The Effects of the GPS Program in Offenders

Participants reported on a questionnaire of early mal-adaptive schemas (EMSs), the Young Schema Questionnaire - YSQ-S3 (Young, 2005). The YSQ-S3 is a widely-used self-report questionnaire including 90 items, measuring the 18 EMSs proposed by Young (1990). Each EMS is evaluated using a set of five items listed randomly, which the individual rates using a Likert-type scale from 1 (completely untrue to me) to 6 (describes me perfectly).

This assessment was carried out by researchers, who received training in the self-report measure.

Participants reported on a questionnaire of cognitive distortions, the Angry Cognitions Scale - ACS (Martin & Dahlen, 2007). The ACS consists of 54 items distributed across nine scenarios (e.g., "You get home from the drive-thru and realized that you were given the wrong food"). Participants are asked to imagine that the situation described in each scenario had just happened. For each scenario, there are six items referring to different thoughts that could arise during the situation, which can be rated on a five-point Likert-type scale (1 = very unlikely to 5 = very likely).

This assessment was carried out by researchers, who received training in the self-report measure.

Participants reported on a questionnaire of anger, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory - STAXI (Spielberger, 1988). The STAXI is a 44-item questionnaire divided into three parts: the first part assesses anger-state (how one feels in the present moment), the second part assesses anger-trait (how one generally feels), and the third part assesses anger-expression (how one generally reacts or behaves when feeling enraged or angry. Anger-trait encompasses two factors (temperament and angry-reaction), and anger-expression is composed by three factors (anger-in, anger-out and anger-control). Each item is rated on a four-point scale (1 = not at all to 4 = almost always).

This assessment was carried out by researchers, who received training in the self-report measure.

Participants reported on a questionnaire of external shame, the Other as Shamer Scale - OAS (Allan, Gilbert, & Goss, 1994). The OAS is an 18-item scale that assesses external shame (i.e., subject's perception of being negatively judged by others). Each item is rated on a five-point scale (0 = never to 4 = almost always) according to how frequently the individual feels s/he is being judged by others (e.g., "Other people seem me as small and insignificant").

This assessment was carried out by researchers, who received training in the self-report measure.

Participants reported on a questionnaire of paranoia, the Paranoia Scale - PS (Fenigstein & Vanable, 1992). The PS is a 20-item self-report measure that assesses paranoid ideation. Items are rated on a five-point Likert scale (1 = not at all applicable to 5 = extremely applicable), where higher scores suggest high paranoid ideation.

This assessment was carried out by researchers, who received training in the self-report measure.

Participants reported on a questionnaire of emotional regulation, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire - ERQ (Gross & John, 2003). The ERQ is a 10-item scale designed to measure respondents' tendency to regulate their emotions in two ways: (1) Cognitive Reappraisal and (2) Expressive Suppression. Respondents answer each item on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

This assessment was carried out by researchers, who received training in the self-report measure.

For estimation of the frequency and type of disciplinary incidents and infractions, the individual records of each participant was collected from the prison records, describing their frequency and type during the research period.

Participants were interviewed with the SCID-II - Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (First, Gibbon, Spitzer, Williams, & Benjamim, 1997), a widely known semistructured diagnostic interview which assesses 10 Axis II Personality Disorders from the DSM-IV (APA, 2000), and the Depressive and Passive-Aggressive Personality Disorders (included in DSM-IV's appendix).

This assessment was carried out by researchers who had special training in the diagnosis of Personality Disorders and previous experience administering the SCID-II interview.