Hancock

• Language communicates thoughts to others- language dependent on thought - thoughts and language are separate activities
• relationship between language and though debated amongst philosophers + psychologists- thoughts dependent on or caused by language
• words can reveal significant insights into psychological functioning - underlying cognitive + emotional processes can be revealed thru subtle patterns in word choice
• Quantitative word counts can be used to identify abnormal cognitive processes
• psychopaths have specific combinations cognitive, social + emotional characteristics that differentiate them from the general pop
• Smyth+ Santner - computer analysis of psychiatric patients - fewer optimistic, future + basic cognitive function words used
• little examination speech of psychopaths- 1% of population
• Wholly selfish explanation + emotional deficit- psychopaths diminished capability for neural sensibility has biological underpinnings - no deficits in intellect
• Psychopaths use less cohesive language + use more contradictory and logically inconsistent statements with less cohesive ties + more integrated statements
• Study was first to examine specific language- researches look at language characteristics of psychopaths in describing their own violent crimes on three characteristics- instrumental nature+ unique material + socioemotional needs- emotional deficit
• AIM- examine whether language of psychopaths reflected as predicted instrumental/ predatory world view, unique socioemotional needs + poverty of effect
• psychopathy measured using psychopathy checklist revised
• semi structured open ended interviews - used step wise technique to gather data in relation to language of psychopaths + non psychopaths who had committed murder - narratives transcribed + analysed through content analysis using Wmatrix + DAL
• 52 Male murders- 14 psychopathic- 38 not- volunteers

  • 8 - 1st degree murder
  • 32 - 2nd degree murder
  • 10 - manslaughter
• no differences in types of crime- groups did not differ in age- groups not differ on amount of time since homicide committed
• potential ppts asked to take part in a research study- underwent psychopathology assessment- PCL-R scores above 30= psychopath- conducted by trained pros (inter-rater reliability showed positive correlation) cut off score 25
• ppts interviewed- told purpose of study + procedure verbally explained- audio taped- ppts asked to describe their murders in as much detail as possible- step wise interview- lasted ab 25 mins
• interviewers- two senior psych grad students + one research assistant- all blind to psychopathology scores
• Narratives transcribed close to verbatim + checked for spelling errors and all interviewer comments deleted + proper nouns and abbreviations spelled out
• two text analysis carried out- corpus analysis programme Wmatrix- compare parts of speech + analyse analyse semantic concepts contained in psychopath

  DAL- dictionary of affect in language used to examine tone of the words
• Interviews produced total of 127,376 words

  -14 psychopaths- 29,562

  -38 control- 97,814

  -no significant difference in average number of words
• Psychopaths produced more subordinating conjunctions (since, so, that)than controls

  Psychopaths used approx 2x as many words related to basic psychological needs- eating, drinking and monetary resources when describing murders
• Controls used more words relating to family, religion + spirituality
• Psychopaths physically distanced themselves from crimes - used more past tense verbs
• Psychopaths used higher rate of articles than controls- psychopathic language less fluent
• Further analysis showed psychopathology to be associated with less positively balanced + less emotionally intense language
• Concluded: psychopaths more likely to describe cause and effect relationships when describing murder + view it as a logical outcome
• Concluded: psychopaths focus more on physiological needs + lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy
• Concluded: Psychopaths linguistically phrase homicide in past and more distant + give less emotionally pleasant language
• Concluded: psychopathic language less fluent + psychopaths operate in a primitive but rational level