At a glance
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Proposing Forgiveness Therapy for Those in Prison: An Intervention for Reducing Anger and Promoting Psychological Health
In Brief
A clinical study evaluating Forgiveness Therapy and Carey Guides for Forgiveness. Completed, enrolled 24 participants across 1 site.
Detailed Summary
Previous studies found that a large number of prisoners experienced unjust treatment from others, which can lead to deep inner pain or anger, prior to criminal perpetration. Such unresolved anger can deepen and linger, be turning to resentment (excessive anger) or rage (very intense, potentially violent anger), compromising one's psychological health and behavior and even contributing to their choice of crime. However, Forgiveness Therapy, as an empirically-verified treatment, can help reduce and even eliminate the excessive anger. Its positive effects have been scientifically supported by numerous studies within diverse populations. Therefore, in the prison context, similarly, the investigator hypothesizes that Forgiveness Therapy will lower rates of anger, depression, and anxiety and raise the levels of forgiveness, empathy, hope, and self-esteem for the experimental (Forgiveness Therapy) group as compared to the alternative treatment control group. This is based upon numerous studies that demonstrate the efficacy of Forgiveness Therapy with comparisons to other treatment methods. Further, the study team expects behavioral change by the men within the correctional institution, as measured by officers' observations as well as the number of misconducts in conduct reports on each participant and the time spent in restrictive housing. This study is the second part of a two-tiered research project to propose a novel approach--Forgiveness Therapy--to corrections and aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of Forgiveness Therapy in reducing resentment and other negative psychological symptoms such as excessive anger, anxiety, and depression for the prison inmates. A random sample of 24 participants, who have not participated in forgiveness workshops or forgiveness therapy, were taken from the Study 1(the investigator's previous research from the maximum-security prison of Columbia Correctional Institution "Examining Prison Inmates' Attitudes and Internal Emotional States"). These participants became 12 matched pairs (matched by the type of abuse, the severity of the abuse, and age at which the injustice occurred) with each member of the matched pair randomly assigned to the experimental group or control group. Each inmate participated voluntarily in this study. Since this study is a continuation of Study 1, the investigator named this study as Study 2.
Study Details
Timeline
Interventions
The Forgiveness Therapy model mainly includes four stages: uncovering, decision, work and deepening. The book 8 Keys to Forgiveness (2015, a forgiveness therapy manual authored by Dr. Enright) is the basis for the therapy as a way to ensure that the treatment is uniformly founded on the forgiveness process developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Carey Guides is a primary educational program deliberately chosen and approved by the Department of Corrections in Wisconsin, in which all inmates are encouraged (not required) to complete as they work toward custody reduction. Some aspects emphasized in it include anti-social thinking, emotional regulation, moral reasoning, and so on. It is the basis for the control group therapy as a way to ensure that the treatment has a uniform process as it is taught in the Department of Corrections (DOC) prison system.