Voluine 1 1, No. 2, 1995 Curopean journal of ‘ psychological assessment Official Organ Catt €uropean LETT Psychological Pratt ag Edited by R. Ferndndez-Ballesteros F. Silva rt LJ mal Hogrefe & Huber Publishers ISSN 1015-5759Table of Contents ARTICLES Christopher John Jackson: Assessing Important and Observable Personal Qualities in the General Selection Interview... 6.6... oc eee eee eee 75 Gregory J. Coram: A Rorschach Analysis of Violent Murderers and Nonviolent Offenders Peter F. de Jong: Assessment of Attention: Further Validation of the Star Counting Test Albert Maydeu-Olivares and Thomas J. D’Zurilla: A Factor Analysis of the Social Problem-Solving Inventory using Polychoric Correlations. .......+ 98 Jari-Erik Nurmi, Katariina Salmela-Aro and Tarja Haavisto: The Strategy and Attribution Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties .........000000% 108 BRIEF REPORT Tatiana Czeschlik and Hans-Christoph Niirk: Shyness and Sociability: Factor Structure ina German Sample... 6.0 ce ee 122 ITC BULLETIN Jean Cardinet: Prehistory of the International Test Commission ..........+- 128 Juan Fernandez, Miguel A. Mateo and José Muiiiz: Evaluation of the ‘Academic Seing in Sod). 133 ANNOUNCEMENT 24th International Congress of Applied Psychology .........4000e 000s 138European Journal of Psychological Assessment, Vol. 11, Issue 2, pp. 81-88 © 1995 Hogrefe & Huber Publishers A Rorschach Analysis of Violent Murderers and Nonviolent Offenders Gregory J. Coram ‘Monmouth University, New Jersey, USA Keywords: Rorschach, severe offenders, assessment The study was designed to compare the Rorschach protocols of violent murderers with nonviolent offenders. A total of 46 convicted male felons, that is, 23 violent murderers and 23 nonviolent offenders with a mean age of 34.43 and 32.48, respectively, participated in the study. Each subject was administered a Rorschach utilizing the Exner Comprehensive System for administration, scoring, and interpretation. The two groups differed at a .01 level of significance on 7 of the 22 variables that were subjected to a one-way analysis of variance. The violent murderers had a greater distortion of perceptual accuracy and cognitive mediation. In addition, they demonstrated a higher potential for impulsivity and vulnerability to stress. Both groups had a high frequency of ambitents, T-less protocols, and difficulty with emotional modulation. Although these findings should be viewed as tentative, they provide some initial information on the dif rences between the groups. Further study will be needed to replicate and extend the results. Introduction The criminal justice system continues to rely on psy- chologists to conduct evaluations for competency and insanity for sentencing decisions. In addition, police agencies request psychological profiling and assistance in understanding the personality dynam- ics of violent offenders. The need for these services will continue to grow in light of the violent crime rate and prison overcrowding (U.S. Department of Justice, 1991). Because the current prison situation has resulted in a reduction of diagnostic programs, the criminal justice system requires studies to devel- op an increased understanding of behavioral, emo- tional, and psychological indices related to violent inmates and ultimately to identify inmates at risk for violent behavior. icians have relied on objective and projective techniques to arrive at their opinions and predic- tions of behavior. As a result, numerous attempts have been made to use the MMPI to classify offend- ers (Gibbons, 1975; Holcomb, Adams, and Ponder, 1985; Kalichman, 1988; Megargee and Bohn, 1979). The WAIS has also been used to assist in developing, a criminal type (Wagner and Klein, 1977) with lim- ited success. Projective techniques, such as the Ror- schach, have been employed to assist in the under- standing and classifying of criminals by utilizing content (Lewis and Arsenian, 1982), color shading (Lester and Perdue, 1972), Egocentricity Index (Si- mon, 1985), and movement (Lester and Perdue, 1973). However, the difficulty with any attempt to compare or arrive at any conclusion from previous Rorschach studies is directly related to various scor- ing methods. Exner and Exner (1972) found that clinical psychologists use many standardized scoring systems for the Rorschach, resulting in various out- comes. Limited consensus exists regarding the patho- genesis of violent behavior; thus, an exploratory study appeared appropriate to identify particular personality variables currently associated with these type of violent inmates, Such information would have implications for future study and may provide some basis for the understanding of violence. Vio- Jent crime has been described as uncontrollable, ex- plosive, and irrational (President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, 1967). There is substantial evidence to indicate that the criminal population has an increased level of im- pulsivity and difficulty with frustration tolerance (Quay, 1965, Mischel, 1961 and Stumphauzer, 1973); and there appears to be elements of stimulation seeking and emotionality to criminal behaviors (Quay, 1965, Whitehill, DeMyer-Gapin and Scott, 1976, Eysenck, 1977). There are also indications that the cognitive development of criminals may be dif- ferent and possibly contribute to criminal activity (Warren, 1983, Morash, 1983). Therefore, since82 crimes appear to involve elements of impulsivity, emotionality, and differences in cognitive media- tion, it appears appropriate to select an instrument and system to provide information on these vari- ables. ‘There does not appear to be one specific instru- ment that provides comprehensive information on the emotional and psychological characteristics of an individual. However, the Rorschach was selected as the instrument of choice for this study because it provides specific information on impulsivity, emo- tionality and cognitive mediation. The Rorschach can also provide information on the style and ap- proach to problem solving (Exner, 1993). The Com- prehensive System was selected over other methods Table 1. Theoretically relevant variables. Gregory J. Coram for scoring and interpreting because it is more em- pirically based and its psychometric properties have been established (Exner, 1993). ‘The purpose of the present study was to compare the Rorschach protocols of a sample of incarcerated violent murderers with a sample of incarcerated of- fenders with no violence in their history, to then ob- tain findings that may be potentially useful Ror- schach indicators to identify and understand violent murders, Tables 1 and 2 list the apriori theoretically relevant and theoretically irrelevant variables se- lected by the author for the violent murderers, ‘There were four apriori hypotheses proposed in this study: — Hypothesis I: The two groups would differ on re- ality testing and ability to accurately translate and interpret events (F+%, X+%,X-%). ExnerNorms Hypothesis Il: The two groups would ae eee differ on pure C with the violent group having a higher frequency of pure C Form tional a 2 7 and possess a reduced capacity for rotate eas a 05 emotional modulation. Unusual Form 4 ‘07 — Hypothesis III: The two groups would Organizational Activity mR 3.06 differ on greater vulnerability for dis- ZFrequency — 1181 2.59 organization and difficulty with stress Common Detail Response “04 10 {olerance (D, adj D, EA, ¢s). Adjusted D Score 20 88 - Hypothesis IV: The non-violent of- Experience Actual 8.82 218 fenders group would differ with the LD - violent group providing a higher ag- Re cue on 3g _ gression score and lower Egocent Total Shading Responses 3.39 2.15 ity Index. Both groups would provide Reflection Responses 08 '35 alow pure human content when com- Human Content 339 1.80 pared to Exner norms. Egocentricity Index 39 07 Aggression Responses 1.18 1.18 Table 2, Theoretically irrelevant variables. Method Exner Norms N=700 Subjects M SD Response 22.67 423 A total of 46 convicted felons, 23 violent Lanbda “58 26 murderers and 23 nonviolent offenders, Whole Response 855 194 from 2 northeastern prisons participated Gono ee 0 in the study. The violent-murder group —. rey {92 Was male with a mean age of 34.43 (SD ‘Animal Movement 37 119 = 7.40); the nonviolent offender group Form Dimension 1.16 ‘82 was also male with a mean age of 32.48 Texture 1.03 58 (SD =6.65). The groups were 76% white, Mower emit 54s 193299 African American and 4% ispanie Space 47 121 American all from a predominately low Weighted Sum Color 3.28 2.89 socioeconomic status with no significant Food Content 23 50 difference related to race or type of in- Pr Populars P18 carceration between the groups. BothRorschach Analysis of Offenders groups had access to the community, none was on death row, and all had access to recreational areas and equipment. The difference was observed in the type of job assignment. The violent murderers had more structured and supervised jobs when com- pared with the nonviolent group. The criterion for inclusion in the violent murderer group was a homi- cide that involved mutilation, removal of body parts, or repeated knife wounds to the victim. Nonviolent offenders met criterion by having no arrests for per- sonal crimes, e. g.,robbery or assault on their past or current records. Furthermore, none of the subjects had a documented psychiatric history. Procedure Subjects were randomly selected from a list gener- ated by the records department of each institution. Criteria for departmental selection were supplied well in advance of the testing. These criteria in- cluded selection of inmates, based on their specific type of crime; no documented psychiatric history; and a complete criminal history. Each subject par- ticipated in a single session lasting about 2.5 hours, and was advised that the study was designed to assist policymakers in developing more effective inmate programs. The subjects were asked to complete a Draw-A-Person, a Rorschach, and to verbally re- port two of their earliest memories from childhood. Rorschach protocols were administered and scored utilizing the Comprehensive System (Exner, 1985). 83 Each protocol was independently scored twice, once by a graduate student trained in the Exner System and again by the author with scoring discrepancies referred to a colleague for resolution, The protocols were randomly distributed to the raters so they were unaware of the type of subject assessed in each pro- tocol. Interrater agreement for all categories was at least 90%, except for special scores that resulted in an 88% interrater agreement. The data were organ- ized using the Computerized Rorschach Interpreta- tion Assistance Program (Exner, McGuire, & Co- hen, 1985), and statistical analyses were undertaken. with the assistance of Rorschach Workshops. Results and Discussion Descriptive statistics were calculated for the Ror- schach variables as well as for the ratios contained in the Structural Summary (Exner, 1986a) and served as the basis for subsequent chi-square and one-way ANOVA analyses. Between group differ- ences, p<.01,were found on seven of the twenty-two variables subjected to a one-way analyses, and no group difference reached p<.01 for variables sub- jected to Chi-square analyses (see Tables 3 & 4). Rorschach Workshops assisted in the statistical analyses of these data and included three variables (Isolation Index, Intellectualization Index, and Weighted Sum C) in their statistical package that ‘Table 3. Theoretically relevant variables for violent murderers. Violent murderers Nonviolent offenders N=23 N=23 M SD M SD F cs Form 8 4 3 AS 61 ‘Conventional Form 33 33 55 2B 30 Distorted Form 39 45 20 12 20.96** Unusual Form 07 09 20 09 22.63" Organizational Activity - 95 470 -1.75 452 35 Z Frequency 11.26 4.62 7.83 334 8.18 Common Detail Response. 1.73 219 132 Adjusted D Score - 3 1280-39 1.34 Experience Actual 483 258 356 2.86 251% Experienced Stimulation 9.83 585 6.26 2.94 681" Affective Ratio 4 18 49 2 1.25 Sum Color 3.61 215 178 1.65 10.45** Pure C: Pure Color 09 29 43 79 3.50 ‘Sum Shading: Total Shading 6.00 436 3.13 251 7.49" FriF: Reflection Responses 39 i) 7 49 192 H: Human Content 2.13 142 143 150 52 3r+(2)/R: ——-Egocentricity Index 38 7 25 2B 935 AG: ‘Aggression Responses 39 2 3 46 228 * P<.05,** P<0184 Gregory J. Coram Table 4. Theoretically irrelevant variables for violent murderers. ‘Violent murderers: Nonviolent offenders. N=23 N=3 M SD M SD F ¢ Response 2.56 528 19.04 415 520° Lambda 1.00 66 157 132 344 Whole Response 9.52 424 626 267 3.72 Common Detail Response 10.22 433 9.61 3.66 28 Unusual Detail Response 2.52 1,62 317 1.27 06 Human Movement 2.26 186 2.00 1.76 1,00 Animal Movement 2.56 2.04 230 169 2 Form Dimension 4A 66 48 66 82 Texture m1 112 56 90 80 Multiple Determinant 3.74 2.93 1.74 1.54 8.40%" Morbid 43 BB 65 1.07 65 Space 22 1.62 1.65 123 178 ‘Weighted Sum Color 717 7.60 3.09 28 5.82 Food Content 13 0.00 09 29 26 Populars 3.78 1.88 3.70 14 02, * P<.05,** P<.01 were not part of the apriori hypothesis and not spe- cifically requested for analysis. Therefore, only the 18 requested variables that were subjected to a one- way ANOVA will be discussed in this study. The three additional variables do not appear in any ta- bles of the apriori theoretically relevant and theo- retically irrelevant variable list. Tables 3 and 4 con- tain means, standard deviation, and significance lev- els for the two groups, and Tables 1 and 2 contain means and standard deviations for Exner norms presented for purpose of comparisons. Table 5 con- tains frequencies and percentages for the structural variables for Exner norms, and Table 6 contains fre- quencies and percentages for the structural vari- ables for violent murderers and nonviolent offend- ers. Exner’s norms were comprised of volunteer sub- jects who predominately from middle-class and lower-class groups. Since Exner’s data were not based on a criminal population, the discussion of re- sults is tentative and the study requires replication and extension of the findings. Given this premise, however, there were eighteen variables hypothe- sized to be theoretically relevant to the differentia- tion of the violent homicide offenders from the non- violent offenders (see Table 3); and fifteen variables considered irrelevant to the differentiation of the two groups (see Table 4). However, two of the irrel- evant variables did differentiate the two groups: blends (p<.01); responses (p<.05). Because these were not part of the hypothesized relative variables, they should be considered with extreme caution. ‘The two groups differed in regard to the frequen- cy of responses (R) given, F (1,44) = 5.28, p<.05 (see Table 4); however, Exner (1992) reported that sta- tistically significant response differences between groups do not mean that R should be partialed, or normalized, for all variables. He further stated, “In most instances, the results will probably lead to the conclusion that controlling for R is not necessary for most or all of the variables that are to be included in an analysis” (Exner, 1992, p.248). Both groups had F+% mean scores that averaged fourteen points below Exner’s norms for nonpatients and X+% mean scores that averaged 24 points below Exner norms for nonpatients (Exner, 1990), The nonviolent offenders had a high Xu% when com- pared to the violent groups F(1,44) = 22.63, p<.01; whereas the violent offenders had a higher X-%, F(1,44) = 20.96, p<.01; and both groups had an X-%, mean of .23 above Exner’s normative sample. ‘The finding of alow F% in both groups indicated a disturbance with reality testing. However, the vio- lent group demonstrated a more pervasive deficit in perceptual inaccuracy and a disturbance in their ability to translate and interpret events in the same manner as most people. The possibility of a thought disturbance within this group is further supported by the finding that the violent murderers had a sig- nificantly higher frequency of weighted special scores (WSum6), a measure of distorted thinking, when compared to the nonviolent offenders. In ad- dition, 43% of the violent offenders had a Schizo- phrenic Index of 4 when compared with a normative sample of 0. The nonviolent offenders scored significantly lower on ZF, F(1,44) = 8.18, p<.01, when compared to the violent criminals. The ZF is a measure of aRorschach Analysis of Offenders ‘Table 5, Frequencies and percentages for structured vari- ables for Exner norms. Exner Norms N=700 Variable Frequency % EB Style Tntroversive 251 36 Ambitent 143 20 Extratensive 306 44 EA-ES Deo 89 B Del 30 4 EA-ES (Adjusted) DO 66 9 Det 27 4 ZD Score 43.0 127 18 ‘(Over Incorporator) <-3.0 37 5 (Under Incorporator) (FM+M) Online via SFX Standor Freihand 04 Signatur: UG 2054 Beschreibung: 11(1995) Bestellter Artikel: Autor: Coram, Gregory J Titel: A Rorschach analysis of violent murderers and nonviolent offenders. Seiten: 81-88. Kommentar: http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBu Bestellt am: 29/04/2010 Abholort: MAIL E-Mall: iraz.aydin@epfl.ch Benutzer: E-487527 AYDIN Iraz EPFL SV ISREC GR-BEERMANN ‘SV 2540 (Batiment SV) Station 19 CH-1015 Lausanne Auftragsnummer: 1914 Anzahl kopierter Seiten: AO Datum: 20.04.10