Murderers and Overcontrolled Hostility

Abstract

Lester, et ul. (1974) predicted that overcontrolled murderers should be more depressed and more introverted than undercontrolled murderers. To test this prediction, 16 inmates who had been sentenced for murder were given the Maudsley Personality Inventory (Jensen, 1958) to measure introversion, the Zung (1965) self-rating depression scale, and the overcontrol of hostility scale (Megargee, et dl., 1967). The men were 27.0 yr. old (SD = 3.1) and had served 7.4 yr. of their sentence (SD = 2.3). The product-moment correlation between overcontrol of hostility and depression was -0.28, nonsignificant and in a direction opposite to the prediction. The correlation between overcontrol and introversion was -0.36, nonsignificant and in a direction opposite to that predicted1 One may also note that overcontrol correlated significantly with Lie scale scores on the Maudsley Personality Inventory, suggesting that overcontrolled individuals do indeed control their impulses unduly. This failure to find that murderers whose aggressive impulses are more overcontrolled are either depressed or introverted casts doubt on the prediction. However, this sample was tested after the murders and after several years of institutionalization. It may be that the predictions of Lester, et al. would be confirmed in a sample of murderers tested prior to the release of aggression.