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Incarceration and Learned Helplessness

Department of Psychology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas 77341, U.S.A.

David K. Marcus

Department of Psychology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341-2447, U.S.A., psydikm{at}shsu.edu

This study examined whether incarceration, which involves prolonged exposure to an uncontrollable aversive environment, results in the development of a more helpless attributional style. Thirty recently incarcerated male inmates and 30 male inmates who had been incarcerated for at least 5 years completed two measures of attributional style. Inmates who had been incarcerated for at least 5 years reported a more internal, stable, and global attributional style for negative events than did the recently incarcerated inmates, even when controlling for age and length of sentence. These findings suggest that prolonged exposure to an uncontrollable situation may have an influence on attributional style.

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 42, No. 3, 224-232 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X9804200304


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