Ego development and personality disorders in prisoners vs non-prisoners

Subject Areas : روان درمانگری

Hassan Hadinezhad ¹ ( M. A. in Psychology )

Received: 2015-06-05 Accepted : 2015-06-05 Published : 2007-12-22

Keywords: Personality Disorders, ego development, prisoner,

Abstract :

The personality disorders among 60 non-political prisoners of Zanjan’s prison and a control group of 60 non-prisoners without a history of mental illness were assessed, using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial InventoryII (MCMI-II; Millon, 1987). The development of ego among participants also was measured using a questionnaire that included four factors from Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (Cattell, 1965). Results posited that the prisoners scored higher than the non-prisoner in all the subscales of personality disorders except for the obsessive personality subscale. Analysis of measurements of ego development showed that two groups were significantly different in ego strength and emotional sensitivity that prisoner group showed significantly lower level of ego development. Among the prisoners, there were negative correlations between ego strength and avoidant, antisocial, masochistic, and schizotypal personality disorders and positive correlations between emotional sensitivity and borderline personality disorder. The highest scores of prisoner group included the borderline personality disorder and schizoid. A more detailed discussion of the findings is presented.