The Linguistic Output of Psychopathic Offenders During a PCL-R Interview

Abstract

We used text analysis software to examine the linguistic features of the speech of 21 psychopathic and 45 other offenders during the interview part of a Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL-R) assessment. Regression analysis was run on the linguistic categories to determine which were the best predictors of psychopathy scores. Relative to the other offenders, psychopaths used more disfluencies (“you know”) and personal pronouns, made fewer references to other people (e.g., personal names, family), and were also less emotionally expressive. In particular, a low frequency of anxiety-related words and a more frequent use of personal pronouns were the most significant predictors of PCL-R scores and accounted for 25% of the variance. These findings for the first time afford a unique glimpse into the language produced during the PCL-R assessment interview. In addition to enhancing our understanding of psychopathic speech, these results may provide interviewers additional insights relevant to the assessment and therapeutic process.

The Differentiation of Narrative Styles in Individuals with High Psychopathic Deviate

“…Notably, their emotional language is overflowing with lexical inconsistencies. Some studies showed that while psychopaths speak about emotional events, they are less emotionally expressive, in particular, they produce anxiety related words less frequently and use less emotionally intense language (Brinke et al, 2017;Hancock et al, 2011;Hildebrand et al, 2004;Le et al, 2017). In contrary to these findings, psychopaths have been found to be more expressive in talking about anxiety, love, and hate (Gawda, 2010(Gawda, , 2013.…”

“…In the context of syntax analysis focusing on psychopathic offenders' speech, it has been found that they use past tenses more frequently (Hancock et al, 2011), as well as repetitions, pauses, and negations in affective speech (Gawda, 2010). Some researchers point out to the lack of coherence in the psychopaths' speech, also in terms of logical reasoning as well as poor flow, stuttering, or rapid shifts in topic (Adshead, 2014;Brinkley et al, 1999;Hancock et al, 2011;Holmqvist, 2008;Le et al, 2017;Selenius & Strand, 2015;Williamson et al, 1991). It has been also observed that psychopathic offenders come to conclusions based on insufficient information (Gawda, 2013).…”

“…The study suggests that the explicit verbal expression is defensive, while implicit expression presents contradictory style, featuring inappropriate sounds, atypical melody, excessive breaks, or rapid speech (Romberg et al, 2015). This shows that psychopath's speech varies depending on the topic, emotional activation, and perceived control (Adshead, 2004;Frodi et al, 2001;Le et al, 2017;Romberg et al, 2015;Weiss et al, 2016). It could mean that this way of speaking reflects psychopathic offenders' tendency to reduce negative tension (Romberg et al, 2015) and avoid negative feelings (Adshead, 2014;Le et al, 2017).…”

“…This shows that psychopath's speech varies depending on the topic, emotional activation, and perceived control (Adshead, 2004;Frodi et al, 2001;Le et al, 2017;Romberg et al, 2015;Weiss et al, 2016). It could mean that this way of speaking reflects psychopathic offenders' tendency to reduce negative tension (Romberg et al, 2015) and avoid negative feelings (Adshead, 2014;Le et al, 2017). The findings on the implicit/explicite differentiation of the psychopaths' speech reflect their difficulties in emotional regulation.…”

Detection and Classification of Psychopathic Personality Trait from Social Media Text Using Deep Learning Model

“…Le et al [21] used a primary assessment tool, namely, PCL-R to investigate the discussion/language of offenders during the interview. Additionally, LIWC text analysis software program and Wmatrix method are used.…”