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