LONELINESS SOCIAL SUPPORT AND COPING AS PREDICTORS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AMONG ENUGU PRISONS IN MATES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Imprisonment is by all accounts seems to be an unpleasant experience wherever in the world it takes place. According to Sykes (2006) life in the prisons is a punishing and painful experience.  Prisoners experience high levels of emotional stress as a result of emotional withdrawal and depression (Herreveld, Van Der Plight, Claassen & Van Dijik, 2007). For some prisoners, incarceration is so stark and psychologically painful that it represents a form of traumatic stress severe enough to produce post-traumatic stress reactions after their release (Rokach, 2007). Research on the health status of prisons inmates has had a long history and has revealed a number of findings indicating that inmates generally experience poorer health than the general population (Cooper & Livingstone, 1991). Majority of the researchers concluded that imprisonment has negative psychological and physical effects on the inmates’ well-being leading to psychological deterioration.

Well-being is a potential parameter of overall health and good life of every person (Seligman & Csikzentmihalyi, 2000). The good life refers to the factors that contribute most to a well lived life. They are positive social relationships, ability to cope in stressful environment, wisdom, sense of meaning and purpose in life (Diener, 2009; Myers, 1992). Well-being is also seen as a contentment and satisfaction (in the past), flow of happiness (in the present) and hope, optimism (for the future) (Carr, 2004). The role of individual’s adaptability, social support networks and connections are fundamental factors to achieving prisoner’s health and psychological well-being (Herreveld, Van Der Plight, Claassen & Van Dijik, 2007).

The definition of health is critical to the debate over prisoners’ health. World Health Organization (WHO) (1996) defined health as a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. World Health Organization (WHO) (1996) argues that health is created by caring for oneself and others, being able to take decisions and have control over one’s life circumstances, and ensuring that the society one lives in creates the conditions that allows for the attainment of health by all its members. According to WHO poor health is typically regarded as a manifestation of a breakdown in harmony between the individual and the wider environment.

Psychological well-being however, is the ability of an individual to live and function at a high level of behavioural, emotional, physical adjustment and adaptiveness even in the presence of stress. It denotes the extent to which a person is living a life characterized by happiness, satisfaction and hopefulness. Psychological well-being according to De Viggiani (2007) Visser and Routhledge (2007) is a good or satisfactory condition of existence characterized by health in which an individual can function psychologically well enough to realize his or her potentials and the ability of feeling good and functioning effectively. As such, psychological well-being designates one who is functioning at a high level of behavioural and emotional adjustment and adaptiveness and not one who is simply not ill. Some literature in health psychology has demonstrated the fact that the association between health status and well-being seems intuitively clear based on mind-body relationships, and that the presence of illness can be negatively correlated with the experience of psychological well-being (Compton, 2005; Shuker & Newton, 2008; Weiten, Dunn & Hammer, 2011).

It is generally agreed that three aspects of psychological well-being can be distinguished (Kahneman & Deaton, 2010). They are evaluative well-being, involving global assessments of how people evaluate their lives or their satisfaction with life, Secondly affective or hedonic well-being which involves measures of feelings such as happiness, sadness and enjoyment, and thirdly eudemonic well-being which focuses on judgments about the meaning or purpose of one’s life and appraisals of constructs such as fulfillment (Kahneman & Deaton, 2010).

Fava and Ruini (2003) and Ryff (1995) also defined psychological well-being as a state in which individual’s experiences a sense of autonomy, competence, self acceptance, belongingness, purpose and personal growth. Bar-on (1988) also in-view of the above listed the vital and major components of psychological well-being to includes self-regard, interpersonal relationships, independence, problem solving, assertiveness, stress tolerance, self actualization, happiness and mastery. According to Bar-on anybody who exhibits strength in each of these areas is in a state of good psychological well-being and low exhibition indicates poor psychological well-being.

Psychological well-being produces positive experiences such as emotions, moods and feelings (Headey & Wearing, 1997). Absence of psychological well being among prisoners may reflect in inmates’ expression of anger, depression, frustrations and this may cause a decrease in the levels of their happiness and satisfaction. Poor psychological well-being has being associated with deficiency in problem-solving,  higher levels of stress-depression, lack of success and the existence of emotional problems (Myers, Sweeney & Witmer 2004;Temane & Wissing, 2006) excessive alcohol and drug usage (Visser & Routledge, 2007).

The effects of psychological well-being have also been studied in relation to physical health. According to Ryff and Singer (2008) psychological well-being has been linked to enhanced neuroendocrine functioning, better immune systems, improved sleep, lower cardiovascular danger and more adaptable neural circuitry. Recent studies also showed that higher levels of well-being are linked with better regulation of biological systems and adaptive neural response, and may serve as a protective influence on good physical health. Positive psychological well-being has also been linked to a reduction in mortality (Bronfenbrenner, 2005; Chida, 2008). Consequently individuals with higher than average psychological well-being are regarded as more successful in meeting environmental demands and pressures. It raises individual’s ability in making good decision and caring for oneself emotionally.

Social relationships are essential to personal health, happiness and general psychological well-being, and which agrees to the common adage that good friends are good medicine. An individual’s ability to have close relationships with others is one of the most important features of a healthy personality (Diener, 2009; Seligman, 2000).  A lack in connection to others may lead to feelings of loneliness and poor psychological well-being.

Loneliness is a complex and usually unpleasant emotion which typically includes anxious feelings about a lack of connectedness or communality with others. It is an individual’s subjective experience of a lack in satisfying human relationships and   results in negative feelings and distress to the individual. Loneliness is a common human experiences that can affect a wide range of people although some people are at a greater risk of it than others (Killeen, 1998).

Young (1982) defined loneliness as the absence of satisfying social relationships accompanied by symptoms of psychological distress that are related to the actual or perceived absence. Loneliness, feeling lonely and alone has often been used interchangeably (Karnick, 2005). However, loneliness is not the same as being alone. You might choose to be alone and live happily without much contact with other people or have lots of social contacts or be in a relationship or part of a family and still feel lonely. People feel lonely in the midst of people. Some may choose to live alone if it suits their personality. Hence, it is possible to feel lonely in a crowd or to feel socially connected when alone (Weeks & Asher, 2012; Weeks, 2010). With the exception of those who choose to be alone, loneliness can be distressing, painful and unpleasant feeling that arises due to a discrepancy between the desired and achieved quality of one’s social network (Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2010; Jones, Rose & Russell 1990).

Loneliness is detrimental to psychological health and has a deleterious effect on various aspects of psychological well-being (Heinrich & Gullone, 2006; Murphy & Kupshik, 1992). Loneliness is as a result of complex set of feelings encompassing reactions to the absence of intimate and social needs, as an emotional state in which a person experiences strong feelings of emptiness and social isolation (Victor, Bowling & Bond, 2002; Rokach & Brock, 2012).  Social isolation can be defined as a situation where a person does not have a social network or is dissatisfied with the present social network. It is caused by a lack of social integration where one feels that they really do not have anyone or set of friends. Other researchers refer to social isolation by the number of contacts and integration of an individual into the surrounding social environment (Cattan, White, Bond & Learmouth, 2005). If a person is socially isolated his or her possibilities for social comparison and personal control are diminished. A socially isolated person may feel socially frustrated, feelings of nobody to count on for support, absence of social network and lack of sense of social belonginess (Cohen, 2000; Clinton & Anderson, 1999).

Loneliness is composed of negative emotions such as trouble and distress (Jones, Rose & Russell, 1990; Weeks & Asher, 2012). Studies have also shown that loneliness can have detrimental effects on physical and mental health. Loneliness places people at risk of physical ailments, such as poor cardiovascular health and impaired immune responses (Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2010; Martina & Stevens 2006). Loneliness is also associated with mental health issues, such as psychoses, personality disorders, impaired cognitive functioning, low self-esteem and depression (Benner 2011; Besevegis & Galanaki, 2010). Particular concern is the correlation between loneliness and suicide or suicidal ideation. Stravynski and Boyer, (2001) found that people who reported feeling distress about being alone were more likely to have suicidal thoughts and attempts suicide. De Jong Gierveld, Tilburg and Dykstra (2006) and Weiss (1989) also viewed loneliness as a sentiment felt by a person, (experiencing) a wish for a form or level of interaction different from the one presently experienced. Loneliness is a distressing experience that whoever experiences it wishes it never came to him or her. Loneliness has different antecedents and various manifestations (Rokach, 2007). Loneliness is an unpleasant, even distressing experience (Peplau & Perlman, 1982). The second element is that loneliness is a subjective feeling (De Jong Gierveld et al. 2006). The desired levels of social contact are subjective and are based on comparisons to past or present relationships as well as social and cultural norms (Ponzetti, 1990; Murphy & Kupshik, 1992).  Hawkley and Cacioppo (2010) asserted that loneliness stems from perceived social isolation, rather than objective isolation. Lastly, loneliness implies the perception of both quantitative and qualitative deficiencies in one’s social relationships (Peplau & Perlman 1982; Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2003; Murphy & Kupshik, 1992). A feeling of loneliness occurs when relationships do not meet one’s needs, such as the need for companionship or the need for close attachments.