Abstract
This study investigated the hypothesis that psychopathic prisoners classified on the basis of MMPI profiles should have lower scores on the Repression-Sensitization (R-S) scale than prisoners manifesting psychiatric disturbance or normal prisoners. MMPIs were administered to 177 male prisoners, and all records (N = 144) not grossly invalid were scored for the R-S and Taylor Manifest Anxiety (MAS) scales. Analyses of variance indicated that prisoners manifesting psychiatric disturbance had higher R-S and MAS scores than normal prisoners or psychopathic prisoners. There was no difference between normal prisoners and psychopathic prisoners. In view of anr of .84 between R-S and MAS scores, it was concluded that the two scales apparently measure the same thing. Implications of the findings for the diagnostic classification and prediction of response to treatment of prisoners were also discussed.
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