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level: Hancock (ID)

Questions and Answers List

level questions: Hancock (ID)

QuestionAnswer
What is a psychopath?- Someone who has a selfish orientation + profound emotional deficit (e.g. no empathy)
+ Background to the study- A computerised analysis of language produced by psychiatric patients revealed fewer words pertaining to optimism, basic cognitive functions, references to the future and communication with others compared to normal people. 1% of the general population is a psychopath but only 15-25% of male offenders end up in federal correctional settings e.g. prison
Main characteristics of a psychopath- Don't respond to emotional cues in same way to normal people - Emotional deficit - Appear selfish - Manipulate - false emotions - Little or no conscience
Measuring psychopathy- Checklist made by Robert Hare - Called Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R) - Uses 20 criteria, each scored from 0-2 (max score of 40).
The 2 categories of Robert Hare's checklist- Asses interpersonal and affective traits (e.g. superficial charm) - Assess anti-social traits (e.g. impulsivity and irresponsibility)
Aim of Hancock's study- To examine language characteristics of psychopaths (when describing their violent crimes) on 3 major characteristics
Hypothesis 1 of Hancock's study? (instrumental language analysis)- Psychopaths will use more subordinating conjunctions
Subordinating conjunctions meaning(e.g. 'because' , 'since' , 'as' , 'so that')
Explain hypothesis 1 (psychopaths use more subordinating conjunctions)- Words associated with cause and effect statements - Would suggest their crimes are pre-meditated + motivated
Maslow's hierarchy of needs- Theory about human motivation - Psychopaths tend to focus on 'basic/material needs' compared to higher needs like relationships
Hypothesis 2 of Hancock's study (hierarchy or needs)- Psychopaths will use more references towards physiological and material needs such as food, drink, clothing
Hypothesis 3 of Hancock's study (emotional expression in language)- Psychopaths would produce fewer and less intense emotional words - More disfluencies that reflects psychological 'distancing'
Example of distancing- Use of past tense to make yourself seem further away from something
Explain hypothesis 3- Psychopaths have a deficit in their ability to experience emotions themselves + to recognise them - Have an increased cognitive load trying to describe what had happened in an appropriate manner
Give some examples of disfluencies in speech- 'Um', 'Uh'
Concrete nouns- Things you can experience through your 5 senses (e.g. pencil)
Research method used in Hancock's study- Quasi experiment
IV and DVIV - whether someone was a psychopath or not DV - language characteristics of psychopath
Describe the sample in Hancock's study- 52 men - In Canadian prison for murder - All admitted their crime - Volunteer sampling - Mean age, 28.9 years
Number of psychopaths/non-psychopaths- Psychopaths - 14 - Non-psychopaths - 38
Stage 1 of Hancock's procedure- Assessing the participants levels of psychopathy
How was psychopathy measured in the study?- Using the PCL-R - By rating 20 criteria on a scale of 0-2 (max score 40)
What score will someone receive a clinical diagnosis of psychopathy from the PCL-R?- 30 or above
Stage 2 of Hancock's study- Interviews with the participants - 25 minutes
Who conducted the interviews?- 2 senior psychology graduates and one completely blind to psychopathy scores
Questions in interview- To describe their homicide offence in as much detail as possible
Stage 3 of Hancock's study- Analysis of transcripts from the interviews
What was used to analyse the transcripts?- Wmatrix and Dictionary of Affect in Language (DAL)
How did the wmatrix analyse speech?- The body of speech was brought together and analysed as one
What did the wmatrix do to compare the speech?- It tags part of speech into their categories (noun, verb, adjective) - uses context to help
What did the DAL analyse?- The software analysed the emotional properties of language
The emotional properties of language from the analysis using the DAL- Positive v Negative - Low v High intensity - Low v High imagery
What was scored from the DAL?- Pleasantness and intensity of emotional language for each P's statement
Findings that support hypothesis 1 (instrumental language analysis)- Psychopaths produced significantly more subordinating conjunctions than the non psychopaths
Percentage of the words used by psychopaths were subordinating conjunctions (vs non psychopaths)- 1.82% (psychopaths) vs 1.54% (non-psychopaths)
Findings that support hypothesis 2 (hierarchy of needs analysis)- Psychopaths used significantly more words connected to physiological needs - Compared to the non psychopaths who used more words connected to social needs
Findings that support hypothesis 3 in terms of emotional content- DAL scores revealed no differences between the two groups
Findings that support hypothesis 3 in terms of disfluencies- Psychopaths used 33% more disfluencies than non psychopaths
Findings that support hypothesis 3 in terms of psychological distancing- Psychopaths used more past tense than non psychopaths
Ethical guidelines upheld- No deception, consent, confidentiality
Ethical guidelines not upheld- No mention of withdrawal - Ps could have been feeling uncomfortable, not sure whether they could withdraw from the study or not
Were the procedures controlled, standardised and replicable? (internal reliability)- Same interview procedure and same computer program used, consistent
Does this study succeed in telling us about psychopaths' use of language? (internal validity)- Not necessarily as they were only asking to give accounts of their murder and may have been testing their levels of education/intellect
Can the sample be generalised from? (external validity)- The sample was relatively small so we can't generalise the findings to all people and also all criminals
Was the sample large enough to suggest a consistent effect? (external reliability)- Yes in terms of people convicted for homicide but not for all psychopaths and non psychopaths
Overall findings- Psychopaths tend to focus more on psychological needs - Psychopaths tended to distance themselves from their homicide and used less emotionally intense language - Psychopaths used more past tense words - Psychopaths used more subordinating conjunctions
Usefulness- Used in order to work out the best rehabilitation schemes to give inmates - This could greatly improve the quality of life for these people
Similarities- Androcentric samples - In institutional settings (Yerkes = army camps, Hancock = prisons) - Quasi-experiments - Self report
DifferencesYerkes -1.75 million sample - Opportunity sample Hancock -14 psychopaths - Self selected
Freewill Vs Determinism FREEWILL- Psychopaths are ‘highly manipulative’ - If they are able to manage how they are perceived by others, then this would suggest they have control over their behaviour
Freewill Vs Determinism DETERMINISM- Psychopath qualities seem to have biological underpinnings - Psychopaths have structural abnormalities in their brains
Link to area/perspective- Individual differences area, use of language - Psychodynamic perspective, how psychopaths use language are ‘likely beyond conscious control', unconscious element
Link to key theme- Measuring differences
How does the study of Hancock improve our understanding of measuring differences?- More scientific than Yerkes - Study had blind test, Wmatrix, less room for error, not influenced by human emotion - Wmatrix counts subordinating conjunctions, making it objective - However, they changed the threshold form 30 to 25, not objective
How does the contemporary study improve our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity? INDIVIDUAL DIVERSITY- Measures behaviour and individual differences fairly - Measures more specific behaviours, Gould only intelligence
How does the contemporary study improve our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity? SOCIAL DIVERSITY- Hancock, 52 men in prison for murder, not social diverse but they are likely have similar backgrounds - Explains an important issue in society, could reduce future offending
How does the contemporary study improve our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity? CULTURAL DIVERSITY- Prisoners in Canada, no cultural diversity - Extend our understanding from America, but could have included other cultures