'Personality deterioration and imprisonment'

Abstract

Personality is the complex and dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. The adjustment is a continuous process that is affected by the ceaseless fluctuations of the inner and out forces in man. The inner forces may stem from the fields of genetics, neurology, constitution and physique, learning, conditioning, and emotional development. The outer forces may spring from any of the social, sociological, and cultural ingredients of the world in which man is enmeshed. Although the resultant behaviour at any given time is unique, a thread of continuity runs through the responses and gives personality the characteristics of predictability. If either the internal or external forces remain relatively constant we can predict the outcome with even greater certainty than we might if they were fluctuating. In this thesis we we shall consider a situation in which the environmental forces remain relatively constant, and we shall examine resulting behaviour for signs of persistence. The situation is that created by a prison, and the subjects are men serving sentences of nine months or more. Our hypothesis is that personality is modified by long term imprisonment, and that the modifications are reflected in a lowered cognitive efficiency and a generalised lowering of motivational tone.