Core Studies - Individual Differences Psychology - Hancock's Study

Question 1

What is a psychopath

Answer 1

A term to describe people who show a reduced capacity for moral responsibility and may act extremely selfishly. They seem to lack a conscience and empathy

Question 2

Aim

Answer 2

To examine whether the language of psychopathic murderers was different to non psychopathic murderers

Question 3

What were the three language indicators used to analyse psychopathic speech

Answer 3

1. An instrumental or predatory view
2. Unique material and socio-economic needs
3. Poverty of affect

Question 4

Research method

Answer 4

Self report method which involved face to face semi-structured interviews using open ended questions aka Step-wise interview

Question 5

Sample

Answer 5

• 52 male murderers
• Prisoners in Canadian prisons
• All had admitted to their crime
• Volunteered for the study

Question 6

Sampling method

Answer 6

Volunteer sampling

Question 7

Procedure

Answer 7

• Participants were asked whether they would be interested to take part
• Psychopathy was measured using Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and the cut off score was 25
• Participants were then interviewed, they were briefed on the aim and procedure.
• They were audiotaped to describe their homicide offence in as much detail as possible using a standardised procedure known as Step -Wise interview.
• The interviewers were two senior psychology graduate students and one research assistant, all blind to the psychopathy scores of the offenders. Each interview lasted 25 minutes
• Each interview was then transcribed, as close to verbatim. And analysed using text analysis tools: W matrix program, used to analyse parts of the speech. And DAL software to examine emotional properties of the language.

Question 8

What were the 2 text analysis tools used

Answer 8

1. Wmatrix program
2. The Dictionary of Affect in Language (DAL) software program

Question 9

What is the Wmatrix programme

Answer 9

A programme that analysed the body of speech produced by the two groups and tagged parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and also semantic concepts such as communication, social actions, time etc

Question 10

What is the dictionary of affect in language (DAL) software

Answer 10

A programme that was used to examine the emotional properties of the language used

Question 11

Findings relating to instrumental language analysis

Answer 11

Psychopaths were more likely to describe homicide using subordinating conjunctions. This almost showed a justification for their crimes

Question 12

Findings relating to socio-economic needs

Answer 12

• Psychopaths used approximately twice as many words relating to basic physiological needs such as food drink or money when describing their crime
• Non-psychopaths used significantly more language relating to social needs such as family and spirituality

Question 13

Findings relating to poverty of affect

Answer 13

• Psychopaths used more past tense verbs showing how they were more detached from their crimes
• Psychopaths’ language was significantly less fluent
• Psychopaths’ language was less positive and less emotionally intense

Question 14

Main finding

Answer 14

Psychopathic murderers used less emotive language and ore subordinating conjunctions to justify their murders

Question 15

Conclusions

Answer 15

1. Psychopaths are more likely to view their crime as a logical outcome of a plan than a non-psychopath
2. Psychopaths focus more on basic physiological needs than higher level social needs than non-psychopaths
3. Psychopaths are more emotionally detached from their crimes
4. Psychopaths are less emotional and less positive in their speech

Question 16

Link to key theme

Answer 16

We ;earn that when measuring language using Wmatrix and DAL software’s to measure differences in speech, psychopaths will use less emotive languages and have more disfluencies in their speech compared to non-psychopaths

Question 17

Link to Area

Answer 17

Psychopaths differ from non-psychopaths with their personal quality of language due to the unique characteristic of being a psychopath