Individual Differences Study - Hancock et al Flashcards
What are psychopaths?
They are people who often come across as charming, intelligent and articulate. However they lack empathy and see other people as there to be used in order to achieve their own personal ends. They are self-centred and manipulative.
What is psychopathy seen as?
A personality disorder instead of mental illness.
What is the assessment for psychopathy?
PCL-R which contains 20 items (rated 0=doesn’t apply, 1=applies a bit and 2= applies fully). A score of 30 or above is required to be classed as a psychopath
What was the aim?
To investigate whether psychopaths use language in ways that are different from how non-psychopaths use language (such that it might be possible to detect psychopathy for how a person speaks)
What was the sample?
52 males being held in prison in Canada for murder. 14 were psychopaths and 38 were not psychopaths.
What was the procedure?
Participants were interviewed individually and asked to describe what happened during the murder. These interviews were typed up as transcripts. They were than analysed with Wmatrix and DAL (Dictionary of Affect in Language)
What were the findings/conclusions?
Psychopaths used more subordinating conjunctions (because, since, so that), they used more words associated with satisfying low level needs and they used more past tense and ums and ahs.
