Development of Emotional Intelligence in Convicted Women

¹ Academy of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, Penal Correction System, Department of Psychology of Professional Activity, Ekaterinburg, Russia
² Academy of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, Penal Correction System, Department of General Psychology, Ekaterinburg, Russia
³ St. Petersburg Academy of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Department of Management and Psychology of Investigative Activities, St. Petersburg, Russia
⁴ Moscow University of Information Technology – Moscow Institute of Architecture and Construction Department of Psychological, Pedagogical and Theater Disciplines, Moscow, Russia

^* Corresponding author: malyva7@rambler.ru

Abstract

The article notes an insufficient study of the problem of female convicts’ emotional intelligence, and briefly considers existing models of emotional intelligence. The main results of the conducted research of female convicts’ emotional intelligence taking into account the term of their stay in a correctional institution, using the developed author’s complex of psychodiagnostic methods, are presented. The paper describes a model for enhancing emotional and personal maturity, taking into account the criminalisation and personal immaturity of female convicts through the application of cognitive-behavioural, humanistic, and rational-emotive approaches. Women serving sentences in penitentiary institutions of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service in the Oryol, Moscow, and Kaluga Regions took part in an experimental study to test the adequacy and validity of the proposed model for emotional and personal maturity development and the correctional work method created on its basis. The results obtained empirically testify to a statistically significant increase in the components of emotional intelligence in the target group. On this basis, the conclusion is made about the adequacy of the proposed model and technology of work and the possibility of their practical application. This conclusion is confirmed by the information about the subsequent successful implementation of the experimentally tested psychotechnology to improve emotional and personal maturity in the activities of institutions and bodies of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service. The conclusions about the validity of the proposed model, as well as about the effectiveness and practical relevance of the created on their basis methodological tools for psychodiagnostics and psychocorrection of emotional intelligence, are made.