The Efficacy of the Growing Pro-social Program in Reducing Anger, Shame, and Paranoia over Time in Male Prison Inmates

• Published date: 01 August 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0022427818782733
• Author: Nélio Brazão,Daniel Rijo,Maria do Céu Salvador,José Pinto-Gouveia
• Date: 01 August 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

The Efficacy of the

Growing Pro-social

Program in Reducing

Anger, Shame, and

Paranoia over Time

in Male Prison Inmates:

A Randomized

Controlled Trial

Ne

´lio Braza

˜o

1

, Daniel Rijo

1

,

Maria do Ce

´u Salvador

1

, and Jose

´Pinto-Gouveia

1

Abstract

Objectives: This randomized controlled trial aimed to assess the efficacy of a

cognitive-behavioral group program, Growing Pro-Social (GPS), in reducing

anger, shame, and paranoia over time in Portuguese male prison inmates.

Methods: Participants were randomized to the GPS treatment (n¼121) or

control group (n¼133). The State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, the

Other as Shamer Scale, and the Paranoia Scale were completed at baseline,

at the middle of treatment, at posttreatment, and at 12 months’ follow-up.

Intervention effects were tested with latent growth curve models (LGCM).

1

Faculdade de Psicologia e de Cie

ˆncias da Educac¸a

˜o, Universidade de Coimbra, Rua do Cole

´gio

Novo, Coimbra, Portugal

Corresponding Author:

Ne

´lio Braza

˜o, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Cie

ˆncias da Educac¸a

˜o, Universidade de Coimbra,

Rua do Cole

´gio Novo, Coimbra 3001-802, Portugal.

Email: nelio-brazao@hotmail.com

Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency

2018, Vol. 55(5) 649-686

ªThe Author(s) 2018

Reprints and permission:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/0022427818782733

journals.sagepub.com/home/jrc

Results: At baseline, no significant differences between groups were found.

Results from LGCM showed that conditio n was a significant p redictor of

change observed in all outcome measures over time. While treatment

participants showed a significant increase in anger-control over time,

controls presented a significant decrease over time in this same variable.

For the remaining dimensions of anger, as well as for external shame and

paranoia, while the treatment group showed a significant decrease over

time, the control group showed a significant increase or no change.

Conclusions: These results pointed out the GPS’s ability to promote signif-

icant change in cognitive and emotional relevant variables associated with

antisocial behavior.

Keywords

anger, external shame, Growing Pro-Social, male prison inmates, paranoia

The debate surrounding the effectiveness of rehabilitation efforts for crim-

inal offenders has moved from the rather pessimisti c perspective of the

1970s, exemplified best by Martinson (1974), to a more optimistic perspec-

tive driven by research from the 1980s and 1990s. A consistent theme in

numerous reviews of the rehabilitation literature is the positive effects of

cognitive and cognitive-behavioral approaches in the treatment of the offen-

der population (e.g., Bonta et al. 2011; Koehler et al. 2013; Raynor, Ugwu-

dike, and Vanstone 2014; Trotter 2013). For instance, Andrews and Bonta

(2010) concluded from a meta-analysis of adult and juvenile correctional

treatment that cognitive and behavioral methods were critical aspects of

effective correctional treatment. Research reviews of cognitive-behavioral

group programs for offenders have also drawn favorable conclusions (e.g.,

Antonio and Crossett 2017).

In addition to providing support for particular types of programs, meta-

analytic evidence has highlighted certain specific features of effective treat-

ment. Of these, the well-known Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model is

supported by robust empirical evidence (e.g., Andrews and Bonta 2010).

The RNR model is based in the “human service principles,” which state that

recidivism reduction should be achieved through some type of treatment

instead of punishment. According to RNR, treatment should correspond to

the offenders’ risk level of reoffending, address their dynamic risk factors,

and match their learning styles and abilities (Andrews, Bonta, and Wormith

2011; Andrews and Bonta 2010).

650 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 55(5)

Cognitive-behavioral programs usually include different modules or ses-

sions addressing cognitive, emotional, and behavioral skills, assumed to be

lacking in offenders. Nevertheless, each of these skills tends to be concep-

tualized as independent from the others instead of seeing them as inter-

twined variables (Rijo et al. 2007). For instance, emotional control sessions

are carried out as if emotional control was totally independent from social

reasoning or interpersonal behavior (Braza

˜o, da Motta, and Rijo 2013). Rijo

and colleagues (2007) developed a new cognitive-behavioral rehabilitation

program, the Growing Pro-Social (GPS), adapting its contents and metho-

dology to the features of the target population, and taking into account the

RNR model.

GPS is based on the developments of cognitive-behavioral therapies for

personality disordered individuals, namely, schema therapy (e.g., Rafaeli,

Young, and Bernstein 2011; Young, Klosko, and Weishaar 2003), which

conceptualizes antisocial behavior as the result of cognitive malfunctioning

in the attribution of meaning, underlying cognitive distortions, and core

cognitive structures responsible for the social information processing. GPS

aims to achieve behavioral change, not only through the rehearsal of pro-

social behaviors but also through the promotion of change in cognitive and

emotional correlates of antisocial behavior. The program’s ultimate goal is

to promote change in the dysfunctional cognitive structures underlying

antisocial behavior (for a review, see Braza

˜o et al. 2013) throughout a

progressive strategy of change (for a program overview, see the Interven-

tions section).

Although a considerable amount of research has recognized the role that

cognitive malfunctioning plays in the onset and maintenance of antisocial

behavior, recent developments in the cognitive-behavioral therapies high-

light the importance of variables, such as anger, shame, and paranoia (in a

nonclinical sense), in psychopathology (Gilbert et al. 2009; Matos and

Pinto-Gouveia 2010; Matos, Pinto-Gouveia, and Gilbert 2013; Novaco

2010), including antisocial and aggressive behavior (Elison, Garofalo, and

Velotti 2014; Gilbert 2009, 2010, 2014, 2017; Gold, Sullivan, and Lewis

2011; Koltz and Gilbert 2018; Velotti, Elison, and Garofalo 2014).

According to the evolutionary framework, seeking dominance and dis-

playing threat behaviors toward others can be conceptualized as a strategy

to cope with the experience of shame and the consequent threat it represents

to one’s position in the social rank (Castilho et al. 2015; Gilbert 2009, 2010,

2014, 2017; Koltz and Gilbert 2018). Shame has been defined as a painful

and disruptive emotion because the self (and not simply the person’s beha-

vior) is negatively evaluated and scrutinized (Owen and Fox 2011). When

Braza

˜o et al. 651