hancock Flashcards
1
Q
research method
A
- quasi experiment: the IV is whether the participants were psychopaths or non-psychopaths which was naturally occuring
- independent measures design
- self report in the form of structured/open-ended interviews such as the step wise interview technique in order to gather data in relation to the language of psychopaths and non-psychopaths who had committed murder
- content analysis, due to the quantitative analysis they carried our of verbal information obtained during interviews
- content analysis means that it is possible to question the content that hancock chose to analyse
- hancock reported various ways in which psychopaths use langauge differently from non-psychoaths
2
Q
data
A
- quantitative data was collected: the prisoners descriptions of their crimes were analysed in a way that generated quantitative data
- this was helpful in enabling hancock to confirm if the differences in language use between psychopaths and non-psychopaths were statistically different
- the data was collected through interviews which leads to natural behaviour revealing itself
3
Q
validity
A
- High validity due to the offenders appearing not to be told about either the IV of the study or the precise aspects of langauge the researchers were interested in investigating making it less likely for demand characteristics to occur.
- using double blind procedures reduces the dangers of researcher bias in analysis of data
- low validity: not all prisoners classified as psychopathic were actually psychopathic
- low construct validity: the study was not examining the particioants general language usage so much as their use of language in one specific context
- it is possible that the way language is uses could reflect other things apart from psychopathy (e.g. the extent to which someone is in the habit of providing justifications for their behaviour might be related to their highest level of education),, the culture they are from and how pedantic they are.
- the extent to which any of their descriptions of their crime would have been accurate could be questioned and this would apply whether the account came from a psychopath or non-psychopath.
4
Q
ethics that were upheld
A
- deception: participants were not deceieved regarding the purpose of the interviews however it is unclear whether the prisoners knew that they were being assessed for psychopathy or that they were compared against another group of prisoners
- informed consent: the participants volunteered to take part so they gave their vonsent to be involved
- confidentiality/anonymity was maintained
5
Q
reliability
A
- high internal reliabiity: large enough to establish a consistent effect
- high external reliability: all followed a standardised ‘step wise’ procedure, the use of computer programs to anakyse the prisoners language would also have helped ensure that the data from each participant were approached in a consistent way.
- looking at several different aspects of language as opposed to just one will have helped imrpove the reliability of the findings as they could then be compared to see if they are all telling the same consistent story
- high inter-rater reliability: inter-rater reliability check in relation to the coding of the PCL-R assessmenta
6
Q
sample
A
- sample cannot be generalisable due to the small number of participants
- 14 psychopaths, all male, drawn from the same country, criminals and convicted with the same crime
7
Q
ethnocentricism
A
- ethnocentric: with the same men all being drawn from the same country, canada, it could be argued that the research is ethnocentric as it is possible that people in other countries would use language in different ways according to the nature of language or the nature of culture
- not ethnocentric: in canda, there are 2 official languages which is english and french. the research paper doesnt make it clear whether the participants that theu studied were english speakers, french speakers or both. the research would be less ethnocentric if it was based on speakers of both languages but because it isnt mentioned, it is reasonable to assume that they were all english speakers.
8
Q
determinsim
free will/determinism
A
- suggestion that the psychopaths diminished capacity for moral sensibility appears to have biological underpinnings suggests that their behaviour is determined by biological factors
9
Q
free will
free will/determinism
A
- psychopaths are highly manipulative.
- psychopaths are skilled conversationalists and use language to lie to, charm and use others for material gain, drugs, sex or power
- if they are able to manage how they are perceived by others then this would suggest they have control over their behaviour to some degree due to free will.
10
Q
usefulness
A
- hancock claims that their findings on speech begin to open the window into the mind of the psychopaths which suggests a new way of detectig psychopaths (e.g. by listening to how they use language)
- this could be extremely useful in prison contect as it could be used when trying to work out the best rehabilitation schemes to give to inmates.
- ## this could be used at schools to identidy those children with psychopathic tendencies
11
Q
socially sensitive research
A
- some people may have soeech problems which may make them have language differences that psychopaths are said to have which may offend them
- e.g. those who are disfluent in their language may have a tendency to use past tense when describing their actions and also subordinating conjucntions but they are wrongly labelled as psychopaths
12
Q
how does hancocks study link to individual differences area
A
- it is investigating a way in which it might be possible to measure differences between people, in this case their use of language.
13
Q
how does hancocks study link to psychodynamic perspective
A
- psychopaths use their language due to **unconscious control **which links to the idea of an unconscious element to each of us that is responsible for atleast some of our behaviour
- hancock suggests that it is because of the way in which prisons restricts the bility of the psychopaths to fulfil many of their basic and thrill seeking drives that they use less emotionally pleasant language
- psychopaths would use language that reflects increased psychological distancing such as higher rates of past tense usage which is seen as an **ego defense mechanism **
14
Q
key theme that hancock links to
A
measuring differences
15
Q
how does hancock link to key theme
A
- hancock suggests that it is possible to carry out a quantitatice analysis of how people use language and that psychopaths use language in measurably distinctive ways
16
Q
how is hancock and research carried out by yerkes similar
A
- both pieces of research were conducted on an all male sample
- both pieces of research were carried out in institutional settings (data from yerkes were collected in army camps and interviews by hancock were carried out in prison settings
- both pieces of research were trying to capture the psychological construct they were investigating (intelligence, language) in numerical/measurable
- both yerkes research and the study by hancock can be seen as following a quasi experimental method
- both studies used the self-report method to gather data
17
Q
how does hancock change our understanding of rhe key theme
A
- it suggests that instead of getting respodents completing tests or questionnaires on themselves like freud or gould, an alternative could be to have professionals analyse what people do anyway
- suggests that there can be a role for technology in this process (Wmatrix and DAL)
- Language use can be used to measure the differences between psychopaths and
non-psychopaths. Psychopaths have been found to characteristically use particular
word-patterns that appear to have a lack of fluency, psychologically distant terms
and more rational rather than emotional.
18
Q
how does hancock change our understanding of individual, cultural and social diversity
A
- individual diversity: it extends our understanding by drawing our attention to psychopathy and how this might be revealed by the language that people use
- cultural diversity: it analyses people from a narrower range of ethnic backgrounds than the Gould study by studying people from canada, it teaches us sbout the people from another country. The contemporary study focused on prisoners in Canada and therefore does not offer further insight into cultural diversity overall, it does extend our understanding from America in the classic study but could be improved by considering the behaviour of individuals in further cultures.
19
Q
how is hancock and research carried out by yerkes is different
A
- in terms of generalisability, whereas yerkes sample was in mamy ways varied (the army recruits certainly came from different backgrounds in terms of their cultural origins), the sample in hancocks study were very specifc as they only committed the same crime
- the sample sizes were very dfferent as yerkes studied 1.75 million people whereas hancock only studied 52 people and 14 were classified as psychopathic
- in terms of how data were collected in yerkes study the researchers gave the army recruits a specific, researchers gave the army recruits a specific, researcher ceeated task to do, and then analysed how well they were able to do this. in the study by hancock analysis was made of the normal behaviour of the prisoners
- the study by hancock was conducted under more controlled conditions that were the same for all participants
