Hancock (2011): The language of psychopaths

Question 1

Background

Answer 1

Language as diagnosis:
-Research has shown that the words you choose can reveal your inner thoughts and psychological state. Therefore, an analysis of the the kind of words a person produce can be used in a psychological diagnosis.

Language of psychopaths:
-They are skilled at conversation, using it to charm and lie to others. This would lead us to expect their language is quite cohesive, however some researchers suggest that their language is actually less cohesive than non-psychopaths.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs: It is a five-tier model of human needs, with psychopaths being focused on the lower levels of it whereas non-psychopaths focus on the higher levels

Question 2

Aim of study

Answer 2

To use text analysis to analyse the language characteristics of psychopaths in describing their violent crimes. The focus was on three major characteristics:

An instrumental/predatory world view- Ps are more likely to be motivated by an external goal (instrumental) using cause and effect statements

Socioeconomic needs-Ps show need for others and are more concerned with basic needs (food and sex).

Poverty of effect- Ps have difficulty in identifying emotional faces. Their lack of emotional intelligence maybe reflected by using fewer emotional words, more disfluencies and psychological distancing

Question 3

Research methods

Answer 3

Quasi experiment with IMD
IV: Psychopath/Non-psychopath (not controlled)
DV: the measures of language of text analysis

Self-reports:
Semi-structured interviews following the stepwise interview technique
Psychopathy measured using Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised

The narratives were transcribed and analysed through Wmatrix and DAL

Question 4

Sample

Answer 4

52 men charged with murder (14 psychopaths, 38 non-psychopaths) imprisoned in Canada

All admitted to their crime and volunteered to take part

No sig difference between type of crime and psychopathy vs control

Question 5

Procedure

Answer 5

• All ps told the purpose of the study was to assess the way they recalled their crimes.
• They had to recall it from beginning to end
• All ps were interviewed by two senior psychology graduate students and one research artist. Interviewers were blind to the psychopathy scores of the offenders.
• It was a semi-structured interview with interviewer starting by asking qs. They were approx 25 mins long and they were audiotaped and later put into written form.
• Wmatrix classified words into: parts of speech (eg nouns, verbs), semantic categories (eg money) and major disclosure fields (eg language and communication)
• DAL assigns the scores for pleasantness and intensity of emotional language.

Question 6

Results

Answer 6

Number of words: No sig difference in number of words used to describe the crime psychos (average 2,201) and non-psychos (average 2,554)

Instrumental Language Analysis:
Psychos used more connectives suggesting theu were describing more cause and effect (instrumental)

Hierarchy of needs:
Psychos used twice as many ‘basic needs’ words than non-psychos and non-psychos used significantly more words related to ‘higher’ social needs

Emotional Expression in Language:
Psychos used more past tense verbs and fewer present tense verbs than non-psychos.
Psychos used more articles and concrete nouns than non-psychos. Suggesting psychos viewed their murder more in the past more emotionally distant from in than non-psychos

Question 7

Conclusions

Answer 7

Psychopaths more likely than non-psychopaths to:

• describe cause and effect relationships when describing the murder
• more likely to view their crime as a logical outcome of a plan
• focus on more physiological needs than higher needs
• focus on lower levels of necessities
• give less emotional intense descriptions of their crimes
• to speak more disfluently