| 1. |
- Eriksson, T. Gerhard, et al.
(författare)
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Personality traits of prisoners as compared to general populations : signs of adjustment to the situation?
- 2017
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Ingår i: Personality and Individual Differences. - 0191-8869 .- 1873-3549. ; 107:1, s. 237-245
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Two recent studies have challenged the well-established belief that offending behaviors are inversely related to the personality trait of conscientiousness. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore prisoners’ levels of traits according to the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality compared to control groups, with a focus on conscientiousness. Two separate samples of inmates in Swedish high-security prisons were investigated in three studies. Inmates and non-inmates completed a Swedish-language translation of Goldberg’s (1999) International Personality Item Pool questionnaire (IPIP-NEO, Bäckström, 2007). Male inmates (n = 46) in Studies 1 and 2 scored higher on conscientiousness than non-inmates (norm data based on approximately 800 males, and a students’ sample), which conflicts with previous results. Study 3 further explored the conscientiousness differences on the facet level. Male and female inmates (n = 131) scored higher on order and self-discipline (even after an adjustment for social desirability) than students (n = 136). In conjunction with previous findings, these differences are interpreted as being either temporal or enduring adjustments to the prison environment. It is suggested that researchers and clinical teams should cautiously interpret the FFM factor of conscientiousness (and its facets) when planning the further treatment of inmates.
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| 2. |
- Dåderman, Anna Maria, 1953-
(författare)
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“Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?” : Abuse of potent benzodiazepines, exemplified by flunitrazepam, in mentally disordered male offenders
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Flunitrazepam (FZ) is an example of a sedative-hypnotic benzodiazepine whose pharmacokinetic properties include a rapid onset of action and an intermediate duration of action. It has a high affinity to central benzodiazepine receptors and affects them profoundly. These properties, and its profile of activity, increase the probability of abuse by those who have access to it. Known side effects of FZ are abuse and amnesia. FZ is widely abused and it has become a drug of choice among opioid abusers, as a club drug, and as a classic “date-rape” drug. FZ is often involved in fatal intoxication. It is therefore expected that FZ abuse is common in serious offenders. I have studied the reasons for FZ abuse and mapped the prevalence of the abuse, with the objective of studying the personalities and the background factors of the abusers, and of drawing some conclusions about assessment procedures of FZ abuse and the position of FZ in society.The participants in the studies summarised here were fifty-six juvenile delinquents from Swedish youth correctional institutions, aged 14-20 years, and sixty non-psychotic male offenders referred for a forensic psychiatric evaluation (FPE), aged 16-35 years. The participants answered questions regarding their abuse, and this enabled us to understand why they abused just FZ (and not another substance). The participants also completed a number of self-reported inventories, which enabled us to obtain measures of personality traits. They were also rated for psychopathy. Five forensic psychiatric cases of FZ abusers were studied in more detail. Furthermore, the forensic psychiatric participants’ psychiatric diagnoses, and both groups’ crime-related measures, were obtained from their files.About 40% of the juvenile delinquents and 30% of the offenders referred for a forensic psychiatric evaluation abused FZ. The main reason for the FZ abuse was to change a perception of reality and to obtain an increased feeling of power and self-esteem, a feeling that everything was possible. Both samples of offenders differed from the normal population in many personality traits, suggesting that the participants possessed a high level of vulnerability for developing mental disorders, but only a few differences in personality traits were found between FZ abusers and non-FZ abusers. The juvenile delinquent FZ abusers had higher scores than non-FZ abusers in the verbal aggression and sensation-seeking boredom susceptibility scales. In the juvenile sample, FZ abuse was associated with the abuse of amphetamines and/or cocaine, cannabis, and opiates, and with childhood psychological/psychiatrical contact, with living in a metropolitan housing area, and with recidivism into crimes leading to care in a juvenile correctional institution. In this sample, FZ abuse was also associated with weapons offences and narcotics-related crimes. In the forensic psychiatric sample, FZ abuse was significantly associated with previous admission to an FPE, and convictions for robbery, for weapons-related offences, for narcotics-related offences and for theft. The results show that FZ is more common in offenders who score high on Facet 4 (Antisocial) in the Hare psychopathy model, and that FZ abuse has high correlation with Item 20 (Criminal versatility). All of the FZ abusers reported side effects from FZ that resulted in the brutality of their violent acts and anterograde amnesia. FZ abusers, when intoxicated with FZ, had a reduced capacity for both empathy and anticipatory anxiety, in contrast to their “daily” behaviour and “ordinary” (i.e., without the influence of the FZ) personality characteristics. They were not characterised by classic characteristics of psychopathy, such as lack of empathy. This may indicate that FZ induces psychopathic-like state-dependant (FZ intoxication) traits, and temporary dissociate states (“Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”?).In conclusion, FZ abuse is common in the population of young offenders with mental disorders, and FZ is often used for nonmedical purposes. The practical implications of these conclusions are that clinicians and those who develop or manage therapeutic programs should be aware of FZ abuse when choosing the most effective treatment for male offenders. General practitioners who prescribe potent sedative compounds should be aware of their possible adverse effects. The availability of FZ should be limited further, because FZ is frequently abused in vulnerable male offenders, and because FZ has serious adverse mental health-related effects and is related to robbery and weapons‑related crimes.
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| 3. |
- Dåderman, Anna M., 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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The significance of the sense of coherence for various coping resources in stress situations used by police officers in on-the-beat service
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health. - : Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine. - 1232-1087 .- 1896-494X. ; 27:1, s. 3-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundPolice officers meet many stressors as part of their occupation. The psychological resource "sense of coherence" (SOC) protects against ill-health, but its impact on coping resources for stress situations has not been studied in the population of police officers. Different approaches to investigate the significance of SOC for different outcomes have been identified in literature, leading to some difficulties in the interpretation and generalization of results. The aim was therefore to explore SOC and the coping resources, and to examine the significance of SOC for various coping resources for stress using different models in a sample of Swedish police officers providing on-the-beat service.Materials and MethodsOne hundred and one police officers (age: mean = 33 years, SD = 8; 29 females) were included, and the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (SOC-29) and the Coping Resources Inventory (CRI) were used. The dependent variable in each regression analysis was one of the coping resources: cognitive, social, emotional, spiritual/philosophical, physical, and a global resource. Global SOC-29 and/or its components (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness) were investigated as independent variables.ResultsAll CRI and SOC-29 scores except for that of spiritual/philosophical resources were higher than those of reference groups. Manageability was the most important component of SOC for various coping resources in stress situations used by police officers.ConclusionA deeper study of manageability will give useful information, because this component of SOC is particularly significant in the variation in resources used by police officers to cope with stress. Salutogenesis, the origin of well-being, should be more in focus of future research on workplaces with a high level of occupational stress.
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| 4. |
- Dåderman, Anna M., et al.
(författare)
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The work-family interface : Job demands, work engagement and turnover intentions of Polish nurses
- 2016
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- A conflict between one's professional life and one's family life may lead to lower well-being both at work and home. Most nurses are women who have traditionally reconciled their professional life with family life. One aim of this study was to examine the relationships between the work-family conflict (WFC),the family-work conflict (FWC), and the perception of job demands (quantitative workload and interpersonal conflicts at work). We intended also to examine the components of work engagement (vigour, dedication, and absorption) and turnover intentions. Another aim was to determine whether the variables that we examined are important for turnover intentions. This study comprised Polish registered nurses. The following instruments were used:Work-Family Conflict and Family-Work Conflict Scales (Netemeyer, Boles, &McMurrian, 1996), the Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale and Quantitative Workload Index (Spector & Jex, 1998), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale(Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova, 2006), and measures of turnover intentions (intention to leave the present workplace and intention to leave the nursing profession). The score on the scale to measure WFC was positively related to perceived workload and to both turnover intentions, while negatively related to vigour. The WFC was experienced significantly more intensively than FWC. The perception of differences in mean scale scores of job demands had a moderate effect on the FWC and WFC, while differences in mean scale scores of vigour had a strong effect on the WFC. WFC, quantitative workload and a low level of dedication were significant predictors of the intention to leave the present workplace, while the level of job demands was a significant predictor of theintention to leave the nursing profession. The results are interpreted and discussed using Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources theory.
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| 5. |
- Dåderman, Anna M., et al.
(författare)
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Using the Karolinska Scales of Personality on male juvenile delinquents: relationships between scales and factor structure.
- 2005
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0803-9488 .- 1502-4725. ; 59:6, s. 448-456
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the present study was to investigate relationships between scales from the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP) and the factor structure of the KSP in a sample of male juvenile delinquents. The KSP was administered to a group of male juvenile delinquents (n = 55, mean age 17 years; standard deviation = 1.2) from four Swedish national correctional institutions for serious offenders. As expected, the KSP showed appropriate correlations between the scales. Factor analysis (maximum likelihood) arrived at a four-factor solution in this sample, which is in line with previous research performed in a non-clinical sample of Swedish males. More research is needed in a somewhat larger sample of juvenile delinquents in order to confirm the present results regarding the factor solution.
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| 6. |
- Laurell, Jenny, et al.
(författare)
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Recidivism is related to psychopathy (PCL-R) in a group of men convicted of homicide
- 2005
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527. ; 28:3, s. 255-268
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is well known that psychopaths are a group with high risk for criminality. Despite that, researchers and clinicians have not yet agreed on a general cause of psychopathy. However Raine [Raine, A. (2002). Biosocial studies of antisocial and violent behavior in children and adults: A review. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 311-326.] advocated a biosocial model of violent behaviour where the greatest risk for criminal behaviour occurred when both heredity and environmental risk factors (e.g., social class, childhood history) were present. In this follow-up study, 35 men convicted of homicide were assessed retrospectively for psychopathy according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Information on personal history, as well as from legal documents and records of offences committed by the subjects was also obtained. Fourteen of the 35 men were classified as psychopaths. Two men, both rated as psychopaths, had criminal parents. Twenty-seven of the men had a social relationship with their victim, and eleven out of these were rated as psychopaths. There was no difference in PCL-R scores between those who had a social relationship with their victim and those who did not. The psychopaths relapsed more frequently than the nonpsychopaths into criminality after their prison term. This result confirms previous research indicating that psychopathy is a risk factor for recidivism. It is, therefore, very important that psychopaths get the best possible treatment, aftercare, and supervision.
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| 7. |
- Lindqvist, Judit, 1965-
(författare)
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Hot spur or tranquil? : The adaptation of psychometric anger assessment instruments and their evaluation and application on violent and nonviolent samples in Sweden
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Anger is a negatively toned emotion and biopsychosocially functional alarm, which automatically activates a colorful arsenal of affective, cognitive, physiological, and behavioral action impulses in the face of experienced irritations and provocations. Anger, on the other hand, is a mixed blessing and a subject of admiration and condemnation since the days of Plato, Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. This usual and passionate human emotion has also been closely associated with phenomena of human psychopathology: mental and personality disorders, aggression, interpersonal difficulties, and violence. Until the recent past, conceptual confusion and scientific neglect have complicated the research on anger.Following a theoretical review of multiple, classical philosophical and contemporary, scientific approaches to anger, this thesis describes the work towards its principal aim: to develop the first Swedish adaptations of the psychometric anger assessment instruments Novaco Anger Scale (NAS, version 1998), Provocation Inventory (PI), and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2). These psychometric anger assessment instruments focus on various theoretical dimensions of the anger concept; NAS assesses the cognitive mediation, physiological arousal, and behavioral action impulses and control efforts that compose anger. PI assesses the intensity of anger reaction as a function of various provocations. Finally, STAXI-2 assesses the various state and trait experience, expression, and control of anger. The adaptations of the instruments were developed through the co-operation of the authors of the three studies included in this thesis, with a native back-translator, and also with the authors of the original instruments. The adaptations, labeled NAS-1998-S, PI-S, and STAXI-2-S, were investigated on the basis of their factor structures, internal reliability, scale correlations, and predictive capacity of group membership of participants, in male samples of violent prisoners (N = 95; Mage = 33.2, SDage = 10.6) and nonviolent university students (N = 100; Mage = 33.2, SDage = 12.5) in Sweden. Furthermore, the level of anger reported by the violent criminal and nonviolent university student samples in Sweden was compared, as were those in turn with published norm values of American standardization samples of the original instruments. According to the results presented in the thesis, NAS-1998-S, PI-S, and STAXI-2-S have appropriate psychometric qualities. More specifically, NAS-1998-S and PI-S (but not STAXI-2-S) demonstrated factor structures that were interpreted as corresponding to the findings of previous studies on the original instruments. The parts that compose NAS-1998-S, PI-S, STAXI-2-S (i.e., subscales, scales, and total scale scores) were in good correspondence with what could be expected on the basis of previous findings on the original instruments. The scales had an appropriate pattern of correlations with concurrent scales of related and distinct theoretical constructs. The adapted assessment instruments demonstrated good capacities to discriminate the prisoners and university students from each other. The results were interpreted in terms of appropriate construct and cross-cultural validity. As expected, the violent prisoners scored higher on the various cognitive, physiological, behavioral, trait, and expressed dimensions of anger, and lower on anger control, compared with nonviolent university students and persons in the American standardization samples. An unexpected, but culturally explainable result was the relatively high levels of anger suppression by both Swedish samples. In particular, the scores of violent prisoners on cognitive inclination and general disposition to anger approached clinically high levels. The high levels of anger in the violent prisoners were interpreted as supportive of previous research indicating the high prevalence of psychopathology in the offender population. Anger being an important antecedent of aggressive behavior and a vital correlate of clinical disorders, the systematic assessment of this emotion has not yet earned a high priority in the research and clinical work with offenders in Sweden. The work described in this thesis is an effort to remedy this condition.
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| 8. |
- Selenius, Heidi, et al.
(författare)
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Assessment of dyslexia in a group of male offenders with immigrant backgrounds undergoing a forensic psychiatric investigation.
- 2006
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Ingår i: Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1478-9949 .- 1478-9957. ; 17:1, s. 1-22
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is known that offenders with immigrant backgrounds are over-represented in criminal as well as forensic psychiatric populations and that the prevalence of dyslexia among prisoners with Swedish as a native language is much higher than in the general population in Sweden. The aim of this study was to diagnose dyslexia in a sample of 23 male offenders with immigrant backgrounds undergoing a forensic psychiatric investigation with the objective to discuss the appropriateness of a commonly used assessment procedure in accordance with DSM-IV. Dyslexia was diagnosed individually; the participants took reading and writing tests, as well as intelligence and neuropsychological tests. Nine out of 23 participants (39%) were diagnosed as having dyslexia. Thus, dyslexia seems to be common among male offenders with immigrant backgrounds undergoing FPI, and for that reason it is important to investigate their reading and writing abilities. Dyslexia is regarded as a functional impairment in Sweden, and therefore all offenders with dyslexia undergoing a forensic psychiatric investigation, irrespective of their background, should receive help with the legal procedure, for example their crime files and police investigation documents should be read to them. We conclude that in addition to the criteria in DSM-IV the assessment procedure should be extended with phonological tests.
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