Ireland Jane L, Quinn Karen
Department of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK.
Aggress Behav. 2007 Jan-Feb;33(1):63-72. doi: 10.1002/ab.20168.
The aim of the current study was to explore attitudes towards self-harm in a sample of prison officers, with subsidiary aims of assessing if these attitudes alter as a function of the prisoner's behavior and the sex of the participant.
One hundred and sixty-two officers (100 men and 62 women) completed a general measure of their attitudes towards prisoners and one designed to assess Attitudes towards Prisoners who Self-Harm (APSH). Participants rated their perceptions of two adult male prisoners depicted in vignettes. The vignettes depicted identical types of self-harm but varied the behavioral characteristics of the prisoners involved, with one depicted as "well-behaved" and the other as "disruptive".
Women were more likely than men to report positive attitudes towards self-harm and in particular were less likely than men to endorse negative myths regarding self-harm. The prisoner depicted as "disruptive" invoked increased negative attitudes than the "well-behaved" prisoner. This finding was consistent across sex.
The current study indicates that APSH are comprised of a number of components that were influenced by the sex of the participant and the behavioral characteristics of the prisoners depicted. The implications of these findings to practice are discussed.
本研究旨在探讨狱警样本对自残行为的态度，附带目的是评估这些态度是否会因囚犯行为以及参与者的性别而改变。
162名狱警（100名男性和62名女性）完成了一项关于他们对囚犯态度的一般测量以及一项旨在评估对自残囚犯态度（APSH）的测量。参与者对小短文中描述的两名成年男性囚犯的看法进行了评分。小短文描述了相同类型的自残行为，但涉及的囚犯行为特征有所不同，其中一名被描述为“行为良好”，另一名被描述为“具有破坏性”。
女性比男性更有可能报告对自残行为持积极态度，特别是比男性更不可能认同关于自残行为的负面错误观念。被描述为“具有破坏性”的囚犯比“行为良好”的囚犯引发了更多的负面态度。这一发现男女一致。
本研究表明，对自残囚犯的态度由多个成分组成，这些成分受到参与者的性别以及所描述囚犯的行为特征的影响。讨论了这些发现对实践的意义。
