Hancock et al (2011)

Question 1

(Hancock et al) What is the aim of this study?

Answer 1

To investigate whether psychopaths use language in ways that are different from how non-psychopaths use language.

Question 2

(Hancock et al) Describe the sample of this study.

Answer 2

52 male murderers from Canada who had admitted to their crimes and volunteered to take part in the study.
- 14 psychopaths
- 38 non-psychopaths

Question 3

(Hancock et al) State 3 interpersonal traits in psychopaths.

Answer 3

• Inflated sense of self-worth
• Cunning/manipulative
• Lack of remorse/guilt

Question 4

(Hancock et al) State 3 anti-social behaviour in psychopaths.

Answer 4

• Juvenile delinquency
• Poor behavioural control
• Promiscuity

Question 5

(Hancock et al) What type of experiment was this?

Answer 5

Quasi

Question 6

(Hancock et al) What was the independent variable in this experiment?

Answer 6

Whether the participant was a psychopath or not.
This made groups independent as you cannot take part in both conditions.

Question 7

(Hancock et al) Describe the procedure.

Answer 7

Participants asked to describe their crime in as much detail as possible.

2 mins - 2 senior psychology graduates, 1 research assistant -all blind to psychopathy scores.

Narratives were audiotaped and then turned into transcripts that were as close to what was said as possible.

Question 8

(Hancock et al) What were the 2 forms of computer-based analysis that the transcripts were subjected by?

Answer 8

Wmatrix & DAL

Question 9

(Hancock et al) What does ‘Wmatrix’ do?

Answer 9

Compares speech, tags part of speech.
Compared all psychopath’s responses with all the non-psychopaths responses.

Question 10

(Hancock et al) What does ‘DAL’ do?

Answer 10

Software analyses emotional properties of language.
Compared language used by each participant.

Question 11

(Hancock et al) Findings: Describe was is meant by the term ‘instrumental language’.

Answer 11

The psychopaths used more subordinating conjunction, suggesting premeditated acts aimed at achieving specific goals.

Question 12

(Hancock et al) Findings: Describe was is meant by the term ‘Hierarchy of Needs’.

Answer 12

Psychopaths used more words associated with satisfying low-level physiological and material needs, whereas non-psychopaths used more words relating to higher-level emotional/spiritual needs.

Question 13

(Hancock et al) Findings: Emotional expression: Describe was is meant by the term ‘dysfluencies’.

Answer 13

Their speech contained 33% more ‘um’ and ‘ah’ phrases, reflecting the effort they were having to put in to come across positively to the interviewer.

Question 14

(Hancock et al) Findings: Emotional expression: Describe was is meant by the term ‘psychological distancing’.

Answer 14

Used more words in the past tense and more articles, suggesting a distancing of themselves from the murder they had committed.

Question 15

(Hancock et al) Findings: Emotional expression: Describe was is meant by the term ‘emotional content of language’.

Answer 15

It was found that the higher a person’s ‘Factor 1’ score ha been on the PCL-R, the lower they scored for pleasantness and intensity of emotional language.

Question 16

(Hancock et al) What is the conclusion of this study?

Answer 16

The language that psychopaths use is also significantly more disfluent suggesting psychopaths seem to operate on a primitive but rational level.

Question 17

(Hancock et al) Links to the Psychodynamic Perspective: Suggests differences in language are “likely beyond conscious control” - our behaviour is due to the ___________ ____.

Answer 17

unconscious mind

Question 18

(Hancock et al) Links to the Psychodynamic Perspective: Suggests psychopaths are stuck at the lowest stage of ___ ___________.

Answer 18

ego development

Question 19

(Hancock et al) Links to the Psychodynamic Perspective: Idea of psychological __________ could be a form of ___ defence mechanism.

Answer 19

distancing
ego

Question 20

(Hancock et al) Links to the Psychodynamic Perspective: Says that prison stops psychopaths from being able to fulfil their ‘_____ and _____ seeking drives’ which is why their language is less ___________ pleasant.

Answer 20

basic
thrill
emotionally

Question 21

(Hancock et al) Links to the Psychodynamic Perspective: One of the studies in the background to the study used _________ test which suggested psychopaths have little need to interact with others.

Answer 21

Rorschach

Question 22

(Hancock et al) How does this study relate to the key theme of ‘measuring differences’?

Answer 22

Suggests that computer analysis could be used to analyse differences in features of language used.

Question 23

(Hancock et al) How does this study relate to the area of individual differences?

Answer 23

Investigates how psychopaths differ from other criminals in their use of language (and how these differences could be measured).

Question 24

(Hancock et al) How HAS our understanding of the key theme (measuring differences) been changed?

Answer 24

Suggests that instead of getting participants to complete self-report questions, you could use computer programmes to analyse differences between people.

Question 25

(Hancock et al) How HASN’T our understanding of the key theme (measuring differences) been changed?

Answer 25

There is still an issue in terms of the validity of tests and whether they are actually measuring the concept itself.

Question 26

(Hancock et al) How HAS our understanding of diversity changed, regarding individual diversity?

Answer 26

Shows that psychopaths may be different in the language they use.

Question 27

(Hancock et al) How HASN’T our understanding of diversity changed, regarding social diversity?

Answer 27

Still only conducted on males.

Question 28

(Hancock et al) How HAS our understanding of diversity changed, regarding cultural diversity?

Answer 28

Done in Canada instead of the US.

Question 29

(Hancock et al) How HASN’T our understanding of diversity changed, regarding cultural diversity?

Answer 29

Both Canada and the US are Western cultures.