Aim of the study:
The main goals of this article are to describe the Growth Resources Model and to present the preliminary results of a research project that applied this model to an actual male prison population.

Subject or material and methods:
The study was conducted in two prisons in Southern Poland – 37 inmates took part in it. To compare the results with a control group, 34 men that had never been in prison were also tested with the GRQ form.

Results:
The results indicate that prisoners put a high value on their psychological resources, with positive emotions being of highest importance. Furthermore, prisoners exhibit less trust in others than non-prisoners.

Discussion:
The dominance of positive emotions and a high evaluation of personal psychological resources are surprising characteristics of inmates. The key to the analysis of the results seems to be the notion of self-enhancement. The term can be used both in the context of self-promotion and self-protection. Maintaining a positive self-image is often related to a preference for information consistent with such positive self-image, even if this requires a biased interpretation or unrealistic reinterpretation of features or events. When a person intends to act contrary to his or her own image, there are various ways of reducing cognitive dissonance that allow such incongruous behaviour while maintaining a positive self-image.

Conclusions:
We argue that the Growth Resources Model can be used in the context of criminal psychology and social rehabilitation.