Blair

Question 1

What is a psychopath ?

Answer 1

is a person unable to form emotional attachments or feel real empathy , have charming personalities are very manipulative , they learn to mimic emotions , they are often well educated and hold steady jobs

Question 2

what does VIM stand for?

Answer 2

Violence inhibiting (stopping) mechanism

Question 3

what is the relationship between psychopaths and vim?

Answer 3

that its argued that psychopaths don’t have vim

Question 4

what is the aim of this study?

Answer 4

to investigate the psycho physiological responsiveness of psychopathic individuals to distress cues to threatening and neutral stimuli

Question 5

sample?

Answer 5

residents of Broadmoor special hospital
18 psychopathic and 18 non- psychopathic men age matched IQ and ethnicity , all serving life sentences for murder or man-slaughter , 7 of the psychopathic and 4 of non refused to participate

Question 6

method?

Answer 6

each p/s shown a series of 23 slides , 5 practices, 5 showing distress cues e.g. a crying face, 5 showing threatening images e.g. shark and 8 showing neutral objects e.g. hairdryers , a book
skin conductance activity , was measured whilst watching the slides

Question 7

what were the results?

Answer 7

compared to control group , the psychopaths showed reduced electro-dermal responses to distress cues compared to non psychopaths , no difference in neutral or threatening

Question 8

what are the conclusions?

Answer 8

blair concluded that lack of responsiveness to distress cues in psychopaths inferes with normal functioning of the vim