Hancock et al (2011) Flashcards
What is a psychopath?
Psychopaths can be described as people who exhibit a wholly selfish orientation and profound emotional deficit; however in spite of appearing to have little or no ‘conscience’.
What was the aim of the research by Hancock?
To investigate whether the language of psychopaths reflected a predatory world view, unique socio-emotional needs and a poverty of affect.
What was the research method used in research by Hancock et al?
Psychopathy was measured using Pschopathy Checklist Revised
Semi structured interview / open ended questions (a self report method which employed Step Wise Interview techniques.
The narratives were subsequently transcribed and analysed through content analysis using the Wmatrix and the DAL.
What was the sample used in research by Hancock et al?
52 male murder incarcerated in Canadian correctional facilities who admitted their crime and volunteered
for the study.
8 convictions (16%) were for first-degree murder, 32 (64%) of convictions were for second-degree murder and 10 (20%) of convictions were for manslaughter
Outline the psychopathy assessment of participants in Hancock research
Psychopathy was measured using the Psychology Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Psychopathy, as measured by the PCL-R is characterised by
20 criteria scored from 0 – 2 for a maximum score of 40.
Conducted by extensively trained prison psychologists or a researcher who was well trained in the
coding of the PCL–R
14 offenders were classified as psychopathic and 38 as non-psychopathic
Outline the procedure used in Hancock et al
Participants were then interviewed. At the beginning of the interview, the purpose of the study and the procedure were verbally explained.
While being audio-taped, participants were asked to describe their homicide offences in as much detail as possible. In this open-ended interviewing procedure.
Interviews lasted about 25 minutes
What tools were applied to the transcripts?
Two text analysis tools were then used to analyse the transcripts:
- The corpus analysis programme Wmatrix which was used to compare parts of speech and to analyse semantic concepts contained in the psychopath and control corpora.
- The Dictionary of Affect in Language (DAL) software programme was used to examine the affective tone of the words.
What were the key findings of research by Hancock et al from the instrumental language analysis?
Instrumental language analysis: psychopaths produced more conjunctions than controls e.g. because, since, as, so that.
What were the key findings of research by Hancock et al from the hierarchy of needs analysis?
Hierarchy of needs analysis: psychopaths used approximately twice as many words related to basic physiological needs, including eating, drinking and monetary
Resources when describing their murders than controls.
Controls used significantly more language related to social needs, including family, religion and spirituality than psychopaths.
What were the key findings of research by Hancock et al from the emotional expression of language ?
The degree to which the psychopaths had physiologically distanced themselves/were simply detached from their homicide was examined
through the use of the past and present form of verbs and the rate of articles:
Psychopaths used more past tense verbs than controls e.g. stabbed.
Psychopathic language was significantly less fluent than controls.
What were the main conclsions of research by Hancock et al?
Psychopaths focus more on physiological needs than higher level social needs than non-psychopaths.
Psychopaths are more likely to view their crime as a logical outcome of a plan than non-psychopaths.
Linguistically frame their crime as more in the past (psychopaths).
The language that psychopaths use is also significantly more disfluent.
