The impact of group therapy on penitentiary vocational and academic education programs.

Abstract

Summary The effects of participation in group therapy on inmates' perception of a penitentiary academic and vocational education programs were studied. Subjects were 175 inmates of a Canadian penitentiary. It was hypothesized that participation in group therapy would heighten inmates' perception of the utility of vocational training as a rehabilitative device but would have no effect on their perceptions of utility of academic education. Results indicate that group therapy assisted in developing more positive attitudes among inmates towards vocational training, but had no effect on their low evaluation of academic education. Actual participation in programs, through the operation of pressures to reduce cognitive dissonance created by such participation, was more effective in creating positive evaluations in the case of academic education than in the case of vocational education.