Influence of Social Acceptance on Emotions, Hope and Resilience among Imprisoned Women in India

Abstract

Imprisonment in law is the specific state of being physically incarcerated or confined in an institutional setting such as a prison, which has an impact on a person’s physical, emotional and behavioural well-being. Social acceptance is the desire to form and maintain close, lasting relationships with others. Emotions are defined as a complex state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behaviour. Hope is defined as the perception that one can reach desired goals. Resilience refers to a class of phenomena characterised by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity or risk. The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of perceived social acceptance of women prisoners on their dominant emotions (i.e., positive or negative). The study also examines the relationship between the dominant emotions and their impact on the hope and resilience of the women prisoners. The data of 55 women prisoners is collected from the Women’s Jail Cell, Central Jail Tihar, New Delhi and data is analysed. A Pearson Correlation is calculated to establish a relationship between Perceived Social Acceptance and Positive Affect and Negative Affect, which results as— Perceived Social Acceptance correlates positively with Positive Affect and negatively with Negative Affect, however, the results weren’t statistically significant (p>0.05). In addition, an independent t-test between Positive Affect, Negative Affect, Hope and Resilience showed that women inmates with dominant Positive Affect positively impacted their Hope and Resilience (p<0.05). The results are discussed within the framework of the literature.