Sex differences in behavioral and physiological reactions

¶ … Male and Female Inmates to Prison Confinement -- Further Evidence for a Two-Component Model

P.B. Paulus and M.T. Dzindolet

Design Issue: The primary issues underlying the design of this research were the need to establish a greater understanding of the prison system and its abilities to meet public and prisoner expectations/needs. Though prisoner reactions to and evaluations of prison conditions were the actual subject of study, a reading of the presented research suggests that actual conditions were being indirectly monitored via this research through the stated perceptions of male and female prisoners. Gender differences in prison perception and evaluation were also a specific subject of study in this research, and an issue that certainly warrants examination in the modern prison system.

Design Criteria: Significant measurements were made in many areas, including housing evaluation, prison evaluation, perceptions of control, depression, anger, various elements of support, health symptoms, social and environmental problems in prison, problems outside of prison, and tolerance of stressors. In almost all scales, females were measured or self-reported more negative attitudes and outcomes, including on physical health measures, though reasons behind this cannot be given by this research. Almost all elements also increased in negativity during the course of the observation, though again the study was not long enough or controlled enough to develop reliable explanations for why this might be the case. Additional implied criteria of the study includes differences in actual circumstances between genders in prison populations and psychological wear during long0term periods of incarceration.

Key Concepts: Prison environments are known to have a variety of psychological effects that are not beneficial, and prisons/prison systems are often under scrutiny as a result of widespread human rights abuses. Determining the perception and evaluation of prisons by inmates as well as their reactions to their incarceration in terms of psychological and health outcomes is important in determining the effects that prison has, and could potentially yield practical advice regarding rehabilitation and the reform of the prison system. Previous research has also shown a health and psychology degradation over time as inmates remained incarcerated, and this was measured as well.

Research Methods: An observational design with direct and explicit measurement was implemented, though no experimental controls were used for ethical and practical reasons. Forty male and forty female participants completed the full study, with participants predominantly white, and most had completed high school. Questionnaires and certain biometric tests (for blood pressure) were used to asses prisoners and their attitudes and perceptions in two assessments spread out by four months. The results of this data collection were then analyzed using standard statistical software and techniques to determine if there were any correlations between the measured variables, which were established using scales specifically developed for the study.

Limitations: The authors do not actually explicitly list any limitations in this study. They do note that an initial cohort comprising twenty-six individuals in addition to the eighty who yielded data for final analysis were initially included in the study, however these individuals failed to participate in the second assessment. There were some notable differences between the groups that finished the second assessment and those that did not, especially the length of prison sentences (those only completing the first assessment had shorter sentences; their release might have been a factor in their failure to complete the full study) and a lower rate of anxiety generally and regarding problems outside of prison specifically.