The relationship between social problem-solving and personality in mentally disordered offenders

Poor social problem-solving skills may account for some criminal behaviours in mentally disordered offenders, and social problem-solving may be mediated by personality traits. We examined the relationship between personality and social problem-solving in 52 mentally disordered offenders, (38 mentally ill and 14 personality disordered) detained in a regional secure unit. Since t-tests indicated no differences between the mentally ill and personality disordered groups, they were pooled into a single sample. Correlations indicated that high neuroticism (N) was related to poor social problem-solving, and high scores on the other five-factor traits were related to good social problem-solving. High N, which is a core feature of personality disorders as well as being a common feature of offenders, may signal emotional reactivity which militates against effective social problem-solving. N is, however, negatively correlated with extraversion (E), conscientiousness (C), and agreeableness (A), therefore partial correlations were conducted controlling for N. Once N is discounted, the main trait associated with problem-solving is openness (O), which is positively related to problem-solving, perhaps due to the relationship of O to intelligence and creativity. A positive correlation between E and a more positive problem orientation remains, perhaps because optimism is a defining feature of high E.