Assessment of Personality Traits and Cognitive Style of Juvenile Delinquents

The present study was undertaken to assess the levels of personality traits and cognitive styles of juvenile delinquents. The sample composed of 120 respondents in 16-18 years of age range, selected from observation homes of six districts, from three cultural zones of Punjab. Further the sample was distributed over two sexes i.e. 80 juvenile delinquent boys and 40 juvenile delinquent girls. Scales used to collect the relevant information for the study were: Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975) and Cognitive Style Inventory (Jha, 1985). Data depicts that maximum number of the delinquents belonged to the average level of delinquency. Most of the delinquents had shown psychotic and introvert personality and the most common cognitive style among delinquents was undifferentiated style.