Identify the link between imprisonment and suicide(10)
Psychologists have identified a link between imprisonment and suicide. Prison is not an environment which promotes positive mental states. The lack of freedom and repetitiveness takes its toll on inmates, and it's not uncommon for prisoners to experience delusions or hallucinations as a result. More common effects in terms of mental health however are increased risk of anxiety and depression. Of course, a decent proportion of offenders had pre-existing psychological disorders before their incarceration, but it's likely that the conditions within prison have both increased depression and triggered it in a significant number of cases. It has been suggested that recent overcrowding in prisons is a major influence on suicide rates in prisons. This is likely as prisoners are more crowded in a confined space, meaning interactions with fellow prisoners are more likely. Such interactions could increase the stress levels of prisoners as they may grow uncertain about the intentions of other prisoners and it may affect their own intentions. In a study conducted by Dooley, the suicide rates of prisoners in England and Wales were reviewed. It was found that out of 442 unnatural deaths that had occurred, 300 had been given a verdict of suicide. Dooley attributed the factor of overcrowding in prisons to the suicide rates, concluding prisoners’ stress levels are increased and therefore become depressed and are more likely to have suicidal thoughts. This study shows a correlation link between overcrowding in prisons and the suicide rates of prisoners.

Evaluate the usefulness of research into the psychological effects of imprisonment. (15)
Firstly the usefulness of research into the effects of imprisonment on inmates is questioned due to situational explanations of behaviour. In the study by Dooley, it was found that the overcrowding in prisons was linked positively with the suicide rates in prison. This offers a situational explanation of behaviour. However it is likely individual differences is likely to play a major part on this factor, and concluding situation as the explanation is deemed reduction list. Failing to take a holistic approach is an issue affecting its usefulness, as it is known prisoners often suffer mental health problems when admitted, and once in prison, the stressors they experience may affect individuals differently such as some dramatic deterioration in mental health. Therefore this could be the factor for suicide rates. By being reductionist psychologists could be focusing on the wrong area, with resources being wasted .However, pinpointing a situational explanation is useful. As although other factors may be more prevalent, this factor has been identified and psychologists can use knowledge and resources to help the issue of overcrowding in prisons and reduce the number of prison sentences in any year. Secondly, the validity of research into the effects of imprisonment can affect the usefulness of research. Validity refers to whether a study measures what it is supposed to measure and if it does not conclusions made are not useful. In the study by Haney and Zimbardo into looking at changes and effects of imprisonment, previous research was analysed and made conclusions on. This is an issue in terms of validity as any validity issues in previous research will proceed into current research and Harvey and Zimbardo do not know whether measures were in place in previous research to ensure that the results were valid. This is an issue as conclusions made cannot be verified as valid and therefore the research loses its usefulness. However, it could be argued that such research by Haney and Zimbardo provided consistent results each time and therefore with high reliability on measurements, the conclusions made could be deemed to be valid and therefore conclusions can be used and applied in the real prison systems, which is a useful application. A third issue when considering usefulness of research is how generalisable the sample used is. If a restricted sample is used the application to the total population is limited, this limiting the usefulness of the research. In the study by Gillis and Nafekh on employment based schemes prior to release, a large sample of 23,525 federal offenders was used, such a large sample overcomes the limitations of a restricted sample. However this sample was androcentric as 95% of males made up the sample; this limits the usefulness of application to female prisoners.