Paradoxes of experiencing time and functioning in Prison – longitudinal studies and their implications for psychological interventions

Abstract

The following work presents a study of a group of 10 men serving a prison sentence, concerning temporal dispositions of their personality (i.e. time perspective, hope, future anxiety, acceptance of the past). The research was longitudinal—it was repeated after one year in order to check whether and to what extent these variables changed under the conditions of a specific situation—a stay in prison. In the course of the research, slight, statistically significant changes in the profile of temporal variables were noticed in the group of respondents after one year. There were also significant differences in the level of these variables compared to the validation groups, which shows the specificity of this group of prisoners. Based on in-depth analysis of two case studies, exemplary directions for social rehabilitation and psychological support for prisoners, which consider their temporal experiences, were proposed.

Keywords:

• time perspective
• prison time
• longitudinal study
• case study
• psychological support

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude for the effort put into organizing the research, goodwill, and full cooperation to the Warden of the Penitentiary Facility in Trzebinia, Lt. Col. Tomasz Wacławek.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Center under Grant [No. 2015/18/E/HS6/00346].