Hancock

Question 1

What was Hancocks study looking at

Answer 1

How psychopaths describe crimes differenctly

Question 2

Define what psychopaths are

Answer 2

Psychopathy is a personality disorder
= lack empathy
= no remorse for actions
= 1% are psychopaths

Question 3

Background to Hancock

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Ain of Hancock

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What are socio-emotional needs

Answer 5

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)

Question 6

What are emotional deficits

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Sample of Hancock

Answer 7

14 psychopathic male murderers
38 non-psychopathic male murderers

recruited from imprisoned in Canadian correctional facilities

all admitted to crime + volunteered

Question 8

Procedure of Hancock

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Results of Hancock

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Conclusions of Hancock

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Generalisability of Hancock

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Reliability of Hancock

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Applications of Hancock

Answer 13

used to identify psychopaths so can be rehabilitated

used in decisions about their parole

Question 14

Validity of Hancock

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Ethics of Hancock

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Type of Data in Hancock

Answer 16

QUALITATIVE
= answers in interview questions

Text-analysis change data to quantitative
= calculated % of subordinating conjunctions used in psychopaths compared to non-psychopaths

Question 17

Hancock relate to key theme ‘measuring differences’

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Hancock relate to Individual Differences Area

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Individual, Social Cultural diversity in Hancock

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Free will vs Determinism in Hancock

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Hancock and Socially Sensitive Research

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Hancock provide an individual explanation of behaviour

Answer 22

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