ARTICLE INFO

Article Type

Descriptive & Survey Study

Authors

Akbari   A. (1)
Ghanbari Hashemabadi   B. (*)
Asghari Ebrahimabad   M. (1)
Azadeganmehr   M. (1)






(*) Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
(1) Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Correspondence

Address: Faculty of Education and Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Azadi Square, Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran
Phone: +98 (51) 38426003
Fax: +98 (51) 38426003
ghanbarih@um.ac.i

Article History

Received:  September  21, 2017
Accepted:  January 29, 2018
ePublished:  April 25, 2018

BRIEF TEXT


‎... [1]. Criminals and their psychiatric problems in particular are among the most challenging areas of ‎research [2]. The psychiatric problems are more prevalent in the prison populations compared to the ‎general population. Anti-social personality disorders (86.2%) were found to be the most prevalent ‎disorder and Dependent personality disorders (60%) and Sadistis-aggression disorder(56.2%) were ‎ranked second and third in this regard [3]. ... [4, 5].‎

‎... [6]. Criminals often suffer from anti-social personality disorder. They are usually inflicted by ‎Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders. The risk of suicide is very high among these people and their ‎mental health is very poor [7]. In another study, 29.5% of prisoners have been reported to have been ‎suffering from borderline personality disorder. Prisoners with borderline personality disorder have a ‎worse quality of life than offenders without borderline personality disorder [8]. Executive function is ‎one of the individualistic aspects that can be affected by personality disorders. Executable functions ‎‎(EF) are higher-order cognitive processes that regulate thoughts and direct behaviors by penetrating ‎into lower-order cognitive processes [9]. … [10-12]. Research evidences suggests that different EF ‎impairments are associated with distinct forms of antisocial behavior and patterns of aggressive ‎behavior [13]. Some studies show that people with personality disorder suffer from cognitive function ‎problems [14]. Significant defects have been observed in decision making, working memory, ‎inhibition and flexibility of people with personality disorders [15]. Other studies on borderline ‎personality disorder, have shown a defect in planning, problem solving [16, 17] and inhibition ‎abilities of individuals [18]. Obsessive-compulsive disorder has also been reported to be associated ‎with deficiency in inhibition, cognitive flexibility [19], planning [20], and working memory [21]. ‎Antisocial personality disorder has also been reported to be associated with decision making, ‎attention, reversal learning, and planning [22], movement deficiencies and behavioral inhibition [23]. ‎Narcissistic personality disorder is reportedly associated with decision making deficiencies [24].‎

Development of personality disorders, including antisocial personality disorder and borderline ‎personality disorder are among the problems that offenders usually grapple with. Considering the ‎increasing number of offenders and prisoners in our society and given that commitment of crimes can ‎socially and economically undermine families, in the present study attempts are made to investigate ‎the role of personality disorders in accounting for the executive function deficiencies among prisoners.‎

The present research is a descriptive-correlational study.‎

This research was conducted on all male prisoners of the Mashhad Central Prison Counseling Unit in ‎‎2017.‎

Random sampling method was used to select a sample of approximately 100 individuals from among ‎youth counseling units.‎

Millon’s multidimensional personality inventory and Barkley’s Deficits in executive functioning scale ‎were used for data collection purposes. The reliability of the Persian version of the Millon’s ‎multidimensional personality inventory was obtained from the test-retest method for personality ‎disorder scales 0/58 to 0.93 (depressed). The reliability of clinical syndrome scales also ranged from ‎‎0.44 (post-traumatic stress disorder) to 0.95 (major depression) with an average of 0.80 [25]. ‎Barkley’s deficits in executive functioning scale includes 5 subscales. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient ‎of the entire scale was 0.918. The Cronach’s alpha coefficient for self-management/self-regulation, ‎problem solving, self-control/inhibition, self-stimulation and emotional self-regulation, were ‎reportedly equal to 0.945, 0.958, 0.93, 0.914, and 0.946 respectively [26]. After obtaining legal permits ‎from Mashhad Prison, the questionnaires were distributed in prison counseling units. Before ‎answering the questions, ethical issues including confidentiality and voluntary completion of ‎questionnaires were described to individuals. Pearson correlation test and multiple regression test ‎were used in SPSS 21 software order to analyze the correlation between different types of personality ‎disorders and evaluate their power in prediction of the executive function deficits respectively.‎

The mean age of the subjects was 22.26±3.51 years. 2% of them were illiterate, 84% had a diploma and ‎lower education degrees, and 10% had university education. It should be noted that 4% of subjects did ‎not mention their education. 69% of the samples were single, 20% were married and the marital status ‎of 11% of them was unclear. The total score of the executive function deficits was 182.98±45.83. ‎Depression disorder, from among other personality disorders, received the highest score ‎‎(72.97±22.88) (Table 1). The results of the correlation between executive function deficits and ‎personality disorders revealed that there is a significant correlation between personality disorders, ‎except for Schizoid personality disorder, and executive function deficiencies and the total score of this ‎variable (p<0.05). The dependent personality disorder (r=0.55; p=0.01), and the obsessive-compulsive ‎disorder (r=0.52; p=0.01), had the highest correlation with the total score of executive function ‎deficiencies (Table 2). In order to use stepwise multiple regression, input variables were introduced ‎into the equation, and according to the test results, these variables had a significant relationship with ‎the criterion variable. According to the test results, obsessive-compulsive, dependent and schizotypal ‎personality disorders with the predictive coefficients of -0.34, 0.30 and 0.24 (respectively) had the ‎highest ability to account for the executive function deficits.‎

The results of another study showed that there is a significant correlation between cognitive deficit and ‎non-ethical and criminal behaviors [27]. The results indicated that executive function impairment is ‎significantly correlated with severity and frequency of aggressive crimes [28]. Individuals with ‎obsessive-compulsive and anti-social personality disorders have poorer performance in executive ‎functions, compared to normal individuals. These individuals are also showed poorer of inhibition, ‎decision-making and attention performance compared to normal individuals [29].‎

The authors are recommended to conduct a research on both male and female subjects in order to ‎provide the ground for comparative analysis of executive function deficits and personality disorders ‎among males and females. They are also recommended to use other cognitive tests such as Stroop and ‎tower of London tests to address executive function deficits. Psychologists are also recommended to ‎formulate appropriate educational and treatment programs tailored to the type of executive function ‎deficits in behavioral disorders.‎

The limitations of this study include small population size that prevented generalization of results to ‎larger populations.‎

Some personality disorders may affect determination of executive function deficits among prisoners.‎

The authors would like the express their thankfulness to the authorities of the Mashhad central prison ‎in general, and to Hossein Kashani, the manager of Counseling & Psychotherapy unit in e Mashhad ‎central prison as well as all the prisoners who cooperated with them in conduction of this research.‎

No conflict of interests was observed during the conduction and authorship of the research.‎

The present study was approved by the research ethics committees of Ferdowsi university of Mashhad ‎and the committee of Mashhad prisons’ organization.‎

The researchers used no funding sources.‎

TABLES and CHARTS

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