The HDHQ results of long-term prisoners: relationships with criminal and institutional behaviour

The HDHQ (Foulds, Caine & Creasy, 1960) was administered to 100 long-term prisoners as part of routine psychological assessment prior to their allocation to training prisons. The questionnaire results were analyzed in terms of the prisoners' past and present criminal and institutional behaviour. Additionally they were used to test Megargee's (1966) hypothesis that extremely assaultive individuals are generally overcontrolled and will thus express less hostility than moderately assaultive individuals. The results showed that the sample of long-term prisoners had a significantly higher total hostility score than normals but did not differ significantly in the direction of their hostility. Violent offenders were significantly more extrapunitive than non-violent offenders, and prisoners who had attempted suicide were more extrapunitive than those with no history of attempted suicide. Apart from these findings no significant relations were found between the HDHQ results and criminal and institutional behaviour, whether violent or non-violent. Megargee's (1966) over- and under-controlled hypothesis failed to receive support. The results suggest that the HDHQ would be of little value in making predictions about future violent or criminal behaviour.