This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of filial therapy with incarcerated mothers as a method of increasing empathic behaviors with their children, increasing attitudes of acceptance toward their children, and reducing stress related to parenting. Filial therapy, a method of training parents to respond and interact therapeutically with their children, focuses on enhancing the parent-child relationship. The sample population of 22 volunteer subjects was drawn from a pool of incarcerated mothers in the Denton County Jail who had children between three and ten years of age. The experimental group parents, consisting of 12 incarcerated mothers, received 2-hour filial therapy training sessions biweekly for five weeks and participated in biweekly 30-minute play sessions with one of their children. The control group parents, consisting of 10 incarcerated mothers, received no treatment during the five weeks. The three written self-report instruments completed for pretesting and posttesting purposes by both groups were The Porter Parental Acceptance Scale, The Parenting Stress Index, and The Filial Problem Checklist. The parents were also videotaped in play sessions with their child before and after training as a means of measuring change in empathic behavior. Analysis of Covariance revealed that incarcerated mothers in the experimental group had significant change in 9 of 13 hypotheses, including (a) a significant increase in their level of empathic interactions with their children, (b) a significant increase in their attitude of acceptance toward their children, and (c) a significant reduction in the number of reported problems with their children's behavior. This study supports filial therapy as an effective intervention for enhancing the parent-child relationship with incarcerated mothers and their children. Utilizing instruction and practical application of positive therapeutic methods, filial therapy training empowers parents by increasing their parenting knowledge and skills, and indirectly empowers children who experience the parent-child relationship with an increase in unconditional acceptance and positive regard.

M.A. / Prisons in the South African context are considered to be places of correction for deviant individuals. The perception of the functioning of a correctional space is the correction of a particular type of functioning and the construction of another. One of the underlying assumptions of a penal system is the notion of a subject who is able to undergo a process of normalisation. This dissertation is directed towards the exploration of a different type of space that has been created within the correctional system at the Diepkloof Prison. It will be suggested herein that creative workshops, run within the prison by an outside facilitator, have succeeded in subverting the normalising discourse of the penal system, and have helped to facilitate a different type of healing experience within the confines of the institutional space. In order to place the discussion of the workshopping process within a sound theoretical framework, various theoretical questions regarding the shift from modernist to postmodern psychology are explored in some depth. It will be argued that the ideas emerging from social constructionist and narrative psychology, deconstructionist notions of language and subjectivity, as well as post-structuralist ideas on disciplinary power, offer a theoretical framework from within which to understand the healing process that occurs in the workshops themselves.

Two interrelated studies explored the self and ideal-self patterns, two important components of the total personality, of a male prison population using the Interpersonal Adjective Checklist (ICL). Both studies used the same prison subjects (n=38), who were divided equally between violent and non-violent offenders. Study I also used a normative sample (n=38) of male students. All subjects filled out two ICL forms, one with self and one with ideal-self instructions. Study I investigated the ICL patterns of the prisoners in terms of type of crime (violent vs. non-violent) and also compared the ICL scores of the prisoners (violent and non-violent) to the student group. Study II investigated the relationship between length of imprisonment and the ICL self and ideal-self patterns of the prisoners. Correlations between length of time already served and each of the thirteen ICL scores were performed for both self and ideal instruction sets (with the effects of type of crime factored out).

Proefschrift - Utrecht. / Text in Dutch with summary in Dutch, French, English, and German.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University of Pennsylvania. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Text in Afrikaans / Die tradisionele Newtoniaanse wetenskapsbeskouing berus op drie basiese aannames, naamlik lineere oorsaaklikheid, reduksionisme en objektiwiteit. Ernstige kritiek word al hoe meer teen hierdie basiese aannames van die Newtoniaanse benadering geopper. Veral vanuit die sistemiese en ekosistemiese benaderings is alternatiewelike denkraamwerke tot hierdie benadering voorgestel. Die mees kontemporere denkraamwerk (epistemologie), naamlik die ekosistemiese benadering, is gebaseer op outonomie, struktuurgedetermineerdheid, attribusie van betekenis en konstruktivisme. Hierdie ekosistemiese beginsels is in hierdie studie gebruik om gevangenisproblematiek (wat tot op hede gekenmerk was deur Newtoniaanse denke) te herkonseptualiseer. Die nuwe konseptualisering is prakties in die psigoterapeutiese proses met gevangenes ge'lllustreer. In hierdie proses is outonomie op drie vlakke (die van gevangene, terapeut en gevangenisstelsel) bevorder. Hierdie konseptualisering skyn dus 'n wetenskaplikverantwoordbare basis te bied waarbinne gevangenisstelsels beskou kan word. / The traditional Newtonian approach to science is based on three fundamental assumtions, namely linear causality, reductionism and objectivity. Serious criticism is increasingly being brought against these fundamental assumptions of the Newtonian approach. Specifically the systemic and ecosystemic approaches have presented alternative ways of thought (epistemology). The mos t contemporary epistemology, namely the ecosystemic approach, is based on autonomy, structure-determinism, attribution of meaning and constructivism. These ecosystemic principles were used in this study to reconceptualize problems associated with prisoners, problems previously approached in a Newtonian way. This new conceptualization was practically illustrated in the psychotherapeutic process with prisoners. In this process autonomy of the prisoner, therapist and the prison system was promoted. This conceptualization present a scientifically justified basis for thinking about correctional systems. / Psychology / M.A. (Sielkunde)

O objetivo da pesquisa foi estudar a psicologia dos Agentes de Segurança Penitenciária (ASPs), como integrantes de um grupo profissional no exercício de sua função no interior do cárcere. O referencial teórico foi a Teoria de Campo de Kurt LEWIN, com destaque para os conceitos de espaço de vida, pessoa e ambiente, regiões, barreiras, locomoção e tempo. O objeto de estudo foi 27 ASPs de duas Penitenciárias masculinas do Estado de São Paulo. Esses agentes foram observados em três situações de trabalho, especialmente nas portarias e nas gaiolas das penitenciárias, durante 120 horas, ou dez plantões. As observações, de matiz etnográfico, que incluíram ações, gestos, palavras e ambiente físico, foram registradas em cadernos de campo. A análise das observações foi realizada mediante a leitura dos conceitos lewinianos, subsidiada por outros estudos das prisões e das relações grupais no interior do cárcere. A sistematização das análises permitiu inferir que: i) o ambiente das prisões não é apenas perigoso e insalubre, como também lugar de trabalho precarizado e pauperizado; ii) as pessoas dos ASPs ressentem-se da condição inadequada de trabalho, mas poucos conseguem, no sentido da transformação do ambiente; iii) as más condições de trabalho levam à precarização da própria existência pessoal dos ASPs; iv) o ambiente da prisão leva à vitimização das pessoas, sejam funcionários ou presos. Os resultados foram discutidos à luz dos conceitos enunciados, que permitiram esclarecer, do ponto de vista psicossocial, o exercício da função do ASP como identidade profissional paradoxal: ora agente repressor, ora agente ressocializador. Essa ambiguidade característica resulta de uma situação de equilíbrio precário entre regiões de valências opostas e entre forças de natureza diversa, além de ser resultante da interação com o ambiente, que inclui o grupo dos ASPs e o grupo dos presos / The aim of this research was analyzing the psychology of correctional officers as members of a professional group carrying out their duty inside the prison. The theoretical reference was Kurt Lewins field theory, highlighting the concepts of life space, individual and environment, regions, barriers, locomotion and time. The purpose of the investigation was 27 correctional officers from two male correction facilities in Sao Paulo State. These officers were observed in three working situations, mainly in the gatehouses and in the prison cages, for 120 hours, or ten shifts. The observations, with ethnographic tone, which included actions, gestures, words and physical environment, were recorded in field notebooks. The analysis of the observations was accomplished through the reading of Lewinian concepts, helped by other studies on prisons and group relations inside the correction facilities. The systematization of the analyses helped inferring that: i) the environment of the correctional facilities is not only dangerous and unhealthy, but also fragile and meager; ii) the correctional officers, as human beings, are resentful of the inadequate working conditions, but few succeed, in the sense of environment transformation; iii) the bad working conditions lead to an impoverishment of the correctional officers personal existence itself; iv) the prison environment induces the victim hood of the individuals, officers and prisoners alike. The results were discussed in the light of the declared concepts, which allowed explain, in the psychosocial point of view, the correctional officers duty role as a paradoxical professional identity: sometimes a repressor agent, sometimes a resocializer agent. This distinctive ambiguity results from a precariously balanced situation among areas with opposed validity and among several different forces, and it is also a result of the interaction with the environment, which includes the group of correctional officers and the group of prisoners

No description available.

Text in Afrikaans / Die tradisionele Newtoniaanse wetenskapsbeskouing berus op drie basiese aannames, naamlik lineere oorsaaklikheid, reduksionisme en objektiwiteit. Ernstige kritiek word al hoe meer teen hierdie basiese aannames van die Newtoniaanse benadering geopper. Veral vanuit die sistemiese en ekosistemiese benaderings is alternatiewelike denkraamwerke tot hierdie benadering voorgestel. Die mees kontemporere denkraamwerk (epistemologie), naamlik die ekosistemiese benadering, is gebaseer op outonomie, struktuurgedetermineerdheid, attribusie van betekenis en konstruktivisme. Hierdie ekosistemiese beginsels is in hierdie studie gebruik om gevangenisproblematiek (wat tot op hede gekenmerk was deur Newtoniaanse denke) te herkonseptualiseer. Die nuwe konseptualisering is prakties in die psigoterapeutiese proses met gevangenes ge'lllustreer. In hierdie proses is outonomie op drie vlakke (die van gevangene, terapeut en gevangenisstelsel) bevorder. Hierdie konseptualisering skyn dus 'n wetenskaplikverantwoordbare basis te bied waarbinne gevangenisstelsels beskou kan word. / The traditional Newtonian approach to science is based on three fundamental assumtions, namely linear causality, reductionism and objectivity. Serious criticism is increasingly being brought against these fundamental assumptions of the Newtonian approach. Specifically the systemic and ecosystemic approaches have presented alternative ways of thought (epistemology). The mos t contemporary epistemology, namely the ecosystemic approach, is based on autonomy, structure-determinism, attribution of meaning and constructivism. These ecosystemic principles were used in this study to reconceptualize problems associated with prisoners, problems previously approached in a Newtonian way. This new conceptualization was practically illustrated in the psychotherapeutic process with prisoners. In this process autonomy of the prisoner, therapist and the prison system was promoted. This conceptualization present a scientifically justified basis for thinking about correctional systems. / Psychology / M.A. (Sielkunde)