Personality Prototypes in Adult Offenders

Abstract

The authors applied a person-centered approach based on the five-factor model of personality to organize personality data of criminal offenders and examine psychological differences between resulting prototypes. In the first study, 91 offenders were administered the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), the Antisocial Personality Questionnaire, the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP), the Borderline Personality Inventory, and the White Bear Suppression Inventory. In a second study of 102 offenders, the authors again used the NEO-FFI, IIP, and additional self-report instruments measuring psychopathological symptoms, social interaction problems, and functional and dysfunctional forms of self-consciousness. Cluster analyses revealed five prototypes that replicate previous ones from nonoffender studies. Subsequent analyses demonstrated systematic and psychologically meaningful differences between these groups in their tendencies to behave, think, and feel. These findings are discussed with reference to the advantages of the person-centered approach as a supplement to the predominant variable-centered approach of personality.