Effectiveness of a self-administered intervention for criminal thinking: Taking a Chance on Change

Purpose in Life: Addressing Transdiagnostic Psychopathologies Concerning Patients' Sense of Purpose

ABSTRACT

Having a purpose in life is strongly associated with well-being and quality of life. Some individuals develop their sense of purpose early in life and can sustain lifelong ideals. In contrast, we identify four transdiagnostic syndromes where purpose in life is impaired: 1) deficiencies in generating purpose; 2) loss of purpose due to traumatic events such as catastrophic illnesses or bereavements; 3) conflicts due to crossed purposes; and 4) maladaptive purposes, such as life-limiting single-minded goals, dominating others, or exacting revenge. Several psychotherapies associated with positive and existential psychologies help patients construct, reconstruct, or retain a sense of purpose. However, given the strong links between a sense of purpose and beneficial health and mental health outcomes, the authors suggest that many patients in psychiatric treatment including psychotherapies will benefit from attention to these issues. This article reviews approaches for assessing and addressing purpose in life in psychiatric treatment, to enhance patients' healthy sense of purpose where this characteristic is impaired.

A psychometric reevaluation of the TCU criminal thinking scales (CTS)

In the United States, approximately 9 million people cycle in and out of jail and more than 600,000 people are released from prison each year. Unfortunately, the reentry process includes several barriers people must overcome (e.g., criminal thinking) to achieve adequate psychosocial functioning. As such, valid and reliable assessments that allow correctional staff to monitor clients' progress in treatment and test program effectiveness are paramount to reducing this major public safety concern. The TCU Criminal Thinking Scales (CTS) are a widely used assessment of criminal thinking in correctional settings. This study reevaluated the psychometric properties of the TCU CTS using Item Response Theory. Results showed the TCU CTS had good internal reliability and each scale loaded onto one factor. Item level analysis revealed most items adequately fit the model, generally measuring moderate levels of criminal thinking. Furthermore, several TCU CTS scales were negatively correlated with motivation for treatment and psychosocial functioning.

Assessing the Proactive and Reactive Dimensions of Criminal Thought Process: Divergent Patterns of Correlation With Variable- and Person-Level Measures of Criminal Risk and Future Outcome

The goal of this study was to determine whether measures of proactive and reactive criminal thinking display divergent patterns of correlation with outside criteria. A sample of 3,039 male medium-security federal prisoners who completed the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) served as participants in this study. Despite being highly correlated (r = .75), the PICTS proactive and reactive scales displayed divergent patterns of correlation with the eight risk/outcome measures. As predicted, the proactive scale corresponded with lower criminal risk, older age of first conviction, and decreased odds of prior substance misuse and mental illness, whereas the reactive scale corresponded with higher criminal risk, earlier age of first conviction, greater odds of prior substance misuse and mental illness, and more evidence of subsequent arrest. Contrary to predictions, the proactive scale was associated with increased rather than decreased commission of disciplinary infractions in prison. When participants with elevated proactive scores were compared to participants with elevated reactive scores on the eight risk/outcome variables, the results revealed that the two profiles were moderately negatively correlated. Thus, although proactive criminal thinking is associated with below-average criminal risk and below-average future negative outcomes, reactive criminal thinking does just the opposite.