HOSTILITY IN RELATION TO SEX EDUCATION OF INMATES

MICHAEL TAIT MCCROCKLIN, Purdue University

Abstract

An intensive sex education course was offered to inmates of a major southern correctional institution. The course consisted of one two-hour session for each of eight consecutive working days. Readings, workbook exercises, impromptu lectures and discussions were used to convey biological and psychological material. Among the biological topics included were anatomy, physiology, fertilization, pregnancy, birth and birth control. Psychological topics included male and female sexual dysfunction, pedophilia, incest, transvestism, transsexualism, exhibitionism, and rape. The course also devoted considerable attention to reduction of inmates' hostility (i.e. wrongful use of punishment) and passivity (i.e. lack of appropriate response). By presenting lectures which described and recommended assertive reinforcement techniques (i.e. rightful techniques through which the probability of desirable behaviors of persons may be increased through use of pleasure or reduction of pain) and by applying the same techniques to modify the inmates' behaviors in the classroom, the instructor attempted to replace inmates' hostile, punishing behavior with more socially appropriate responses. The literature suggested that hostility is inversely related to hostility-guilt (i.e. a generalized expectancy for self-monitored punishment for violating or anticipating the violation of internalized standards which limit hostility). Using the concept of hostility-guilt allowed the author to test two opposing hypotheses. One hypothesis was based upon the fact that hostility-guilt has been positively correlated with sex-guilt which tends to decrease during sex education, a fact which suggested that hostility-guilt would decrease during sex education. The other hypothesis was based upon the fact that the course attempted to reduce hostility, a fact which suggested that hostility-guilt would increase. A null hypothesis was developed that means of ranks of difference scores computed from the pretest and posttest hostility-guilt scores of treatment and control subjects would be equal. Forty interested inmates were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions, twenty in each group. All subjects were tested before and after the treatment course using the Hostility-Guilt Subscale of the Mosher Forced-Choice Inventory. Control subjects then completed their course. Only the scores of those who successfully completed their assigned courses were analyzed. Nineteen treatment and seventeen control subjects participated in the research. Alpha was set at .01 for the two-tailed test. The Wilcoxon T analysis indicated that hostility-guilt scores decreased for treatment subjects, but not for control subjects. The sex education course apparently caused a decrease in hostility-guilt. If the Hostility-Guilt Subscale is valid as a retesting device, the decrease in hostility-guilt would indicate an increase in inmate hostility, an undesirable result which would be remarkable given the goal of the course to reduce hostility. A number of explanations for the observed result were offered including the possibilities that the course failed to control inmates' influence over one another and that the Hostility-Guilt Subscale may have misinterpreted increases in assertive behavior as reduced hostility-guilt (i.e. increased hostility). Generalizability of the results are limited due to the unusual nature of the course and its participants. More research is advised.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Psychology

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