Some Indices of Existential Confrontation from a Sample of Maximum Security Inmates

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Abstract
Mean responses on measures of avoidance of existential confrontation, avoidance of ontological confrontation of death, and avoidance of ontological confrontation of loneliness from 35 maximum security inmates were compared with normative data established in earlier studies predominantly of college students. Statistically significant differences were found for both the death and loneliness measures; the inmates' groupings scored higher than the normative samples, indicating there is less confrontation of death and loneliness among maximum security inmates than among typical college students. Groups with high and low scores on these existential-ontological scales were compared for differences on several measures of psychological distress. High scorers on the loneliness measure recorded higher scores on the psychological distress indicators. Results are discussed in terms of implications to an existentially oriented theory of communication.