Hancock et al - Evaluation
Tell a Story
Background
Psychopathy can be determined using the psychopathy checklist Revised (PCL-R). The PCL-R identifies characteristic traits of psychopaths such as superficial charm, pathological lying, manipulation of others, impulsivity, juvenile delinquency and criminality
Method
Design: Content analysis
Sample: 14 imprisoned psychopathic male murderers and 38 convicted murderers that weren't diagnosed psychopaths
Procedure: psychopathy determined using PCL-R. The WMatrix linguistic analysis tool (Rayson, 2008) to examine parts of speech and semantic content. Dictionary of of Affect and Language (DAL) tool (Whissell and Dewson, 1986) to examine emotional characteristics of the narratives.
Results
Psychopaths use 'because', 'since', or 'so that', implying the crime 'had to be done' to obtain a particular goal
Used twice as many words relating to physical needs
Psychopaths used more past tense
Conclusions
May be possible to screen people suspected of violent crimes
Psychopath's world view is fundamentally different
Interviews with suspended psychopaths should be recorded for analysis
How does the study relate to the area
Individual differences because, again, of its focus on trying to measure differences - in this case, text analysis tools are used to examine the crime narratives of 14 psychopathic and 38 non-psychopathic homicide offenders and the findings demonstrate how the two groups differ
How does the study relate to the perspective
Similarly, Hancock et al's study is not in itself psychodynamic,, but it makes repeated references to concepts that draw upon psychodynamic ideas throughout the course of the paper - namely, ego development, use of a Rorschach test, psychological 'distancing', basic and thrill-seeking drives, and language use being in all likelihood beyond conscious control. Again, these ideas could be drawn out and explicitly related to the psychodynamic perspective