Anja Wertag

This study aimed to preliminarily investigate work-related stress, habits related to seeking psychological support, and awareness regarding the availability of psychological support within the prison system among correctional officers in Croatia. Data were collected within a larger ongoing project, and we present the findings here for 761 correctional officers (85% male). Generally, correctional officers in our sample assess their job as somewhat stressful, with males indicating higher levels of workrelated stress and work-life imbalance than females. Threefifths of correctional officers in our sample reported that they did not require psychological support, with no observed gender differences. Although three-fifths of correctional officers in our sample reported knowing how and where to seek psychological support within the system, almost half of those who indicated a need for psychological support did not pursue it. Correctional officers who reported experiencing more stress expressed more need for psychological support but less knowledge of how to seek psychological support within the system. Moreover, correctional officers with more work experience report a greater need for psychological support, and higher workrelated stress and work-life imbalance. The obtained results highlight the importance of raising awareness about psychological support for correctional officers in the Croatian penal system.

This study examined the structural organization of relations between personality nuances and different types of criminal offenses using an item–offense approach. The sample consisted of 592 male prisoners in Croatia ( M _age = 39.55 years, SD _age = 11.16). Network analysis showed a central role of the nervousness nuance in offending and recidivism, as well as its importance in distinguishing between violent and nonviolent offenses. Nervousness was positively associated with violent offenses but negatively with nonviolent ones. Moreover, trustworthiness also emerged as a central nuance for violent offenses, while thoroughness and laziness were key for nonviolent offenses. Overall, this study offers valuable insight into the relations between personality and criminal behavior using an item-level approach.

In this chapter, through the results of bibliometric analysis, publication trends and emerging themes in narcissism research will be discussed with a focus on various models and dimensions of narcissism, measurement issues, and adaptive and maladaptive aspects of narcissism. Although narcissism research started within the fields of clinical psychology and psychopathology, subclinical narcissism soon became investigated within social psychology and personality psychology. With the popularization of the Dark Triad concept, interest in narcissism also increased. Therefore, a historical review of narcissism research will be presented through bibliometric analysis, along with assessing novel trends in narcissism research. Finally, guidelines for improving narcissism research and directions for moving forward in this field will be given.

Prison social climate represents enduring social, emotional, organisational and physical characteristics of a correctional institution as perceived by inmates and correctional staff. Prison social climate may be attributed partly to the shared environment and common characteristics of individual prisoners in the unit/prison. It is assumed that prison social climate also exerts lasting, post-incarceration effects. Thus, this study aims to describe the potential criminogenic impacts of different prison social climate dimensions on prisoners' behaviour within prison and upon release. Among reviewed prison social climate dimensions, observed staff-prisoner relationships, prisoner-to-prisoner relationships, and observed levels of safety are considered the most important determinants of prison social climate. Despite the conceptual and methodological diversity of the reviewed studies, it could be concluded that prisoners who rated their institutional experiences more negatively, especially in terms of in-prison relationships and security, were more likely to misbehave in prison and were more likely to (re)offend.

The psychosocial climate in prison refers to the extent to which the whole institution is perceived safe for prisoners and prison officers and supportive of rehabilitation and behaviour change. It encompasses the institution's social, emotional, organisational, and physical determinants and is important for prisoners and prison officers. Moreover, tracking the psychosocial climate can be used to indicate changes and evaluate treatment programs. Compared to other countries, there is a lack of systematic research on the psychosocial climate in Croatian prisons, and the existing research focuses more on the prisoners than the prison officers' perspective. The perceived psychosocial climate in prison officers is, among others, related to attitudes about work tasks, interactions with co-workers and prisoners, job satisfaction, well-being, motivation and job performance, stress, and burnout. Thus, this paper aims to provide an overview of research on the psychosocial climate in Croatian from the prison officers' perspective. Furthermore, the findings from the project Psychosocial climate in prisons – prisoners' and prison officers' perspective conducted in 2017 in Croatian penal institutions (seven penitentiaries and 14 prisons), focusing on prison officers' perspective (N = 699), will be discussed. Finally, methodological and practical issues related to research on the psychosocial climate in Croatian prisons will be considered.

The Dark Tetrad personality traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism) have been continuously linked to various deficits in affective reactivity. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of the Dark Tetrad and processing of emotional pictures. A total of 144 participants (56.9% female, Mage = 22.18, SDage = 2.26) completed measures of the Dark Tetrad, and rated pictures selected form the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), classified in accordance with their norms into highly arousing positive and negative. Affective processing measures included participants' valence and arousal ratings, while cognitive processing was measured my means of the response latency for each response. The results showed that the dark traits were related only to valence, but not arousal ratings. Higher narcissism and lower sadism were associated with more positive valence ratings of positive pictures, and higher sadism was associated with more positive ratings of negative pictures. Moreover, higher Machiavellianism predicted faster assessment of valence and arousal of both positive and negative pictures, and higher sadism predicted slower assessment of negative pictures' valence. Obtained results indicate that deficiencies in affective processing are more pronounced in sadism compared to other dark traits, while Machiavellianism is associated with advantages in cognitive processing, highlighting their significance and uniqueness in the Dark Tetrad constellation.

The interest in the so-called dark traits in the area of individual differences is rising, and there are several instruments assessing currently the most prominent dark traits constellation, the Dark Tetrad. The first aim of this study was to examine the structure of the newly developed Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) measure in the Croatian context using latent variable modeling and testing two competing models: the confirmatory factor analytic model with four interrelated factors where items load only on their respective trait or factor, and the bifactor model with both the general “dark” factor where all the items load on and four specific orthogonal factors on which only their respective items load. The second aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the Dark Tetrad traits and egoistic and moralistic socially desirable responding. Data were collected on a convenience sample of 439 participants (81% female) in Croatia. The results showed that, although some of the fit statistics of both tested models fell somewhat below the conventional acceptable fit threshold, their values were comparable to those from the original validation study, indicating that the Croatian version of SD4 is valid and can be used to assess the Dark Tetrad traits. Moreover, relations between the Dark Tetrad traits and egoistic and moralistic socially desirable responding point to the distinctiveness of narcissism from the rest of the Dark Tetrad.