The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive style and psychopathy in a state prison population. This study presents: (1) the historical development of the concept of cognitive style; (2) the historical development of psychopathy; (3) the deduction of the hypothesis; (4) the collection and tabulation of data; (5) and the discussion of the results of the research. The hypothesis was that psychopathic inmates are significantly more field-dependent than non-psychopathic inmates.
The methods used to obtain data for this study were (1) the administration of the Rod and Frame Test to 714 inmates of the Texas Department of Corrections (2) the collection of Psychopathic deviant scale scores of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory from the admission records of the Texas Department of Corrections, and (3) the correlational and multiregressional analysis of the data.
From the evidence presented in this study the following conclusions were made; 1. The mean scores of the psychopathic group on the Rod and Frame Test were not significantly different from the mean scores of the non-psychopathic group. 2. The psychopathic group did not have significantly higher Rod and Frame Test scores compared to the remainder of the prison sample. 3. The Psychopathic deviant scale is not significantly correlated with the Rod and Frame Test scores. 4. The lack of significance is due to the abnormality of the Psychopathic deviant scale scores of the prison sample. Therefore, the datea generally support the hypothesis.