Personality traits and self-concept among prisoners and non-prisoners

Abstract

Personality traits possessed by an individual is what completes that individual. Personality traits are both acquired and learnt. This gives rise to the question if criminals are born with certain traits or if they gradually learnt these traits. Self-concept is the knowledge one has about himself. So are criminals aware of themselves while committing a crime or is it an impulsive decision made during a stressful situation. The present study is aimed obtaining the differences and relationship between personality traits and self-concept among prisoners and non-prisoners. The sampling method used was purposive sampling with a sample size of 71 (30 prisoners and 41 non-prisoners). The tools used were NEO Five-Factor Inventory (McCrae R, Costa P T, 1985), to determine the personality traits and Robson Self-Concept Questionnaire (Robson, 1989), to determine the self-concept of the participants. The statistical methods used were Independent Samples t-test and Pearson’s product moment coefficient of correlation. The results indicated that prisoners did not differ significantly in personality traits such as neuroticism, openness and agreeableness and self-concept from non-prisoners. However, prisoners showed higher levels of neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness and lower level of self-concept than non-prisoners. This research also showed that, there exists a significant relationship between personality traits neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and self-concept.