The Relationship between Attitudes toward Social Interdependence and Psychological Health within Three Criminal Populations

Abstract

Attitudes toward cooperative, competitive, and individualistic situations were correlated with a number of measures of criminal attitudes and thought patterns and psychological pathology. Three male-criminal samples from correctional institutions were included in the study: 62 juvenile inmates, 25 prisoners in a minimal security prison, and 36 prisoners in a maximal security prison. The results indicate that the more cooperatively oriented the inmates, the greater their psychological health; competitiveness had some relationship to psychological health; and positive attitudes toward individualistic situations were correlated with psychological pathology, alienation, and criminal attitudes and thought patterns. These results provide some indication of the possible long-term impact of the three types of social interdependence, extend previous research to criminal samples, and relate the literature on social interdependence with the literature on psychological health and criminality.