PRISONERS COHESIVENESS ON THEIR STRESS LEVELS

Prisoners' Cohesiveness On Their Stress Levels

Outline

Objective

This research have considered Zimbardo's Stanford prison study and looked at the affect of prison officer's perception of their own cohesiveness and prisoners cohesiveness on their stress levels.

Method

A structured psychiatric interview, the self-report and Symptom Checklist-90-Revised were administered to a subset of 471 members who were randomly selected from Zimbardo's Stanford prison. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) diagnoses were assigned by consensus after the interviews were evaluated by independent raters.

Results

The prevalence's of lifetime and current PTSD were 15.9% (n = 75) and 10.6% (n = 50), and 82% (n = 386) of the subjects had experienced at least 1 traumatic event. The whole sample was divided into 2 groups according to age: the younger group (age =25 years) and the older group (age >25 years) .The most predictive factor for lifetime PTSD among the younger age group was the experience of sudden death of a close friend or a loved one, childhood physical abuse, intimate partner abuse, and sexual abuse before the age of 13 years by someone at least 5 years older. For the older group, the most predictive factors were a history of motor traffic accident, sudden death of a close friend or a loved one, severe assault by acquaintance or stranger, witness to family violence, having experienced more than 5 traumatic events, intimate partner abuse, and sexual abuse before the age of 13 years by someone at least 5 years older.

Conclusions

In this sample of prisoners in Zimbardo, although exposure to traumatic events was common and the rate is nearly as high as that in western countries, the prevalence's of lifetime and current PTSD were relatively lower. Moreover, the prevalence of current PTSD among younger prisoners was significantly higher than that among older prisoners. The risk of developing lifetime PTSD was significantly greater only for older prisoners with a history of more than 5 traumatic events, whereas the types of specific traumatic events with the risk of developing lifetime PTSD among younger prisoners were similar to that among older prisoners. Administering specialized treatments for anger dyscontrol and interpersonal sensitivity may be useful for rehabilitation and reform of prisoners.

Table of Contents

Abstract2

Objective2

Method2

Results2

Conclusions3

Table of Contents4

1. Introduction4

2. Methods9

2.1. Participants10

2.2. Procedure10

2.3. Measures12

2.3.1. Symptom Checklist-90-Revised12

2.3.2. Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire12

2.3.3. Clinician-administered PTSD scale for DSM-IV13

2.4. Statistical analyses15

3. Results16

3.1. Demographic characteristics of sample16

3.2. Prevalence of trauma and PTSD19

3.3. Mental health, age, and PTSD39

4. Discussion40

5. Conclusions50

References51

Prisoners' Cohesiveness On Their Stress Levels

1. Introduction

Zimbardo is currently in the process of a transformation period, when the social structure and the mechanism of social operation are about to be transformed from the old form to a new one. However, nearly all developing countries, including Zimbardo, will be indisputably confronted by the serious problem of increasing social crime in this unique period. Over the past 20 years, with the rapid development of social economy, Zimbardo has also witnessed a rapid increase in the prevalence of delinquency, although in much smaller percentage than that in other ...