Hancock et al

Hancock et al

1. Method

   • Quasi experiment
   • Self report
     • Semi structured interviews
   • Content analysis

2. Aim

   • More use of subordinating conjunctions (cause and effect statements) suggesting crimes are motivated by a goal
   • More semantic references to basic needs like food and shelter and less reference to higher needs like love
   • Emotional deficit shown by producing fewer and less intense emotional words, more disfluencies eg. UH and using language that shows a distancing from responsibility for the crime like using the past tense

3. Participants

   • 52 men
   • Canadian prison
   • Volunteered to take part
   • Mean age of 29 when committed the crime

4. Procedure

   • Used Psychopathy Checklist-Revised
     • Scored 0-2 on 20 characteristics
     • Clinical diagnosis of psychopathy is a score of 30 or above
       • 25 or above used in the study
     • Completed by prison psychologists or highly trained researchers
       • Trained graduate student checked 10 random files to check they had been coded right
   • 38 non-psychopaths, 14 psychopaths
   • 2 graduate psychology students and 1 research student led interviews
   • Procedure and purpose were verbally explained at the start of the interview
   • Asked to describe the event in detail
     • Lasted around 25 mins
     • Turned into typed transcripts
   • Data analysis
     • Corpus analysis programme Wmatrix
       • Compare parts of speech
       • Analyse semantic concepts contained in the speech
     • Dictionary of Affect in Language
       • Assesses the emotional properties of language

5. Results

   • Instrumental language analysis
     • Psychopaths used more subordinating conjunctions (1.82% vs 1.54%)
   • Hierarchy of needs analysis
     • Psychopaths used twice as many words related to basic needs
     • Non-psychopaths used more language related to social needs
   • Emotional expression of language
     • Psychopaths speech contained 33% more disfluencies
     • Psychopaths used more past tense verbs and concrete nouns
     • Initially no significant difference in emotional intensity
       • Further analysis showed psychopaths are less emotionally intense
   • Psychopaths describe emotional events in a idiosyncratic manner
   • Psychopaths operate on a primitive but rational level

6. Other explanation for findings

   • Emotional negativity may just reflect their general state of mind due to being in prison
   • Use of past tense may just be due to their ability to better follow instructions and be more compliant
   • Only one type of event described
     • May not apply to other situations
   • No objective evidence from murders so they may have lied

7. Evaluation

   • Validity
     • Used a double blind procedure
       • Increased validity
     • May not have actually been psychopaths as a different rating was used (25 instead of 30)
     • Not looking at general speech just description of murder
     • Language could reflect other variables like education
     • May not have been accurate descriptions
   • Reliability
     • Inter-rater reliability
       • Psychopath checklist
     • Interviews all followed the same procedure
     • Computer programs ensured analysis was consistant
     • Looked at several aspects of language to check consistancy
     • Open ended interviews so may have described different aspects of the crime
     • Sample too small to establish consistency
   • Ethics
     • Not decieved
     • Not aware they were assessed for psychopathy
     • Gave consent
     • Anonymous
   • Data
     • Quantitative
       • Allowed comparison and statistical analysis
   • Sample
     • Limited generalisability
       • All men
       • All criminals convicted of murder
       • Only certain people would volunteer
   • Ethnocentrism
     • Language can be affected by culture
     • Would have been better if they'd used French and English Canadians
   • Research Method
     • Interviews so should have revealed natural behaviour
     • No information on what was similar

8. Links to area/perspective

   • Individual differences
     • Using language to measure differences
   • Psychodynamic
     • Unconscious use of language
   • Humanistic
     • Maslow's hierarchy of needs

9. Links to key theme

   • Quantitative analysis of differences in language
   • Suggests new ways to measure differences
     • Interviews
     • Computer programs
   • Adds cultural and individual diversity

10. Links to debates

    • Freewill/ determinism
      • Some characteristics of psychopathy are biological (deterministic)
      • Highly manipulative which suggests control over behaviour
    • Social sensativity
      • Harmful aplications
      • Could lead to labeling and dicrimination
        • Used inappropriately

11. Usefulness

    • Suggests a new way to detect psychopaths
    • Used in prisons and schools to work out support
    • What would happen if we did detect psychopathy in children
    • Language analysis may not be valid