and
psychopathological measures and that prisoners with high PEN
scores were more psychologically disturbed than prisoners with
low PEN scores, (F(l42) = 14076, P< .001). The result was able
to justify and support Eysenck's theory that criminals are born
and not made and therefore should be regarded more of
patients than otTenders, therefore a treatment approach should
be practised as against the current practise of punishment in
many societies particularly in Nigeria.

162
 Introduction, Background and Rationale:
Eysenck's theory of personality and criminality is a general learning and
personality thenry. Eysenck and Eysenck (1969), have devoted a great deal of
time to using the theory to explain deviant behaviour, in particular, the
explanation of certain types of mental illness and some types of criminality, and
," it were Eysenck's thenry is a biologically-based themy of criminal hehaviour,
ilence the criminal hears the 'mark of Cain' and therefore. cannot help his
propensities.
According to Eysenck. (1970a). a psychological thenry explaining criminal
')f anti-social behaviour and pers(lnality was indicated vaguely III tile effect that,

propensity to crime is universal, hut is held in check in most cases hy what

Eysenck calls conscience; this conscience was essentially a generalised set nf
conditinned responses built up during childhood and adoiescence, according to
the rules of Pavlovian conditioning; this conscience might he expected tn he
underdeveloped either through failure of social and family conditions to provide
the proper means of developing it, or through innate weakness in the person
concerned of the mechanism involved in the elahoration of wnditioned re.sponses;
.it was further postulated that extroverted peopie tended, under certain stated
conditions, condition less well than introverted ones, thus, making them celeri.1
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paribus more likely to he have in an anti-social fashion, and that, high degrees of
anxiety or neuroticism tended to act as a drive strongly reinforcing anti-social
conduct. From this chain of argument. it was deauced that anti-social conduct,
particularly crime, would he t(',und more tre4uently in people whose personality
placed them in the high ext[(lversion(E) and high neuroticism(N). A numher of
empirical studies were quoted to support his theory.
In Eysenck's general system of personality description, the factors of
extroversion and introversion are supplemented hy another factor. orthogonal to
the oliher two, and also of general applicahility to normal samples, that is, that
of psycho[icism(P), (Eysenck, 1952a, 1970h). This concept has some similarity
to the view that henign psychoses may arise from unspecitic vulnerahility,
(Stromgen, 1951\, Eysenck 1970c). According to Eysenck (1970), a person who
scores high (ID[he P factor and is not psychiatrically ill, will have the following
characteristics: Solitary: not caring for other people; Trouhlesome: not-fitting in;
CrueL inhuman; Hostile to others: aggression; Liking for odd, unusual things;
Disregard ~or danger: foolhardy; Making fools of other people: upsetting them;

163
 Idemudia S. E.: Are People in Prisons Offenders or Patient'?

Lack of feeling: insensitive; Lacking in empathy; Sensation seeking; avid for

strong sensory stimuli.
Accordingto Eysenck (1970), there are two reasons Ill[ believing that P may
in addition to E and N, he implicated in the traits enumerated ahove rather
closely than those often exhihited by criminals. It is not suggested that all
criminals are characterised as such but merely that a certain proportion of what
are ofien considered the most difiicult, inveterate and incurahle criminals seem
to match in their personality characteristics in the above description. Another
strong reason he gave and which in many ways more convincing, lies in the ofien
repeated psychiatric ohservation that psychoses (particularly schizophrenia) and
criminality have a particular close connection or that psychoses share certain
important features with criminality, implying of course that all (or even a large
proportion) of criminals are intact psychotic although not in the strict psychiatric
sense, he then proposed in his hypothesis that the scores on a questionnaire,
measure of psychoticism would he raised in a sample of criminals as compared
with a sample of normals, matched with them on sex and age. Thus criminals,
would theoretically emerge as a high E, high N and high P.
According to Eysenck (1970), the typical extrovert is sociable, like parties,
has many fi:iends, needs to have people talk to, and does not like reading or
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studying by himself. He craves excitement, takes chances, acts on the spur of the
moment, and is generally an impulsive individual. He is fond of practical jokes,
always has a ready answer and generally likes change; he is care-free, easy
going, optimistic, and likes to laugh and he merry. He prefers to keep moving
and doing things, tend to be aggreessive and loses his temper quickly; his
tee lings are not kept under tight control and he is always a reliable person. While
the typical introvert is a quite retiring sort of person, introspective, fond of books
rather than people; he is reserved and reticent except with intimate triends. He
tends to plan ahead, look hefore he leaps and distrusts the impulse of the
moment. He does not like excitement, takes matters of everyday life with proper
seriousness, and likes a well-ordered mode of life. He keeps his feelings under
close control. seldom behaves in an aggressive manner, and does not lose his
temper easily. He is reliable, somewhat pessimistic. alldp.1aces gn:at value on
ethical standards. The term neuroticism, or emotionality reters to the stability-
instability dimension of personality. The typical high N scorer is given to
worrying and moodiness. He is generally anxious, although he maY suffer from
depressive episodes. He sleeps badly and tend to suffer from psychosomatic

164
 complaints. He has an excessive emotional reaction to stimuli and has difficulty
regaining his equilibrium after an emotionally arousing stimuli.
Eysenck (1970a) concluded that in the three major personality description
created by the three major dimension of p. E and N. psychopaths and criminals
would be expected to lie along a sausage - shaped area in the high p. high E and
high N area. Those who are situated near the P axis would be likely to be
diagnosed as primary psychopaths, while those on the plane marked out by E and
N hut more remote from P, would be likely diagnosed as secondary psychopath.
Those in between or nearer to the nrigin (with less elevated scores on these three
dimensions) would present considerable dimculties of diagnoses. and create the
well known problem of unreliability of psychiatric classification. Applying this
theory to criminality, Eysenck (1976) concluded that persons with strong anti-
social inclinations will have high P, high E and high N scores.

Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders in Penal Populations

Over the years various eft()rts have been made to estimate the prevalence of
mental disorder in criminal and penal populations. Since much "criminal
behaviour" is somewhat arbitrarily defined and there is serious disagreement as
to the existence and definition of mental disorder, it is hard Iy surprising that we
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find difficulties in trying to establish connection between these two somewhat ill
defined and complex forms of behaviour. However. Prins (1980) provided a
useful tabulation of studies that have been undertaken from the last fifty to SIxty
years. The review has been classifIed according to the nature of disorder and
size of samples.

Nalure Df disorder % Size of popUlation "Aulhl!r(~) 01 ~ludy "nd dale

Psychosis (schizophrenia. 0.6 1.3MO Thomp~oll \ I Y37)

affective disorders

26 lOO OIlman & hied man fI Y41)

1.5 10.000 Bn)mberg & Th(lll\P~"ll (I Y471

15 66 (homkidc.<i) GilJic~ ( 14hSI

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 ldemudia S. E.: Are People in PriSOTLl" Offenders or Patients?

12 SO (homicides) Tupin Mahar & Smith (1973)

10 100 Wesl (1963)

0.5 14Y (approved school boys) Sum (1964)

2 300 81uglass (1966)

10 289 Guze (1976)

3 75 Faulk (1976)

Mental Sub-normality 28 6()8 Gluck (l 91 H-)

2.6 1,380 Thompson (1937)

16 100 Oltman & friedman (1941}

2.4 91 Woodis (1964)

14 300 Blugla!>!> (1966)

6 not given Gibbens (1966)

Psychopathy (sociopathy) 19 609 Glueck (1918)

5.6 1.380 Thompson (1937)

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14 100 Ohman &. Frit:dman (1941)

-
69

27

13
10.000

149 (appwvt'-d schoolboys)

66 (homicides)

300
Bromberg & Thompson (I Y47)

S(;oll (1964)

Gil/iest (1964)

Bluglas!> (1966)

70 289 Ouze (1976)

·~rsoRility diaordcc

Psycho-neurosis 3.0 100 Oltman & Friedman (1941)

(Neurosis) 6.9 10.0(J0 Bromberg &·lllOmpson (1947)

7.9 304 (boys in detention Banks (1964)

centre)

2.0 300 Bluglass' (1966)

i66
 Ife PSychologIA

r
Alooholism/excessJbeavyJ SI 500 (traffic offenders) Selling (11J40)
drinking

50 not given Banay (1942)

XO nol given Cramer & RI<lcker (lY63)

SS 66 (homicides) Gillies (1965)

56 50 (discharged male Maule & Coover (IY66)

otlenders)

II 300 Bluglass (1966)

40 404 Gibhens & Silberman (l970)

37 '0 GUlllI (197S}

On studies on Africa, Lambo (1960a) identitled 'malignant anxiety as a

syndrome associated with criminal conduct in Africans. According to him,
maJign~t anxiety is a syndrome characterized by a protracted mental reaction to
situational factors. Malignant anxiety was detined as 'progressive and crippling
disorders (usually in the inter personal sphere) but without the measurable or
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demonstrable deterioration or disintegration of the personality. In a series of 98

capital cases of malignant anxiety seen in Kenya, Eastern Nigeria, and the
Congo within 6 years, 51 (52 percent) were certitied same even though their
psychological data and personal histories showed strong evidence of emotional
instability and abnormal impulses, outburst~ of temper and irascibility.
Odej ide (1981) carried out a research on 53 mentally ill criminals at Lantoro
institUtion (an annex of Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Abeokuta), using the
pSYChopathological Symptom pmfile schedule, tilund that Schizophrenics s~ored
mi.lS!iy in the area of delusions and disturbances of clearly definable forms of
maj{)r mental disorders, which were schizophrenia, epilepsy, and organic
psychosis. Faulk (1976) in his tabulation of eight report~ regarding mental
·inness in prison population, diagnoses of psychoses vary from 1.9 to 12 percent,
fll)Urosis from 2.2 to 60 percent, 'psychotic personality', from 8 to 66 percent;
alcoholic' from 17 to 55 percent, and the •subnormal' , from 6 to 45 percent.
1'/': acknowledged that the,' high incidence of serious psychological disorders as
represented in personality difticulties or mental illness was higher than most other

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 Idemudia S. E.: Are People in Prisons Offenders or Patients?

surveys of prison population in the United Kingdom. Akinnawo (1993) in a

survey of 136 inmates in Ado Ekiti prison south west of Nigeria and using
Awaritefe Psychological Index (API) and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI)
found prevalence of symptom range. from 20.86 percent (for depression) to
35.29 for general mood disorder. For general psychopathology and general
somatic disorder, the prevalence was 30.15 percent and 27.21 percent
respectively.
Guy, Platt, Weling and Bullock (1985) in their study of British prisoners.
with the exception of perceptual dysfunction indicating the presence of at least
one symptom of hehaviour disorder. The largest proportion (25 percent) of the
samples were diagnosed in terms of substance abuse (alcohol dependence)
Schizophrenia and substance abuse (drug dependence) followed each with 11.5
percent of the s'lme group. Personality disorder accounted for 9.0 percent of the
group, the remaining categories accounted for 5 percent or less. On the basis of
psychiatric mental health status interview, 69 percent of the inmates were
recommended for treatment only 15.9 percent failed to he identified by at least
one indicator. At the other extreme, 34 percent of inmates were identified by all
three indicators of psychiatric disturhance.
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Prevalence or Criminality in Psychiatric Population

To offer conclusive evidence of association or lack of it hetween criminality
and mental illness in penal and similar popUlations, there is need to review
studies on the prevalence of criminality in psychiatric hospitals. Unt(,rtunately,
very little work has heen done on this, largely, as Gunn (1977a) points ntlt
hecause of the ethical difficulties involved in investigating the criminal
hackgrounds (If any) of hospitalized psychiatric patients. However, Walker
(1968) has estimated on the hasis of various epidemiological studies that ahout
12 in every 1,000 of the population will suffer from some kind of identitiahle
psychiatric disorder. Gunn (1977a) on the hasis of calculations made hy
McClintock and Avison (1968) suggests that approximately I in 3 of the male
population and I in 12 of the female population would he convicted of a
'standard list' (fairly serious ottence in their lite time. In the Iight of these
comhination "f figures it would he surprising (as Gunn suggests) if psychiatric
hospitals did not contain an appreciahle numoer of persons with criminal records.
Guze (1976) examined a population of som~ 500 pati~nts attending a
psychiatric clinic in the Unit~d States. He tlJund that 4 percent had a history ot

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 Ife P.,)'chologIA

the commissIOn of serious offence Guze (1976) also quotes another American
study hy Brill and Malzherg (undated report) in which the arrest of records of
5,354 male ex-patients from New York States Mental Hospitals were examined
hom the periods 1946-1948. The authors concluded that 'patients with no
records of nime, or arrest have a strikingly low rate of arrest after release', and
that 'patients who have a prior record of arrest have a re-arrest rate which
""mpal es favourably with ligures for persons in the general population who have
an arrest record.
Gunn (1977a) reports a study made hy Tidmarsh and Wood (unpuhlished)
of persons using London largest reception centre (such centres heing the
successors to the old 'casual ward amI providing accommodation for persons
without a settled way of life). Of 4.000 persons who had heen at the centre, at
sometime in the past, they estimated that 79 percent had previous convictions and
58 percent had heen in prison. Tidmarsh made psychiatric assessments and t(lUnd
ahout 1,200 men had heen diagnosed as mentally ill or sub-normal. Only just
over one quarter were said to have no psychiatric disorder. Other Endings hy
Tidmarsh and Wood reported hy Gunn were, first, men with no psychiatric
ahnnrmatities were the least likely to have had convictions. Second, most of
those without prison sentences had not heen in psychiatric hospitals. Third, most
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of' those who had been in psychiatric hospital had not heen in prison either, while
controversially those who had heen in either type of institution had usually heen
in hoth' This study seems to support the view of psychiatrists such as Rollin
(1969) that !her.: is a 'stage of army' of persons who drift in and out of each type
of institution. Thus., it is not hard to see that there is a considerahle degree of
nverlap hetween the two groupings. Penrose (1939) have stated that the
population of prisons and psychiatric hospitalS are inversely related. He attempled
ttl demonstrate that hefore the sewnd world war, those European Cl)untries with
a large psychiatric hospital population had a small penal institution population
and vice-versa.
In a study on psychiatric morhidity in a Nigerian Pri"lIl, Makanjuola and
Olaomo (1981) ohserved that unlike the developed countries, extensiw facilitIes
tor psychiatric treatment do not exist in Nigeria despite the fact that mental
disease is relatively common among prisoners. The authors caution that hased on
their tlntlings It might he just the tip of the ice herg to discover that in an
im,titution whose inmate popUlation averaged ahout 500, 39 persons were seen

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 Idemudia S. E.: Are People in Prisons Offenders or Patients?

in one year who had symptom of severe psychiatric disorder. They argued that
a good number of inmates with less severe psychiatric disorders and who
generally made up a higher proportion of the mentally ill in the population would
have gone undetected. They also claimed that personality disorders appears to
predispose an individual to noth criminal nehaviour and psychiatric illness. The
findings of these authors have serious implications for this study, to look into the
personality factors of prison inmates in Nigeria and how this affect their mental
health. The question is are prisoners offenders or patients? Fieldman (1977)
specU'lates that those who are in fact in some way mentally disordered may be
less skillful in crime and thus caught more easily. He also suggests that the
police, may tend to charge some of these offenders more readily and that in
addition, pleas of 'guilty' may ne more frequent. Nonetheless, there is also a
theoretical support provided hy Eysenck (1970a) that persons who score high on
trait factors such as Psychoticism, Extroversion and Neuroticism, will likely
commit crimes and manifest psychological disturhances when they are matched
with normals.
From this hackgrounil information, two hypotheses emerged. These were
(1) Prisoners matched with normals would show elevated PEN scores and
manikst psychological disturhance (2), prisoners with high PEN scores would
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evidence more psychological disturhances than those with Low PEN scores. The
focus of personality in this research was the hiophysical perspective, which roots
firmly in the qualities of a person. therefore personality was detined as specitic
qualities of a person that are susceptible to objective descripti,;n and
measurement. This reters to a composite scores obtained hy prisoners and Non-
prisoners on the EPQ with three dimensions: p. E and N.

METHOD
Subject
A multi-staged strati tied random sampling procedure was adoptt:d in
se\Cl:ting 150 prisoners and 150 non-prisoners from the general population.
Prisons were strati tied into four zones rt:presenting the t(lur diverse regions of
Nigeria: Kaduna prison. Kaduna (North), Agodi Prison, Ihadan, Oyo State
(South West), Enugu prison. Enugu State, (South East); and Oko prison, Benin
City (Mid West). Another staged stratitied random sampling was used to select
forty prisoners from Kaduna prison. h)rty from Agodi prison. thirty prisoner
trom Enugu prisons and"t(lfIy prisoners from Oko prison, Benin City Selection

170
 Ife P"ycholog/A

is based on official prison population. The non-prisoners were randomly drawn'

from the general population using same procedure above.
The reason for the control non-prisoner group was to assess and compare
their scores <in psychopathology and personality characteristics, to determine
empirically, whether prisoners difter from non-prisoners; and also to enable the
author use the joint prisoner control mean score to be ahle to obtain optimal
llividing points.
Among the 150 prisoner group, 92 were males and 58 were lemales, with
their ages ranging from 15-54 years. Mean age was 27.8 years (SD=7.1).
While the non-prisoner group, 94 were males and 56 were lemales. Mean age
was 22.8 years (SD=4.52) with ages ranging from 16 - 49 years.

Design
The study employed a 2x2x2 factorial design which depicted two levels of
psychotics (high and Low P scores); extroversion (high scores-extroverts an<ilow
E scores - introverts) and Neuroticism (high N scores - emotionally unstable and·
low N scores, - emotionally stable) psychopathology was measured by Awaritefe
psychological Index (API) (General Psychopathology) and the Middle Sex
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Questionnaire (now crown and crisp Experiential index (CCEI) (Neurotic

disorders).

INSTRUMENT AND MEASURES

The EPQ, (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1975) a forced choice 90 item instrument
was used to measure certain personality dimension, namely. P, E, and N. The
items on the EPQ are answered yes or No according to the applicahility lilr
'otherwise) of each item to the respondent. A pretest of the scale was carried out
among Nigerian prisoners, at Agodi prison, lbadan, split half reliahility obtained
for this sample was 0.80,0.79,0.81 and 0.30 tilr each of the scale. p. E, Nand
L respectively. The internal consistency was high (alpha coefticient of 0.90 (Pl.
0.91(E), 0.89(N) and O.40(L) Concurrent validity was estahlished for' N
(Awaritefe and Kadiri 1981) on Nigerian subjects hy correlating the scofes on
STAI of Spielherger, Gorsuch and Lushene (1970) and N scale. The N scale
positively and signiticantly correlated with X-I and X2 (STAI X-I. r=0.51,
P<OI; STAI-X2, r=0.92, P<OI),

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 Idemudia S. E.: Are Peuple in Prisons Offenders or Patients?

Osinowo (1994) also validated the scale among young adults in Nigeria. All
items were factor analysed using principal component analysis with varimax
rotation. All the items had high loadings of at least 4. The scale have also heen
used and standardized for Nigerian suhjects (Jegede 1980) and hetween British
and Nigerian suhjects, (Eysenck,· Adelaja and Eysenck, 1977). Eysenck, et al
( 1977) claimed that EPQ is in general applicahle in Nigeria.
Psychopathology was measured using the Awaritek Psychological Index
(A PI) developed hy Prokssor Awaritefe among two thousand, three hundred and
eighteen psychiatric patients of varied descriptions and normal suhjects. API
measures general psychopathology in the t(lilowing areas: sleep, intellect.
perception, heat. sensation of movement, mood, speech, motor hehaviour,
activity, head, alimentary tract and general somatic. The API has heen reponed
to cmrelate significantly with the MPI on the N scale (49 P<OO5). Also
concurrent validity was estahlished (Awaritefe 1982, and Imade 1980) on
Nigerian subjects hy correlating the scores nn STAI and MPI.
A pre-rest of the scale was carried out on Nigerian Prisoners, (ldemudia
1995) Split half reliahility ttl( the sample was 0.89. Awarik (1982) reported
tlk following consistency reliahility (alpha coefticient = K-R20) of the API as
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81. The retest reliahility coefticient for hoth boys and girls comhined was 85,
t(1( girls alone. 86 and I'm hoys only 84. The instrument have also heen used
among prisoners. (Akinnawo 1993).
The API has several advantages pmminent among these is that, it is hased
I)f] rhe culrural experiences of Nigerian and theret(lre, seen to he relevant. In
other words, it has face validity. The items are also in 'short phrases" and easy
to understand and score. The Instrument according to Awaritefe (1982) is useful
in the t(lilowing ways: The appraisal of the level of severity of general
psychopathology at a given point in time. the assessment effect of therapeutic
intervention, and the study of incidence rate of psychiatric morbidity in the
general population.
The Middle-sex Hospital Questionnaire (MSQ) now known as the Crown
crisp Experiential Index (CCEI) developed by Crown and Crisp (1966) for the
rapid 4uantitication of psycho-neurotic traits and symptomatology consists of six
subcscales of neurotic symptoms and traits, each having eight items. The sub-
scales are: Free-tloating anxiety (A); psychotic anxiety (P); obsessive-compulsive
tr.aits and symptoms (0), Somatic Symptoms of Anxiety or Psychosomatic

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 lfe psych%g/A

complaints, (S); Depressive symptoms (D); and Hysteria or hysterical personality

traits, (H).
Various evaluation studies have been carried out on the CCEI as they have
generally attested to its validity and usefulness in differentiating normals frorn
neurotic persons while tbe sub-scales are known to discriminate' satisfactorily
between various diagnostic sub categories of psycho-neurosis, (Wolkland and
Forest, 1972; Lemptey, 1973; Prabhu, 1972; and Gada, 1981).
The instrument has been validated and standardized in Nigeria among 40
neurotic out-patients at tbe University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital and 200
normal subjects by Ihezue and Kumaraswamy, (1983). Reliability was calculated
by the split half method (Spearman Brown formula). Alpha coefticient was 0.68
for total score, scales A (0.38); P (045); 0 (0.66); S(0.97); D (0.61); and H
(0.59). Also, split half reliability obtained in the pretest sample of Agodi prison
t(lf the total score by the author was 0.80.

RESULTS

Analysis of data. using t-test for independent groups revealed in a predicted

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direction (hypothesis I) that prisoners were signiticantly difterent from non-

prisoners on the PEN dimensions: t=(298), 46.00, P< .001; 1=(298), 15.3,
P< .001; and t=(298), 26.08, P<OOI) respectively. (See Table I).

PersonalilY Prisoners Non Prisoners

Means SD Of Mean SO T-Value

Psychotics (P) 17.Q2 6.17 5.06 3.96 45.00 I 0

Extroversion (E) 16.37 5.26 12.57 3.90 15.3 1 0

Neuroticism (N) 17.29 5.17 10.77 4.31 26.08 1 0

Lie Scale (L) 4.60 5.1- 9.45 4.06 19.55 I 0

Psychological

Disorders 298

Psychopatholo&y (API) 68.61 34.00 22.37 16.03 79.72 1 0

Neurotic Disorders (C(;EI)

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 Idemudia S. E.: Are People in Prisons Oflenders or Punent.l'?

free floating

Anxiety 27.24 10.63 17.33 4 .•• 30.9 1 . (J

Phohia 27.66 10.63 19.27 4.99 26.05 I 0

Obsession 28.07 10.67 23.13 4.99 15.34 '1 U

Psychosomatic 28.19 10.92 16.35 5.45 3H7 J 0

Depression 28.<15 10.75 19.78 5.37 21.2 I' I)

Hysteria 28.30 10.83 21.26 528 ~I.n I \)

CCIlI (Total) 167.57 63.53 117.13 30.96 63.83 1"0

Prisoners also demonstrated elevated scores on the psychopattmlogy

measures, indicating that prisoners reported more psychological disorders than
flon-prisoners: t =(298), 79.72, P < .OO! for general psychopathologyalid
t=(298), 63.85, P< .001 for total neurotic symptoms. Significant dift'erence
between prisoners and non-prisoners on the CCEI sub-scales are as t()llows:
A(t=298, 30.9, P< .001); P(t=298, 26.05, P< .(01); 0(t=298, 15.34,
P < .OO\), S(t=298,35.87, P < .(01); D(t=298, 21.2, P < .00t); and H(t=298,
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21.71, P<.ool).
Hypothesis 2 which stated that prisoners with elevated scores on the PEN
scales will evidence more psychological disturbance than low PEN scorers was
supported in the predicted direction, (See table 2).

Table 2 A 2x2x2 ANOV A Summary Table Showing Neurotic Disorders As

Determined By Psychotic ism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism.

Sources S5 DF M5 F P

Psychoticism (P) 147681.964 1 147681.964 457.875 <.0001

Extraversion (E) 9351.289 1 9351.389 38.933 <.0001
Neuroticism (N) ·148.460 1 148.460 .460 Ns

P&E 4783.790 1 4783.790 14.832 <.001

P&N 577.826 I 577.826 1.791 Ns

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 E&N 236.599 I 236.599 .734 Ns
P&E&N 4761.927 I 4761. 927 14.764 <.001

A 1x2x2 analysis of variance revealed two main elfects; a main effect of

psychotic ism (F. (1.142) =457.8, P < .00 I), which shows that prISoners who are
high 1m psychoticism, are mDfe psychologically impaired iX=203.6) than
p".soner.s who scored less on psychoticism, (X =68.4) and a significant main
effect of exuoversion. (F, (1,142) = 28.93, P<OOI) which inuicates that
prj,oners w~o are extroverts are mDfe psychologically impaired (X=201.7) than
prisoners who are introverts, (X= 19.3). A perusal of tahle 2. also indicate, a
significant interaction of PxExN. F( 1,142) = 14.76. P <00 I.
A detailed inspection of cell means for significant interaction effect (If PFN
1,,1' psychological disorders showed that high PEN scurers IX =203.(); X =201 7:
X= 183.8) were more psychological impaired than low PeN ,e(lrers. (X =68.4:
X=90.3; X=153.0). This interaction had heen graphically illustrated. iSee
figures I aruJ 2 heiow).
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009.)

Figure 1

Personality & Psychopathol 0.9Y

PEN &Psychopathology

H~PEN
Personality

IlII P • E • N
175
 Idemudia S. E.: Are People in Prisons Offpnders or Patients?

Personality & Psychopath

A post hoc analytic comparisons of these means using Turkey's Honestly
Significance test (HSD) revealed significant difference hetween the means at
P<O.5, df=5, HSD=12,8 (See table 3 helow),
Tallie 3. Summary of ditference hetween pairs of means indicating source
of interaction hetween Psychoticism, Extraversion, and
Neu[()ticism

PEN PEN PEN PEN PEN PEN

(III) (lIhh) (1111) (hlh) (hhl) (1111)

PEN (iii) ,
202,8 100,3 194,0 207,6 0

PEN (hhh) - 202,8 0 0 202,8

PEN (Ihl) - 194,0 207,6 100,8

PEN (1IIh) - 0 194.0

PEN (hid) - 207.6

PEN 111111 -
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009.)

Where I = It,,,. h = high, P =psychoticism, E=extroversion, N =neurocism,

p < .05. (i.e, mean L1itlerence < 12.8, using HSD test) HSD revealed a
signillcant L1itlerence hetween the means at P< .05, df=5, HSD= 12.8.
The results on tahle 3 ahove, showeLl that prisoners with high P, high P,
high E and high N, were more adversely aflected psychologically that is they
reported more psychological symptoms than other category of prisoners with
personality comhinations. The chart helow (fig. 2)

DISCUSSION

What do the ahove results justify,!. Do the resu Its justify the question
whether people in prisons are ofienders or patients'! The results have fully
attested to the two hypotheses on which this study is hased; that prisoners
compared with non-prisons control group would have higher scores on P, E and
N and therefore manifest more psychological disturhance than the non-prisoners

176
 lfe PSychologIA

group, that prisoners withelev.ued scores on PEN will Buttermore psychologiclll

disturbances than prisoners with low PEN scores.

Figure 2 Personality & Psychopathology

250

o
low PEN Hi~PEN
Personality

I!lP.E.N
This results supports Eysenck's theory of crime and personality which
predicted that criminals would show elevated scores on PEN when compared
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with normals. According to Eysenck (l %9), the three personality variables are
independent and their effect should be combined to produce the best on
predictions. However, it should be noted from Eysenck's theory that
psychoticism (benign psychosis) shares certain features with criminality, implying
of course that all (or even a large proportion) of criminals are in fact psychotic
but not in the strict psychiatric sense. In addition to the P factor it was argued
that extroverted people, tended, under certain situation to condition less well than
introverted ones, thus, making them ceteris paribus more likely to behave in an
anti-social fashion, because extroverts tend to condition poorly ad therefore
poorly socialised and consequently more likely to suffer trom neurotic disorders
because they already fall into the psychasthenic group (anxiety states, the
depressive the phobic fears, the obsessive ad compulsive habits).
Although Eysenck's theory focused on criminality (crime causatillD), this
study have not only contirmed the personality explanation of crime causatiOn, it
has also been able to demonstrate that prisoners with elevated PEN scores, are
naturally bound tO,be more psychologically disturbed than those with low PEN
scores. In other words, --persons who commit crime do so because the are

177
 Idemudia S. E.: Are People in Prisons Offenders or Patients?

unhealthy psychologically as such find themselyes committing crimes. To this

end, do we regard this people as offenders or patients? This tinding has serious
implication for assessment and treatment (medical and psychological), ·if we are
to make a useful prescriptive attempt to rehabilitate prisoners. The·implication
of the study also serve to illustrate issues of care and control, sickness and sin,
normality and abnormality, the problem of who should care for this group of
people and treatment versus punishment.
We need only note here that the effects of punishment tend to be extremely
variable and unpredictable. Punishment may provide the desired end that is, in
elimination of a certain type of conduct, but on the other. hand, it may have
exactly the opposite effect, stamping in the undesirable conduct ever more
strongly than before and making it a stereotyped pattern. Sometimes punishment
may have no effect at all, one way or the other, and it is not even possible to say
that strong and weak punishments differ in their effects in any predictable way.
It is not surprising, therefore, that empirical studies of the effects of punishment
on criminals have led to more confusion, so that no positive statements of any
kind Can he made. It is suggested that recidivist with many crimes behind him,
and no prospect of any change in his pattern of behaviour, very closely resemhles
the frustrated rate with its stereotyped pattern, self punishing and maladaptive as
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it may be. By repeatedly sending him to prison and punishing him tilr each
criminal episode, society merely stamps in this type of conduct and does nothing
to conven him into a useful law-abiding citizen.
It is imponant to note that the normal development of an individual requires
an emotionally warm (home) atmosphere, with consistent patterns of control and
punishment with the offence, he may exhibit what is called paradoxical reaction,
which means that he behaves in exactly the opposite way from the desired
pattern. Also, another way of looking at behaviour is to examine motivation in
the psychologic":!l sense. In the criminal simply reacting and, therefore rejecting
aJthority? Is he trying to compensate for his inadequacy, inner insufticiency or
insecurity by wanting to unduly enrich himself by stealing? Or could it be the
prisoners psychological state, personality or emotional problems? These are
question which may point out the motivation of a criminal behaviour.
This study have been able to empirically document that prisoners generally
tend to have a rather high level of emotionality. It ";"ould seem to follow that
this emotionality could potentiate the anti-social habits which have been
developed to such an extent that, they would tind it far more difficult than

178
 lfe PsychololiIA

normal, non-emotional people to supplement these with a proper set of hahits.

Punishment, presumably by greatly increasing the degree of emotion present,
woulu theref(lre, have a negative rather than a positive effect, it would lead to
still greater rigidity in the reactions of the prisoner, rather than leading to any
kind of change. There [,ave also heen several clinical experiments (Eysenck anu
Rachman 1964. Idemuuia 1995a) in which prisoners were treateu with hehaviour
therapy or psychotherapy and was demonstrated at a high level of statistical
signiticance, that those who received behaviour therapy recovered more quickly
than those receiving psychotherapy or no treatment. The findings of this study
may he taken as support for the possihility of treating criminals and delinquency
disorders.
fhese views tind startling support from McVicar (1974), an escapee from
a maximum security prison. According to him, hy ignoring the emotional
sources of crime and the psychological consequences of imprisonment, and
accepting the law's conventional categories of wickedness or greed as the cause,
imprisonment fails to impinge on the criminal, nor does it end there, ,through
lack of understanding, the authorities aliow the criminal when imprisoned to
create a mirror of the society which he recognises and emphasises that the
criminal or prisoner can't he deterred or punished into rel(lrm; nor can he
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009.)

persuaded into it hy permissiveness or kindness. According to McVicar (1974),

there is only one method of reforming the contirmed criminal or prisoner, and
no matter how repugnant, to many this method he identitied as thought reform.
Also Eysenck (1976) believes that rei(lrmation can only be done by attacking the
structure of belief which inspires the criminal's behaviour, his criminal code, and
the ideology which sustains him.

CONCLUSION
FrOlIl this study, the t(lliowmg conclusions are drawn: that prisoners are
diftim:nt trom the general population on measures of personality and
p~ychological disorders and also that prisoners with elevated scores on P. E and
I'l report more psychological disturbances than those WIth low PEN scores. This
Is a demonstration that when the three personality variables of PEN are
comhined, a complete personality set emerges that can easily predispose
individuals to crime and manifest psychological disturbance.

179
 Idemudia S. E.: Are People in Prisons Offenders or Patients?

The neurotic disorders we have heen talking ahout so far are essentially ones
which" lIisturhs the individual who is suffering from them. A person who
experiences strong anxiety. depressive tendencies or ohsessive compulsive
reactions, phohias. hysteria or hysterical hehaviour and has psychosomaric
complaints, is very upset and worried hy these experiences" The implication of
this linding has two interpretations" First, that people who commit crime do so
hecause they are sick" Second, that when these people are placed in prisons. and"
hecause of the extreme experiences in the prison, and hecause of the nature of
prisons, they are then more at 'risk' and as such, are further predisposed to
experience psychological disturhances than their counterparts who do not
manifest these traits.
Potentially, if personality factor is predictive. these could he assessed in
advance hy clinical psychologists at the court, police custody hefore sentencing
or even at the prisons after sentencing" It would appear reasonahle to follow up
cases of prisoners with high PE. In doing this. it will be possihle to monitor
their level and type of psychological disturhances, severity of pathology and thus
will help to offer prompt psychological intervention as an adjunct to other
medical services availahle, if any. to such prisoners. This practice will not only
he of value to the courts and police. hut also help to decongest the prisons. It
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will alsq have far reaching implication tllr decision making (sentencing) at the
courts and also enlighten the police and custodian of prisoners during custodial
keeping or remand in police cells or at the prisons. To this end. a new humane
and penal policy options should he adopted t(lr treating people in prisons whether
as offenders or patients.

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Acknowledgement: The author gratefully acknowledges the support of a grant for

this study from The Council for the Development of Social Sclence Research .in
Africa (CODESRIA) based in Dakar, Senegal.
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184