SOURCE:

Faculty: Social Sciences
Department: Psychology

CONTRIBUTORS:

Umeoji, I. C.
Obi-Nwosu, H.

ABSTRACT:

This study on ‘Personality and Psychological Health: A comparative study of crime suspects and non-suspects hada total number of 158 participants who were selected from Nigeria Prisons, Awka division and NnamdiAzikiwe University, Awka. They comprisedof crimesuspects who were selected using purposive sampling technique, and Part-time Undergraduates of NnamdiAzikiwe, University, selected using simple random sampling technique. Their ages ranged between 20 and 35years, with the mean age of 28.23 and standard deviation of 4.40. The Big Five Personality Inventory (BFI) by John, Donahue, and Kentle (1991) and the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) by Goldberg and Williams, (1988) were used for data collection. The result of Zero-Order Correlation Matrix Coefficients showed that: “Personality traits correlated with domains of psychological health among crime suspects and non-suspects in Anambra State; while that of Multiple Analysis of Variance showed that (i) crime suspects differed significantly only in the trait of extraversion and (ii) crime suspects differed significantly from non-suspects in the domains of psychological health. Based on the findings, it was suggested amongst others that psychological health should always be balanced in order to balance the impact of personality.