Hancock Flashcards
Hungry like the wolf:
a word-pattern analysis of the language of psychopaths
characteristics of a psychopath
-behaviour conflicts social norms
-violating/disregarding rights of others
-inability to distinguish right and wrong
-difficulty showing remorse/empathy
-manipulating and hurting others
-tendency to lie often
-recurring problems with the law
-lack of guilt
-unusual childhood behaviour
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Identified basic types of motivation and the order they must be met
-we experience more than one need at a time
-Maslow suggests a certain need may dominate in various instances
-psychopaths appear to focus on basic needs (food,sex,shelter)
-while higher level needs like spirituality, self esteem and respect seem to attract little interest.
PCL-R (psychopathy checklist-revised)
A psychological assessment tool most commonly used to assess the presence of psychopathy in individuals.
It measures characteristic traits of psychopaths such as superficial charm, pathological lying, manipulation of others, impulsivity, juvenile delinquency and criminality.
Each item is scored on a 0-2 scale,(0=no match, 2=reasonably good match)
Score above 30 indicates psychopathy.
Are all murderers psychopaths?
No-
it is important to see the distinction between different categories of murder.
For example, crimes of passion are rarely associated with psychopaths due to the crime being spontaneous and unplanned.
Are all psychopaths murderers?
No-
characteristics of psychopaths often lend themselves to top level positions in business statistics suggest 1% of population are psychopaths and it is unlikely the whole prison population is made up of psychopaths. (approx 30%)
Summary & background
Hancock investigated language used by psychopaths, interviewed psychopaths and non psychopaths, asked all to describe their murder in as much detail as possible. Interviews were then analysed by 2 computerised content analysis programmes. Several differences found between non psychopaths and psychopaths; amount of cause and effect phrases, such as because used (significantly more by psychopaths) words relating to basic needs (significantly more by psychopaths) number of disfluencies used (significantly more by psychopaths) Psychopaths also included less social needs such as family in their speeches.
Psychopathy
estimated 1% of population are psychopaths.
Psychopaths have specific combinations of cognitive, social & emotional characteristics that differentiate them from general population. Exhibit abnormally high levels of selfishness and have profound emotional deficit; however in spite of appearing to have little or no conscience they exhibit no apparent deficits in intellect.
Psychopathy has a biological basis to it
evidence from neuroimaging research suggested structural and functional abnormalities of the brain including; reduced grey matter in frontal & temporal lobes, anomalies in prefrontal cortex, corpus callosum and hippocampus.
The whole concept of psychopathy is hugely controversial, suggests some ppl may not be fully responsible for their crimes, also efforts of rehab may not work on them. Also controversial is the claim that many business leaders may be psychopaths.
Suggestion from this study by Hancock
It may be possible to identify psychopaths from way they speak, as psychopaths are skilled at manipulating, deceiving and controlling their self presentation, a computerised tool examining subtle aspects of their language represents a new way to gain insight into their behaviour.
Language
Language communicates directly an individuals thoughts on another person, the relationship between language and thought has been subject of much debate among philosophers and psychologists.
benefits of words in this study
-Its thought that words can reveal significant insights about psychological functioning, underlying cognitive and emotional processes can be revealed through subtle patterns in word choice.
-Quantitative word counts can be used as a tool in identifying and examining abnormal psychological processes
( psychopathy may therefore be reflected in idiosyncratic linguistic styles )
Aims/Hypotheses
This study was the first to uniquely examine specific qualities of psychopathic language using sophisticated statistical text analysis tools. Researchers examined language characteristics of psychopaths (describing their violent crimes) on 3 major characteristics: 1- their instrumental nature, 2- their unique material and socio-emotional needs, 3- their emotional deficits
Researchers examined language characteristics of psychopaths (describing their violent crimes) on 3 major characteristics (Their instrumental nature)
Psychopaths appear to view world and others as theirs for the taking, Hancock was interested in seeing if their speech reflected this in the form of more subordinate conjunctions used; because, since, as, so, that etc…
These words are associated with cause and effect statements and would suggest offenders whose crimes are premediated and motivated by the achieving of an external goal.
Researchers examined language characteristics of psychopaths (describing their violent crimes) on 3 major characteristics (Their unique material and socio-emotional needs)
Satisfying their basic physiological and material needs (food,sex, shelter) matters more to psychopaths than higher level needs for meaningful relationships, spirituality, self esteem etc. Hancock was interested in seeing whether their narratives about their crimes contain more semantic references to food,drink,sex,clothing,rescources(money) and fewer semantic references reflecting higher level needs like love,family,spirituality.