Violent Behavior: Personality Theories

When individuals commit crimes, particularly violent ones, lawyers and judges as well as the public at large are interested in determining why. An assessment of the offender's personality or ego development can be very helpful in this regard, because it is designed to reveal how a particular person makes sense of the world. In addition to helping interpret behavior, knowing an individual's personality level can be useful in evaluating the credibility of his or her statements. This is often invaluable in assessing issues related to the prognosis and likelihood of continued criminal behavior, as well as in charting appropriate treatment strategies.

Several frameworks for measuring personality or ego development currently exist. The four that have been used most extensively in classifying offenders in numerous correctional agencies across the United States and Canada are interpersonal level of maturity theory, Hunt's conceptual level, Megargee's MMPIbased typology, and Quay's adult internal management system (AIMS). Interpersonal level of maturity theory and conceptual level are theoretically derived systems; in contrast, Megargee's and Quay's classification systems are empirically derived.

These four systems can be further distinguished in terms of whether they classify offenders according to personality traits, developmental criteria, or both. Personality-based typologies distinguish people on the basis of traits, whereas classification systems based on stages or levels diagnose individuals according to developmental criteria. Megargee's MMPI and Quay's AIMS systems are personality based, conceptual level is a developmental system, and interpersonal [Page 499]level of maturity theory is both a developmental and personality classification system.

Megargee's MMPI-based typology was constructed for youthful and adult offenders from results obtained from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the most widely used psychological test. Ten categories were developed through a process of separating MMPI profiles on the basis of common profile configurations. Megargee gave the 10 personality types nondescript names to ensure that an empirical process sorted out the behavioral characteristics associated with each type. Classification using this system requires that an individual complete the MMPI. Research has indicated that most agencies can classify two thirds of the profiles by computer. The remaining third, consisting of tied diagnoses or unclassified cases, must be classified clinically.

Quay's AIMS system generates scores for adult offenders on five dimensions (asocial aggressive, immature dependent, manipulative, neurotic anxious, and situational) on the basis of two objective instruments. A correctional employee who is knowledgeable of the inmate's behavior completes one; a staff member who has examined the inmate's background reports and who has conducted a general intake or presentence interview completes the second. Similar administration procedures are used with juvenile delinquents, yielding type descriptions that are similar but not identical.

Hunt's conceptual level (CL) is a cognitive-developmental model initially designed for educational purposes and subsequently used with juvenile correctional populations. CL builds on conceptual systems theory, a general theory of personality development. Individuals are classified on a developmental hierarchy in terms of increasing social maturity, conceptual complexity, independence, and self-responsibility. Conceptual development proceeds through a maximum of four conceptual levels. In juvenile delinquent settings, CL has been typically used in conjunction with the conceptual level matching model to determine the level of environmental structure needed by a particular client. The paragraph completion method is used to determine CL by averaging responses to the sentence stems. Although CL is considered a continuum, applications of the system require that types be formulated. Four types have been proposed for use with delinquents.

...