Hancock

• Explain the background of the study by Hancock into the language of psychopaths. (4)

  1.Define psychopathy using some of Hares characteristics.2.Outline previous beliefs on the language of psychopaths.3.Outlined some background findings e.g. Patrick + Cleckley which explains actually their language is different and how4.Outline how this inspired Hancock to look at certain language indicatorsPsychopathy has been defined by Robert Hare as a set of characteristics including, lack of remorse and empathy, large amounts of self esteem and the inability to show true emotion towards others.One way that psychopaths differ is in their language, however the traditional belief and perception in the media, is that they are of high intelligence and therefore show this in their language.However, this has been disputed by Psychologists such as Cleckley and Williamson, who found evidence that psychopaths speak with more inconsistencies and a lack of coherence.This belief therefore inspired Hancock to conduct research and analyse the language of psychopathic murderers, to see if any of their language indicators e.g. lack of emotion in their language, differed from non psychopathic murderers.
• What was the aim in Hancocks's study?

  The aim of this study was toexamine whether the language of psychopathic murderers was different to non-psychopathic murderers.
• What were the

  three language indicatorsin Hancock's study?- An instrumental or predatory worldview.

  -Unique material and socio-economic needs.

  - Poverty of affect
• What was the research method in Hancock's study?

  Aself-report methodwas used whichinvolved face-to-face semi-structured interviewsusingopen-ended questions. This is known as a Step-Wise interview technique to gather data in relation to thelanguage of psychopaths and non-psychopathswho had committed murder.

  Psychopathy was measured using thePsychopathology Checklist-Revised

  The narratives were thentranscribed and analysedthrough the content analysis using theWmatrix and the DAL.
• What was the experimental design used in Hancock's study?

  •Independent measures design
• What is the sample used in Hancock's study? (3)

  52 male murderers (14 psychopathic and 38 non-psychopathic), Canadian jails.
• What was the sampling technique in Hancock's study?

  Volunteer sampling
• Describe the procedure used in Hancock's study (3)

  1. Ps were asked whether they would be interested in taking part, underwent a psychological assessment: Psychology Hare's Checklist - Revised

  Cut-off score was lowered artificially by Hancock to 25.

  
  

  2.Participants were then interviewed, they were briefed on the aim and procedure. They were audiotaped to describe their homicide offence in as much detail as possible using a standardised procedure known as Step -Wise interview.

  The interviewers were two senior psychology graduate students and one research assistant, all blind to the psychopathy scores of the offenders. Each interview lasted 25 minutes

  
  

  3.Each interview was then transcribed, as close to verbatim. And analysed using text analysis tools: W matrix program, used to analyse parts of the speech. And DLA software to examine emotional properties of the language.
• What was the results in Hancock's study? (3)

  Instrumental language analysisPsychopaths are more likely to describe the murder using subordinating conjunctions e.g. because

  Socio-economic needsPsychopaths used twice as many words relating to basic needs e.g. money, food

  Poverty of affectPsychopaths showed a detachment from their crime by using hardly any emotional language.
• What are some conclusions from Hancock's study? (3)

  -Psychopaths focus more on basic physiological needs than higher level social needs than non-psychopaths.

  - Psychopaths are more emotionally detached from their crimes.

  - Psychopaths are less emotional and less positive in their speech.
• What are strengths of the research method in Hancock's study? (2)

  •One strength of Hancock et al using a self-report method of interviewing is that this allowed for rich, detailed qualitative data to be gained from the male murderers. For example, the murderers were asked to describe the homicide in as much detail as possible leaving out no details. This is a strength because such detailed transcripts gathered from the interview can be analysed to give us a clear insight into the language of psychopaths and greatly increase our academic knowledge and understanding as to how psychopaths differ from none psychopaths which can greatly help the police when dealing with such people

  
  

  •Further to this the interview technique to gather data should have led to natural behaviour revealing itself as opposed to completing a questionnaire especially with the narrative account that the Stepwise Interview technique gets
• What are weaknesses of the research method in Hancock's study? (2)

  •One weakness of the self-report method of interviewing as used by Hancock et al is the issue of reduced validity of the information gathered as a result of demand characteristics and social desirability. Hancock's murderers knew they were taking part in a research study, although they didn't know that their language was being analysed, this may have meant that the information given about the murder was over-exaggerated or even under detailed as a result of the murderer either giving the experimenter what they believed they wanted to hear or wanting to appear socially desirable to maintain a positive self-image. This is a weakness because we can not be certain that the information is true so such information which allows us to draw inferences about the personalities and behavioural traits of psychopaths may be completely flawed and any practical applications such as rehabilitation would be rendered ineffective
• What is a strength of quantitative data in Hancock's study?

  •One strength of the quantitative data as gathered by Hancock is that it allows them to make objective comparison's between the language of psychopaths and none psychopaths and check such comparisons for statistical significance For example it was shown that 0.26% of the content of psychopaths homicide descriptions related to money compared to 0.16% of the control groups descriptions. This objective comparison allows Hancock to draw possible conclusions such as psychopaths focus on basic physiological needs than higher level social needs that non psychopaths which is extremely useful for practical applications for rehabilitation of psychopaths
• What is a weakness of quantitative data in Hancock's study?

  •One weakness of the quantitative data as gathered by Hancock et al is the lack of insight behind the figures obtained, for example it was shown that 0.26% of the content of psychopaths homicide descriptions related to money compared to 0.16% of the control groups descriptions but we do not get any insight as to why psychopaths focus more heavily on physical needs over social needs compare to non psychopaths. This is a weakness because the lack of insight gives us limited understanding of the personality and behavioural traits that make psychopaths different from the general population which is a major weakness as this provides us with very limited academic knowledge and understanding meaning the data is not very useful
• What is a strengths of qualitative data in Hancock's study?

  •A strength of the qualitative data as gathered by Hancock et al is that it provides rich, detailed insight into the language of psychopaths compared to non-psychopaths. For example when the murderers were describing their crime they were asked to be detailed and ensure no information was left out which allowed for DAL software to examine the emotional properties in the language used in detailed qualitative transcripts. This is a strength as the insight it gained allowed Hancock to conclude that psychopaths are less emotional in their speech which is greatly beneficial to helping us to understand the mind of a psychopaths. This is a strength as it can be seen to possibly support physiological explanations for lack of empathy relating to brain dysfunction in areas of the brain such the amygdala responsible for emotion regulation. This could maybe lead to a preventative strategy with medication for people with such dysfunctions
• What is a weakness of qualitative data in Hancock's study?

  •One weakness of the qualitative data as gathered by Hancock is comparisons may have been difficult as different aspects of the crimes may have been described in different amounts of detail by participants. Also, a content analysis was used to analyse the data therefore the interpretation may been biased and certain trends may not have been reported. This is a weakness because this invalidates the information as we are not getting an accurate insight into the language of psychopaths and how they differ to non psychopaths
• How is Hancock's study high in internal validity?

  •Internal validity was increased as the participants were not told the exact aims of the interview and the interviewers were not aware which murderers were psychopaths, resulting in no interviewer bias.
• How is Hancock's study low in internal validity?

  •Questions have been asked about the validity of the classification of psychopaths. A lower score of 25 than normal on the test was used to classify psychopathy which may have confounded the results.
• How is Hancock's study high in ecological validity?

  •This could be considered high as they used real life murderers in a real prison environment to describe their real life crimes, this is highly reflective of real life and therefore the results can be generalised with confidence
• How is Hancock's study low in ecological validity?

  •It is not everyday that a murderer is asked to participate in a research study and simply asked to detail every aspect of their crime, this attention and feeling of importance could elicit false information which means the results can not be confidently generalised to all psychopaths.
• What is a strength of using a snapshot method in Hancock's study?

  •One strength of using a snapshot study is it allows for comparisons to be made between different groups of individuals, in this case between the language of psychopaths and none psychopaths. Such comparisons are extremely useful in helping us to understand the differences between psychopaths and the general population to allow rehabilitation and preventative measures to be put into place such as screening in schools.
• What is a weakness of using a snapshot method in Hancock's study?

  •A weakness of Hancock's snapshot study is that it doesn't allow us to see any development on behaviour. It may have been that how they described the murder on that particular day during the 25 minute interview reflected their mood state for the day. They may have been feeling hostile or irritable or even tired which may have impacted on how they described the murder, this would mean that the DAL results would be different over time and that the psychopath did appear more empathetic on other days making Hancock's conclusions invalid.
• How is Hancock's study low in reliability?

  A small sample of 14, is this large enough to establish a consistent cause and effect.
• How is Hancock's study high in reliability?

  Internal rel- All use the same Stepwise procedure, there was an inter-rater reliability check . The use of computer software would have helped to ensure data was approached in a consistent way
• How is Hancock's study socially sensitive?

  •Stigame- It is essential that it is not misused, those who speak in past tense and are disfluent in their may be labelled a psychopath! Could impact on employment and many other areas of their life.
• How is Hancock's study useful?

  Understanding the language of psychopaths reveals the personality and behavioural traits that make them different from the general population. This is useful as it has the potential to help identify psychopaths and develop practical applications to deal with them more effectively. For example, as the study by Hancock et al shows that psychopaths have the tendency to distance themselves from their crimes and have motivations linked to basic needs, this information can be used to develop appropriate ways to rehabilitate psychopathic offenders within the criminal justice system.
• How is Hancock's study ethnocentric?

  •All from the same Canadian prison, so ethnocentric as quite possible that people in other countries would use language in different ways according to the nature of the language (whether it uses articles in the same way) or the nature of the culture (the extent to which physiological needs are a preoccupation in one culture)
• How does Hancock's study illustrate the free will debate?

  •Not all psychopaths commit murder; some exercise free will over their behaviour. They are often highly skilled manipulators who can control their behaviour to manipulate others
• How does Hancock's study illustrate the determinism debate? (2)

  •Hancock suggests that the diminished capacity for moral responsibility it biologically determined, such as neural abnormalities

  •Language may be unconsciously driven; some aspects of psychopathy may be physically determined