Danuta Rode

Criminal sentence is supposed to be just reflection of the gravity of the violations of social norms by an individual in given circumstances. It therefore should be a reliable base for measurement of antisocial tendencies in offenders. Decades of research consistently show that autonomic under-arousal is a significant predictor of crime, violence and antisocial behaviour (AB). No research to date tried to study relationship between length of criminal sentences and physiological measures of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. Our study aimed to check if parameters of criminal sentences are good quantification of antisocial tendencies by correlating it with their known physiological correlate – resting heart rate (HR). We correlated sum of sentences, largest individual sentence and legal limits for most serious offence as documented in criminal records with resting HR in 74 young adult incarcerated criminal offenders aged 18–20. In line with the hypothesis we obtained Pearson’s coefficients of r = -.443; r = -.451 and r = -.397 respectively as well as Spearman’s coefficients ρ = -.408; ρ = -.492 and ρ = -.406 respectively, all significant at p < .001.
Our research shows that resting heart rate can be a robust predictor of criminal conduct when the latter is quantified precisely and objectively with criminal records. This directs further research in this field towards measuring AB using methods less sensitive to impression management and informant bias, not relying on self-report but on documented behaviour vides empirical support to the validity of codified principles of criminal law as ways of expressing offenders’ level of social misconduct.

FINANSOWANIE

* Research was financed from a SWPS University for Social Sciences and Humanities grant for statutory research WP/2018/A/94. Authors declare no further financial sources or potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Chosen Predictors of Psychosocial Integrity in Late Adulthood

According to the Erikson’s theory, personality development is associated with a positive resolution of developmental confl icts, appearing in stages, as a result of human interaction with the social and culture world. People in late adulthood are faced with the diffi cult task of finding a balance between the syntonic and dystonic feature of ego – integrity and despair – having a chance to develop life wisdom, deciding how to perceive themselves, other people and the surrounding world. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss predictors of psychosocial integrity in the late adulthood. Psychosocial integrity was a dependent variable, while the level of basic hope, level of depression and anxiety as a trait and selected sociodemographic data – were independent variables. The study of elderly people (N = 152) used the Measures of the Psychosocial Development (MPD) by G. Hawley (polish adaptation: Z. Uchnast), the Basic Hope Inventory (BHI-12) by J. Trzebiński and M. Zięba, the Hospital Scale of Anxiety and Depression (HADS) by A.S. Zigmond and R.P. Snaith (polish adaptation: K. de Walden-Gałuszko and M. Majkowicz) and the Sociodemographic Data Sheet, designed by the authors of the study. It  has been proved that the level of psychosocial integrity depends mainly on the level of basic hope, but it is also determined by the level of education of the respondents, which is  important for the perceived level of anxiety and depression.