Hancock Et Al - Individual Differences Flashcards
Why can the validity of this study be questioned?
Usually a score of 30+ on Hare’s PCL-R classifies a person as a psychopath, however the prisoners in this study only had to score 25 or above meaning that not all prisoners classified of psychopaths were actually psychopathic (type 1 error)
What area does Hancock’s study relate to?
Individual differences
What was the sample?
52 male murderers from Canada
What were the findings?
- Psychopaths viewed psychological needs as more significant than social needs. Eg: clothing over family.
- psychopaths tended to distance themselves from their homicide and used less emotionally intense language.
- psychopaths used more past tense words than present tense compared to controls
- psychopaths used more subordinating conjunctions eg: because, so, although, since.
Why could this study lack ethics?
There is no mention of the offenders being told that they could withdraw their information. This means that Ps could have been feeling uncomfortable due to it being unclear about whether they could withdraw from the study or not.
Why was the reliability of this study good?
Interviews with prisoners followed the same step-wise procedure.
The use of computer programmes to analyse the prisoner’s language would have also helped to ensure that the data from each participant was approached in a consistent way.
Why could the data collected from this study be useful?
It could be used in order to work out the best rehabilitation schemes to give inmates. Being able to know whether someone needs a form of rehabilitation instead of just a prison sentence could greatly improve the quality of life for these people.
