Hancock Flashcards
What was Hancocks study looking at
How psychopaths describe crimes differenctly
Define what psychopaths are
Psychopathy is a personality disorder
= lack empathy
= no remorse for actions
= 1% are psychopaths
Background to Hancock
Previous research found that statistical speech analysis could be accurate at clinical diagnosis of identifying those with mental disorders eg. depression
Previous Research found psychopaths may be less coherent than non-psychopaths
Hancock wanted to investigate whether psychopaths could be identified through the way they speak
Ain of Hancock
To examine language characteristics of psychopaths in describing violent crimes on 3 major characteristics
1) instrumental nature (use more cause+effect words eg. becauses, so that)
2) unique socio-emotional needs
3) emotional deficit
What are socio-emotional needs
refer to social needs eg. having friends and emotional needs eg. being loved
= thought psychopaths would refer to food, money more than love, family (physiological needs rather than socio-economic needs)
What are emotional deficits
when a person finds it difficult to experience the full range of emotions > lack empathy
Hancock believed it would be
> less intense emotional words
> more disfluencies (uh, um)
> distancing from lack of responsibility for the crime
> more past tense
Sample of Hancock
14 psychopathic male murderers
38 non-psychopathic male murderers
recruited from imprisoned in Canadian correctional facilities
all admitted to crime + volunteered
Procedure of Hancock
Particpants were assesed using Psychopathy Checkist-Revised (PCL-R)
= assesses affective(emotional traits + antisocial traits)
= score 30 or above/40 leads to diagnosis of psychopathy
= carried out be trained psychologists (inter-reliability check by graduate re-code random case files)
STANDARDISED ‘STEP-WISE INTERVIEW’
= describe their offence in detailed while being audio-taped
= interviewers were 2 psychology grads + one research assistant who were ‘blind’ to psychopathy scores
TWO-TEXT ANALYSIS
= interviews were transcribed and analysed using two-text analysis tools
Wmatrix = analyses parts of speech + meaning
DAL - analyses emotions eg. positivity
Results of Hancock
INSTRUMENTAL LANGAUGE ANALYSIS
= psychopaths produced more subordinating conjunctions than non eg. because, as it (cause +effect)
= suggests they see crime as an inevitable outcome so not remorseful
SOCIO-ECONOMIC NEEDS
= psychopaths used twice as many words related to basic physiological needs eg. eating, money when describing murders
=nons used significantly more language related to social needs eg, family
EMOTIONAL DEFICT
= psychopaths used more past-tense forms of verbs eg.stabbed
= viewed crimes as in past so creating more psychological distance between them and crimes
= 33% more disfluencies
Conclusions of Hancock
Psychopaths tend to view their crimes as the logical outcome of a plan
Focus more on basic physiological needs
Psychopaths are less emotional +less positive in their speech
Psychopaths are more emotionally detached from their crimes
Generalisability of Hancock
only used canadian male prisoners
= not representitative of female prisoners
ethnocentric
= focused on one culture - canada
particpants volunteers
= only certain types of people take part in study
Reliability of Hancock
GOOD INTER-RELIABILITY
= trained graduate re-coded 10 randomly selected case files using PCL-R+ got same psychopathy scores
STANDARDISED
= same two psychology graduates doing ‘Step Wise Interviews’ audio recorded, followed same steps when asking questions
= two-text analysis increases consistency
Applications of Hancock
used to identify psychopaths so can be rehabilitated
used in decisions about their parole
Validity of Hancock
GOOD ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
= participants interviewed about own crimes so real life events
GOOD CONCURRENT VALIDITY
= linguistic analysis tools (Wmatrix + DAL) tests for validity across other research
REDUCED VALIDITY
= could give socially desirable answers
= argued psychopaths more likely to give theses
Ethics of Hancock
Ethical issues
= confidentiality + privacy when discussing past crimes with prisoners
= participants need to give informed consent + know they have right to withdraw
Improved ethics
= obtained volunteers
= not forced
Type of Data in Hancock
QUALITATIVE
= answers in interview questions
Text-analysis change data to quantitative
= calculated % of subordinating conjunctions used in psychopaths compared to non-psychopaths
Hancock relate to key theme ‘measuring differences’
measured differnces between psychopaths and non-psychopaths in they way language was used to describe their crimes
used text-analysis tools to compare their language and found that psychopaths distance themselves from their crimes by using more past tense verbs
Hancock relate to Individual Differences Area
individual differences area looks at differences between people in terms of personal qualities + how they respond to situations
relates as it considers how psychopaths differ from non-psychopaths in they way they describe their crimes + how they are more focused on physiological needs
Individual, Social Cultural diversity in Hancock
INDIVIDUAL - psychopaths differ from normal people
- use language differently to others
SOCIAL - didnt look at gender differences as all men
CULTURAL - only canda wheras goulds looked at US, changes cultural diversity by looking at people in another culture
Free will vs Determinism in Hancock
FREE WILL
= chose to use language to psychologically distance themselves from crimes and lie to others
DETERMISISM
= no control over traits measured in PCR-L checklists , so characteristics beyond their control
Hancock and Socially Sensitive Research
looked at the language of psychopaths so important findings aren’t misapplied
people who have tendency to use past tense when describing their actions can be wrongly labelled as psychopaths
psychopaths could get longer sentences if they are seen to have no remorse - unfairly treated, affect parole interviews
Hancock provide an individual explanation of behaviour
INDIVIDUAL EXPLANATION - looks how internal factors eg. genes affect behaviour
= it looks at how individual psychopathic traits can affect how murderers describe their crimes
= eg. more likely to describe crimes in past tense to psychologically distance themselves from crimes
