cohesion and coherence in the speech of …
TRANSCRIPT
COHESION AND COHERENCE
IN THE SPEECH OF PSYCHOPATHIC CRIMINALS
by
SHERRIE ELLEN WILLIAMSON
B.Sc.(Hon)., University of V i c t o r i a , 1982 M.A., University of B r i t i s h Columbia, 1986
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Psychology)
We accept t h i s thesis as conforming to the required standard.
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
September 1991
(c) Sherrie Williamson, 1991
In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced
degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it
freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive
copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my
department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or
publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written
permission.
Department
The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada
Date
DE-6 (2/88)
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Abstract
This study was designed to examine the hypothesis that the
speech of criminal psychopaths i s poorly integrated. Measures
of cohesion ( l e x i c a l , r e f e r e n t i a l , conjunctive) and coherence
(plot-units) were used to assess the degree to which
independent clauses were linked together i n the personal
narratives of criminal psychopaths and criminal nonpsychopaths.
General deviance in communication, as measured by the Scale for
Thought, Language, and Communication Disorders (Andreasen,
1980), was also assessed. A s i g n i f i c a n t number of psychopaths
produced disordered communications. These communications f a i l e d
on a number of l e v e l s : Psychopaths used r e l a t i v e l y few cohesive
li n k s between sentences, f a i l e d to provide appropriate
referents i n discourse, f a i l e d to l i n k action and r e s o l u t i o n i n
s t o r i e s , and showed s i g n i f i c a n t c l i n i c a l impairment i n t h e i r
a b i l i t y to communicate. The r e s u l t s suggest that e f f e c t i v e
connections among speech units i n psychopaths' discourse are
not as numerous as those found i n nonpsychopaths. In addition,
psychopaths may suffer from a more general impairment i n
communication that i s related to, among other things, discourse
which has a tendancy to s l i p off track and a f a i l u r e to
d i r e c t l y answer a li s t e n e r ' s questions.
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Table of Contents
Abstract i i
Table of Contents i i i
L i s t of Tables v
Acknowledgements v i
Introduction 1
Psychopathy 8
The Assessment of Psychopathy 8
Psychopathy's Relationship to other Constucts 9
Psychopathy and Language 10
Psychopathy and Affective Processing 16
Language and Aff e c t in Psychopaths 17
Thought Disorder 20
Cohesion: Meaning and Measurement 23
The Register of the Narratives 31
Reference Patterns 33
Coherence: Meaning and Measurement 36
Plot-unit Analysis 36
Experimental Hypotheses 40
Method 40
Subjects 40
Procedure 42
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Speech Samples 42
SADS-L 44
Cohesion and Reference Ratings 46
Plot-unit Ratings 47
Thought Disorder Ratings 48
Results 52
Thought Disorder 52
Af f e c t Manipulation Check 56
Discourse Variables 57
Cohesion 62
Incompetent References 67
Coherence 68
Discussion 68
References 84
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L i s t of Tables
Table I. Categories of Cohesion 25
Table I I . Plot-units and Their Def i n i t i o n s 49
Table I I I . Summary of Information for Thought Disorder
(TD) Categories 54
Table IV. Means and Standard Deviations of the
Discourse Variables for the A f f e c t i v e
and Neutral Stories 59
Table V. Correlations of the Dependent Variables
with Total Words, Clauses and MLU for the
A f f e c t i v e and Neutral Stories 60
Table VI. Correlations of the PCL-R with the
Dependent Variables for the Neutral
and Affective Stories 63
Table VII. Means and Standard Deviations of the Dependent
Variables for the Affective and Neutral
Stories for Psychopaths and Non-psychopaths ... 65
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Aknowledgements
I would l i k e to express my thanks to the many people who helped me to complete t h i s research. F i r s t , I would l i k e to thank my research supervisor, Robert D. Hare, who has always been generous with h i s support and help. His ideas have formed the basis f o r much of the research I have been involved i n during my graduate career.
Second, I would l i k e to thank my other two committee members, Judith Johnston, who offered invaluable suggestions during the i n i t i a l stages of t h i s project and who helped me learn about the subject of discourse, and D i m i t r i Papageorgis, who f i r s t taught me about psychopatholgy and whose h e l p f u l c r i t i s i s m s led to the f i n a l form of t h i s t h e s i s .
To the r e l i a b i l i t y coders, Theresa Newlove, V a l e r i e Patterson, and Katie Strachan, my sincerest thanks for a l l the work and time you have put into t h i s project. I would also l i k e to thank Mike Laycock and Sherrie Green who c a r r i e d out the psychopathy assessments.
I would also l i k e Adelle Forth to know how much I appreciated her help in organizing and arranging the l o g i s t i c s of not only t h i s study, but almost a l l of the other research I have been involved i n .
Most importantly, I thank Tim.
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Introduction
The concept of psychopathy has a long and r e l a t i v e l y
controversial history. The d e f i n i t i o n and conceptualization of
the construct have undergone a number of changes over the l a s t
two hundred years (see Pichot, 1978 for a review). I n i t i a l l y ,
both personality and behavioural variables were included i n the
description of psychopathy; however recent d e f i n i t i o n s have
often focused on i t s behavioural manifestations. Common to most
c l i n i c a l descriptions are the following c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s : a lack
of empathy, a f a i l u r e to form enduring r e l a t i o n s h i p s with
others (lovelessness), shallow affect, a lack of remorse or
g u i l t , a f a i l u r e to learn from experience, a lack of anxiety,
and persistent a n t i s o c i a l behaviour that usually begins i n
childhood (Cleckley, 1976; Craft, 1965; Grant, 1977; Hare,
1970; McCord & McCord, 1956).
Recent investigations involving psychopathic subjects have
moved away from the realm of c l i n i c a l d e s c r i p t i o n to empirical
studies of the cognitive and behavioural processes that are
thought to underlie the psychopathic personality. Most relevant
to the present research are investigations of language
processing. This work suggests that there are differences
between psychopaths and nonpsychopaths i n the way they perceive
and process language (Hare & McPherson, 1984; Hare & J u t a i ,
1988; Hare, Williamson, & Harpur, 1988; Williamson, Harpur, &
Hare, 1990; 1991) and i n the organization of t h e i r speech (Hare
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& Gillstrom, 1991/ Gillstrom & Hare, 1988). I t has been
proposed that these processing and production differences may
be p a r t i c u l a r l y apparent for language s t i m u l i requiring deep
semantic analysis or conveying a f f e c t i v e information (Hare &
Gillstrom, 1991; Hare & J u t a i , 1988; Hare et a l . , 1988;
Williamson et. a l , 1991, 1990).
Speculation concerning these language abnormalities has
led to the suggestion that the thoughts and concepts underlying
psychopaths' speech may be poorly integrated or not well
connected to each other (Gillstrom & Hare, 1988; Hare &
Gillstrom, 1991) . One way of investigating t h i s hypothesized
d e f i c i t i s through the analysis of cohesion and coherence. The
present investigation examined narrative speech i n psychopaths
through measures of text cohesion and coherence. These measures
have been used to examine other c l i n i c a l groups that ex h i b i t
communication d e f i c i t s or disorders of thought (e.g. Harvey,
1983; Rochester and Martin, 1979; Rochester, Martin, &
Thurston, 1977).
Measures of cohesion (Halliday & Hasan, 1976) assess the
degree to which words and phrases i n a sentence form
relationships with other words and phrases i n the sentence or
i n other sentences to create a text. In the present study four
measures of text cohesion were obtained. The f i r s t , l e x i c a l
cohesion, ref e r s to the r e i t e r a t i o n of a word or phrase (e.g. I
saw a dog - Then the dog saw me; a word or phrase i s repeated
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i n some form). The second, r e f e r e n t i a l cohesion, r e f l e c t s the
rela t i o n s h i p between a word and a previous speech unit because
i t i s a pronoun, a demonstrative, or a comparative term (e.g. I
saw a dog - Then the dog saw me; the i s a demonstrative
r e f e r r i n g back to a dog). The t h i r d , conjunctive cohesion,
lin k s two clauses together by conjunctions (e.g. I saw a dog -
Then the dog saw me; then forms a temporal conjunction). The
fourth cohesion variable measured i n the present study was
incompetent references. This variable a c t u a l l y r e f l e c t s a
f a i l u r e i n the use of r e f e r e n t i a l cohesive t i e s and also
measures a f a i l u r e i n the use of the r e f e r e n t i a l " p h o r i c i t y "
system.
P h o r i c i t y systems refer to the structuring of utterances
on the basis of what speakers assume t h e i r l i s t e n e r s know. They
involve speech units that reguire previously presented
information for t h e i r interpretation. For instance, consider
the two independent clauses and the r e f e r e n t i a l cohesion that
exists between them; 1. Jack went up the h i l l , 2. He f e l l down.
It i s cle a r that he refers to Jack and that the speaker i s safe
in assuming that the l i s t e n e r w i l l know that t h i s i s the case.
However, sometimes speakers f a i l to provide adeguate p r i o r
information for the l i s t e n e r to be able to i n f e r exactly which
pri o r speech unit a pronoun, demonstrative, or comparative term
i s r e f e r r i n g to. For example, 1. Jack and John went up the
h i l l , 2. He f e l l down. In t h i s case i t i s unclear who i t i s
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that he r e f e r s to. Individuals with language and communication
d e f i c i t s often produce a r e l a t i v e l y high number of these
incompetent references (e.g. Docherty, Schnur, & Harvey, 1988;
Harvey, 1983) . Past studies have also shown that these
communication-disordered individuals may e x h i b i t less cohesion
i n t h e i r speech, or may use more r e i t e r a t i v e ( l e x i c a l cohesion)
than semantic cohesive strategies (e.g. Rochester & Martin,
1979). I f psychopaths do i n fact have d i f f i c u l t y i n l i n k i n g
speech u n i t s , then they might have d i f f i c u l t y i n forming
cohesive texts and i n using the r e f e r e n t i a l p h o r i c i t y system
e f f e c t i v e l y .
Coherence, unlike cohesion, i s concerned with defining the
meaning r e l a t i o n s h i p s that exist among events or propositions
described within a text (e.g. Reiser & Black, 1982). The
measure of coherence used in the present study i s p l o t - u n i t
analysis (e.g. Botvin & Sutton-Smith, 1977; Gillam, 1989).
Plot-unit analysis assesses the course of actions or events
that makes up a narrative. For example, an i n i t i a l state of
threat should be followed by an action to remove or deal with
the threat, and then some type of resolution (successful or not
successful). If the i n i t i a l state of threat i s an important
part of the story being told, and i f i t i s not referred back
to, then the story w i l l seem less coherent.
Consider the following short narratives that were
generated s p e c i f i c a l l y to the prompt, "I want you to t e l l me
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about a time you f e l t r e a l l y angry. Try to remember how you
f e l t then and then t e l l me what happened" (pauses and
hesitations not included):
1. I was at home fe e l i n g lousy [negative f e e l i n g state] -
because my f r i e n d J. ratted on me [ v i l l a i n y ] - I figured
I'd get even by paying a v i s i t to h i s o l d lady [plan] - So
I went to her house and scared her a b i t [plan c a r r i e d
out] - She t o l d J. - and I was glad [negative f e e l i n g
state n u l l i f i e d ] - cause he deserved i t - He didn't think
I had i t in me - He's a f r a i d of me now [ v i l l a i n y
n u l l i f i e d ]
The p l o t units are: a. negative f e e l i n g state/negative
feeling state n u l l i f i e d
b. v i l l a i n y / v i l l a i n y n u l l i f i e d
c. plan/plan ca r r i e d out
2. Angry - I was - I was angry - [negative f e e l i n g state]
These tough guys were bugging me [threat] at the bar. My
g i r l - f r i e n d was there. She wanted me to go with her to get
a hose or something [plan]. These guys kept bugging me. My
f r i e n d P. was there. He's complaining away cause I was
supposed to be putting up t h i s job. They wouldn't stop so
I beat on t h i s guy [attack] Then I went shopping with K.
( g i r l - f r i e n d ) [plan carried out]
In t h i s narrative the plot units are:
a. negative f e e l i n g state/ ? (possible
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n u l l i f i c a t i o n )
b. threat/ ? (possible n u l l i f i c a t i o n )
c. plan/plan c a r r i e d out
d. attack/? (possible counterattack,
wound, k i l l , flee)
If the two texts above are compared i t can be seen that
the f i r s t e x hibits a more coherent des c r i p t i o n (1. i s from a
nonpsychopath; 2. i s from a psychopath). This i s p a r t l y due to
a difference between the texts i n the amount of closure of plot
units. I f a great deal of inference i s applied to the second
narrative, a reader might guess that the protagonist i n the
story might have had his negative feelings n u l l i f i e d or he
would not have gone shopping, or that the e n t i r e threat (these
guys) was somehow n u l l i f i e d because he was even able to go
shopping. A great deal more inference i s required for the
second narrative because concepts have not been s p e c i f i c a l l y
linked together. Consequently, the second narrative i s more
vague or lacks the same degree of coherence as the f i r s t . I f
psychopaths do have d i f f i c u l t y in l i n k i n g together concepts i n
th e i r speech, then psychopathy should be associated with
f a i l u r e s i n making these t i e s .
In addition to the question of how well speech units may
be linked together i n psychopaths' language there i s the larger
issue of how well psychopaths actually communicate. Observers
in our lab have suggested that psychopaths have d i f f i c u l t y i n
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adhering to one t r a i n of thought, use excessive jargon, and
sometimes use words they have made up. For t h i s reason dyadic
speech was assessed i n psychopaths by r a t i n g t h e i r
conversational language on the Scale for the Assessment of
Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC; Andreasen, 1979a;
1979b). Although t h i s instrument was developed as a measure of
formal thought disorder, i t s author has described i t mostly as
a scale to assess language and communication d e f i c i t s from
which a disorder of thought may or may not be i n f e r r e d . In the
present study the TLC ratings were taken to represent a d e f i c i t
i n language or communication and not thought disorder per se.
For instance, the TLC includes a category of derailment. A high
r a t i n g on t h i s category suggests that an i n d i v i d u a l produces
speech where ideas are only obliguely r e l a t e d to previously
presented ones. This may be representative of some underlying
disturbance of thought, but more importantly, i t impairs
communication since a li s t e n e r w i l l f i n d d e r a i l e d discourse
d i f f i c u l t to understand. To be consistent with previous studies
that have used the TLC in assessing communication impairments
i n various psychopathological groups, the term thought disorder
w i l l be used with reference to the TLC. However, thought
disorder w i l l be taken to mean a d e f i c i t i n language or
communication measured by c l i n i c a l r a t i n g s cales.
Because high TLC scores are evident i n c e r t a i n
pathological groups, a structured diagnostic interview, the
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Schedule for A f f e c t i v e Disorders and Schizophrenia - Lifetime
Version (SADS-L; Spitzer, Endicott, & Robins, 1979) was
administered to diagnose functional p s y c h i a t r i c disorders which
may be r e l a t e d to thought disorder. Diagnoses were made using
the t h i r d e d i t i o n of the Research Diagnostic C r i t e r i a (RDC;
Spitzer, Endicott, & Robins, 1989). This ensured that a l l
subjects were normal with respect to the functional p s y c h i a t r i c
disorders characterized by thought disorder.
By analyzing the narrative speech of psychopaths through
cohesion and coherence measures t h i s study was intended to t e s t
the hypotheses that psychopathy i s associated with the
production of speech units that are poorly connected or
integrated. In addition, by obtaining an o v e r a l l measure of
communication impairment in the dyadic speech of psychopaths,
the hypothesis was tested that psychopaths s u f f e r from a more
general d e f i c i t i n communication.
Psychopathy
The Assessment of Psychopathy
For a number of reasons psychopaths have usually been
studied i n a forensic environment. F i r s t , psychopaths are
easiest to f i n d i n prisons and j a i l s . Second, assessment
devices have often focused on the commission of a n t i s o c i a l acts
as opposed to the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of personality v a r i a b l e s . This
trend i s r e f l e c t e d i n the d e f i n i t i o n of a n t i s o c i a l personality
disorder described i n the current edition of The Diagnostic and
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S t a t i s t i c a l Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R; American
Psychiatric Association, 1987).
For the research proposed here the Revised Psychopathy
Checklist (PCL-R: Hare, 1991; Hare et a l . , 1990) was used to
assess psychopathy. Extensive evidence att e s t s to the
r e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y of the Psychopathy Checkl i s t for the
assessment of psychopathy i n criminal populations (Hare, 1980,
1983, 1985b, 1990; Hare et a l . , 1990; Harpur, Hakstian, & Hare,
1988; Harpur, Hare, & Hakstian, 1989; Newman & Kosson, 1986;
Wong, 1984).
Unlike the DSM-III-R, the PCL-R measures two correlated
constructs that are both considered important elements of the
psychopathic personality (Harpur et a l . , 1989). Factor 1
includes items measuring an egocentric, c a l l o u s and remorseless
use of others and defines a personality construct that c l o s e l y
resembles the c l a s s i c a l c l i n i c a l description of the psychopath
(e.g. Cleckley, 1976). Factor 2 encompasses items related to a
chron i c a l l y unstable and a n t i s o c i a l l i f e s t y l e and resembles the
diagnosis of a n t i s o c i a l personality disorder defined i n DSM-
III-R.
Unless otherwise noted, studies c i t e d i n the following
review w i l l have used the PCL-R (or i t s o r i g i n a l version) to
assess psychopathy.
Psychopathy's Relationship to other Constructs
Psychopathy has been found to be p o s i t i v e l y correlated
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with scores on measures of impulsivity, machiavellianism,
narcissism, and sensation seeking, but negatively related to
measures of s o c i a l i z a t i o n (Hare, 1991; Harpur et a l . , 1989).
Foreman (1988) found that psychopathy was p o s i t i v e l y correlated
with an interpersonal s t y l e of dominance, but negatively
correlated with nurturance, as measured by the Interpersonal
Adjective Scales (Wiggins, P h i l l i p s , & Trapnell, 1990) .
Rorschach responses made by psychopaths have been found to
correlate with psychodynamic measures related to narcissism,
egocentricity, low anxiety and emotional detachment (Gacono,
1990; Gacono & Meloy, 1988).
Psychopathy i s also associated with diagnoses or ratings
of substance abuse disorder, h i s t r i o n i c personality disorder,
n a r c i s s i s t i c personality disorder, and a n t i s o c i a l personality
disorder (Hart and Hare, 1989; Smith and Newman, 1990;
Hemphill, Hart, & Hare, 1990).
Generally, psychopathy does not overlap with mental
disorders t y p i c a l l y associated with psychosis or thought
disorder. Hart and Hare (1989) found that i n a forensic
p s y c h i a t r i c population, patients diagnosed as psychopathic were
less l i k e l y than other patients to receive a DSM-III Axis I
diagnosis. Furthermore, psychopathy was negatively correlated
with p r o t o t y p i c a l i t y ratings of schizophrenia and had an odds-
r a t i o of l e s s than one for the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Psychopathy and Language
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C l i n i c a l l y , i t has often been noted that psychopaths
appear to be highly verbal (Cleckley, 1976). Many can be
disarmingly charming and t e l l impressive s e l f - s e r v i n g s t o r i e s
that lead to a r t f u l swindles (Millon, 1981). Their glibness,
i n s i n c e r i t y , and a b i l i t y to deceive a l l appear to involve an
e f f e c t i v e use of language (Hare et a l . , 1988). However,
observations made by Hare and his colleagues suggest a
d i f f e r e n t picture of psychopaths' language (Hare & Gillstrom,
1991; Hare, Forth & Hart, 1989). After viewing hundreds of
hours of videotaped interviews with psychopathic and
nonpsychopathic criminals, and conducting such interviews
themselves, observers i n Hare's lab have often suggested that
psychopaths appear to use excessive jargon, poorly integrated
phrases, and that they seem to have d i f f i c u l t y adhering to one
t r a i n of thought. This has led to the suggestion that there i s
a poor integration of the thoughts and concepts underlying the
speech of psychopaths (Hare and Gillstrom, 1991). Currently,
there are no studies which d i r e c t l y address these issues, but
there are some which offe r results suggestive of differences
between psychopaths and others in the perception and production
of speech.
E i c h l e r (1965) analyzed the speech of young adult males
who met the c r i t e r i a for the American P s y c h i a t r i c Associations'
(1952) category of sociopathic disorder. He found that
sociopaths scored higher than did normals on the categories of
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negation, r e t r a c t i o n , q u a l i f i e r s , and evaluation. Q u a l i f i e r s
(suppose, more or less, etc.) tend to add ambiguity to
statements. Retractors - a word or phrase that p a r t i a l l y or
t o t a l l y detracts from the statement preceding i t - also reduce
language c l a r i t y .
E i c h l e r ' s r e s u l t s suggest that there may be a basic
conceptual inconsistency and i l l o g i c a l i t y i n sociopathic
thought. For example, to the question, "Did you ever s t e a l from
them {foster family}?", a psychopath studied i n our lab
re p l i e d , " I t wasn't r e a l l y too bad. Not too often. Once i n a
while I'd take some pillows or something. But I wouldn't be
ste a l i n g . I'd just take them and use them and lose them or
something. 1 1
In a previous study, Weintraub and Aronson (1962) found
that i n the speech of normal young adult males, evaluators (a
value judgement) and q u a l i f i e r s , r e t r a c t o r s , and q u a l i f i e r s ,
and negators (no, not, nothing, etc.) and r e t r a c t o r s were
highly correlated. Therefore t h e i r co-occurrence i n the speech
of psychopaths would not be considered unusual. However,
excessive use of q u a l i f i e r s , retractors and negators would
re s u l t i n speech f i l l e d with the following type of statement,
"I guess that was good, but i t r e a l l y wasn't." This would
provide less than optimal information for the l i s t e n e r as i t i s
conceptually inconsistent and ambiguous i n meaning.
A second i n d i r e c t method of assessing the a b i l i t y of
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psychopaths to li n k conceptual units i n t h e i r speech i s to
study the hand gestures they make while speaking. The rationale
for t h i s research i s that gestures may have t h e i r basis i n the
same i n t e r n a l processes as speech, and may be viewed as an
external representation of these processes (e.g. Butterworth &
Beattie, 1976; Cicone, Wapner, F o l d i , Z u r i f , & Gardner, 1979;
Gillstrom & Hare, 1988; McNeill, 1985).
Gi l l s t r o m and Hare (1988) assessed the degree to which
psychopaths made use of diff e r e n t types of hand gestures while
involved i n conversation. They found that psychopaths, r e l a t i v e
to nonpsychopaths, made inordinate use of a p a r t i c u l a r type of
hand gesture, referred to as a beat. Beats are small rapid hand
movements that occur during speech or pauses i n speech. Beats
may r e f l e c t the degree to which discourse i s broken down into
functionally discreet units (McNeill & Levy, 1982), and may
mark meta-linguistic points in the breakdown of speech
processes, possibly r e f l e c t i n g an attempt to r e i n s t a t e speech
flow (McNeill, 1985). Gillstrom and Hare (1988) suggested that
the overuse of beats may mean that the cen t r a l language
processes of psychopaths are organized into r e l a t i v e l y small
conceptual units. This would be r e f l e c t e d i n speech which i s
made up of short, poorly integrated phrases.
Although there have been no empirical studies that have
investigated the speech output of psychopaths, a number of
studies have looked at the way i n which psychopaths d i f f e r from
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nonpsychopaths i n the processing of simple verbal input. These
investigations have been summarized i n a recent review a r t i c l e
(Hare et a l . , 1988), but w i l l be b r i e f l y described here since
they suggest that psychopaths may perceive or process language
d i f f e r e n t l y than do nonpsychopaths.
In general, these investigations involved the study of
perceptual asymmetries with divided v i s u a l f i e l d or d i c h o t i c
l i s t e n i n g techniques. Typically, when single words are
presented to both ears simultaneously, or a l t e r n a t e l y to the
l e f t or r i g h t v i s u a l f i e l d , most right-handed i n d i v i d u a l s
exhibit a r i g h t ear or a right v i s u a l f i e l d advantage for the
report of the s t i m u l i they have heard or seen. This i s due to
the neurophysiology of the vis u a l and auditory systems coupled
with control of language functions by the l e f t hemisphere i n
most i n d i v i d u a l s . In the auditory system c o n t r a l a t e r a l
projections are dominant, with the r e s u l t that information
presented to the r i g h t ear projects most strongly to the l e f t
hemisphere. Information presented to the r i g h t v i s u a l f i e l d
projects to the l e f t hemisphere from the r i g h t nasal hemiretina
and the l e f t temporal hemiretina. Information transmitted
i n i t i a l l y to the l e f t hemisphere i s better perceived and
reported, presumably r e f l e c t i n g more e f f i c i e n t or p r e f e r e n t i a l
processing of l i n g u i s t i c materials by that hemisphere.
Using a standard dichotic l i s t e n i n g paradigm, Hare and
McPherson (1984) found that psychopaths showed a smaller r i g h t -
-15-
ear advantage (less l a t e r a l i z a t i o n ) than did nonpsychopaths.
Despite t h i s reduced l a t e r a l i t y the o v e r a l l performance of
psychopaths was as good as that of nonpsychopaths.
In a divided v i s u a l f i e l d task where subjects saw common
words flashed b r i e f l y to either the l e f t or r i g h t v i s u a l f i e l d ,
psychopaths and nonpsychopaths both exhibited a r i g h t v i s u a l
f i e l d - l e f t hemisphere advantage (Hare, 1979). However, i n a
divided v i s u a l - f i e l d task that involved d i f f e r i n g l e v e l s of
semantic categorization, l a t e r a l i z a t i o n differences between
psychopaths and nonpsychopaths were obtained (Hare & J u t a i ,
1988). S p e c i f i c a l l y , when words were required t o be matched on
the basis of morphological features, or whether or not they
were a member of a concrete category, psychopaths and
nonpsychopaths both exhibited the fewest errors for s t i m u l i
presented to the r i g h t v i s u a l - f i e l d ( l e f t hemisphere). When the
subjects had to match words to a superordinate abstract
category, which presumably required a greater degree of
semantic processing, psychopaths made the fewest errors for
sti m u l i presented to the l e f t v i s u a l - f i e l d ( r i g h t hemisphere)
whereas nonpsychopaths continued to perform i n the expected
manner.
The most general conclusions that can be drawn from these
studies i s that the l e f t hemisphere of psychopaths i s not
strongly s p e c i a l i z e d for language or that the resources for
language processing i n the l e f t hemisphere are r e l a t i v e l y
-16-
limited i n psychopaths (Hare et a l . , 1988). More s p e c i f i c a l l y ,
psychopaths may have d i f f i c u l t y in the i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of
l e x i c a l items within the l e f t hemisphere.
None of the tasks in the reviewed studies could be
considered to be d i f f i c u l t r e l a t i v e to the requirement that an
individual produce a cohesive and coherent narrative of some
l i f e event. In the research presented here psychopaths were
required to produce such a text. Psychopaths, when compared to
nonpsychopaths, were expected to r e l y more on simple l e x i c a l
relationships than semantic and l o g i c a l ones i n producing
cohesive texts.
Psychopathy and A f f e c t i v e Processing
C l i n i c i a n s have long noted that psychopaths seem to suffer
from a general poverty of a f f e c t . This defect has generally
been described as a shallowness of f e e l i n g (e.g. Cleckley,
1976; Grant, 1977), r e f l e c t e d behaviourally i n l a b i l e and
short-lived expressions of emotion. "But mature whole hearted
anger...deep joy, and genuine despair are reactions not l i k e l y
to be found within t h i s scale" (Cleckley, 1976, p. 212).
Using experimental paradigms Hare and h i s colleagues (e.g.
Hare, 1978; Hare & Craigen, 1974) have demonstrated that
psychopaths show unusual autonomic responses following a sig n a l
of an impending aversive event. Psychopaths co n s i s t e n t l y show
smaller than usual skin conductance responses but larger than
usual heart rate acceleration. Hare (1978, 1982) has suggested
-17-
that t h i s may r e f l e c t an adaptive coping mechanism whereby the
heart rate acceleration helps psychopaths to reduce the impact
of the forthcoming aversive events. The small electrodermal
responses are seen as evidence for the success of t h i s coping
strategy.
Patrick and Lang (1989) found that psychopathic sex
offenders gave smaller autonomic responses during imagery of
f e a r f u l material than did other sex offenders. Psychopaths also
f a i l e d to exhibit a reduction i n the b l i n k - s t a r t l e r e f l e x while
viewing s l i d e s with p o s i t i v e a f f e c t i v e content and also f a i l e d
to exhibit appropriate f a c i a l muscle responses to s l i d e s with
negative content. Generally, these studies would seem to
support the notion that psychopaths, at least autonomically,
show anomalous or reduced responses to a f f e c t i v e information.
Language and Aff e c t i n Psychopaths
Cleckley (1976) suggested that psychopaths suffer from a
deep-seated semantic disorder which he termed semantic
dementia. At i t s core lay a complete lack of meaning-related
elaborative a f f e c t i v e processes. This d e f i c i t was then "masked"
by well functioning expressive and receptive processes. "Here
i s the spectacle of a person who uses a l l the words that would
be used by someone who understands, and who could define a l l
the words but who i s s t i l l blind to the meaning." (Cleckley,
1976, p.214). Others have described the psychopath i n a s i m i l a r
way: "... ideas of mutuality of sharing and of i d e n t i f i c a t i o n
-18-
are beyond h i s understanding in an emotional sense; he knows
only the book meaning of words" (Grant, 1977. p. 50).
Cleckley's description of semantic dementia suggests that
psychopaths suffer from an i n a b i l i t y to r e l a t e r e a l feelings to
words.
Although there have been a variety of studies examining
language processing i n psychopaths, r e l a t i v e l y few
investigations have e x p l i c i t l y examined the processing of
a f f e c t i v e l i n g u i s t i c information. One recent study (Williamson,
et a l . , 1990) examined the responses of psychopaths to
emotional and neutral words during a divided v i s u a l f i e l d
l e x i c a l decision task. The e x p l i c i t task involved
distinguishing between words and pronounceable nonwords, but
the experimental manipulation of interest was whether or not
the decision time and event-related brain p o t e n t i a l s (ERPs)
would be d i f f e r e n t for emotional and neutral words. Consistent
with the l i t e r a t u r e , nonpsychopaths responded more quickly to
the emotional than to the nonemotional words, and amplitudes of
s p e c i f i c ERP components were larger in response to emotional
words than to neutral words. Psychopaths f a i l e d to show these
eff e c t s , suggesting that they carried out less semantic
elaboration of the a f f e c t i v e words than did the nonpsychopaths.
Whether t h i s r e f l e c t e d a f a i l u r e to integrate a f f e c t i v e and
l i n g u i s t i c processes, or a general f a i l u r e of elaborative
processes could not be determined from t h i s study.
-19-
Another recent investigation into the processing of
l i n g u i s t i c a l l y based a f f e c t i v e information provides some
evidence that i t i s the integration functions that are impaired
i n psychopaths (Williamson et a l . , 1991). Experiment 1
investigated the basis for the way i n which psychopaths group
words. Using a method described by Brownell, Potter, and
Michelow (1984) , subjects were required to i n d i c a t e which two
out of three words were most similar i n meaning. Psychopaths
were less l i k e l y to match words on the basis of emotional
p o l a r i t y (both words have a positive or negative a f f e c t i v e
tone) than were nonpsychopaths.
Osgood (Osgood, May, & Miron, 1975) has shown that the
evaluative or good-bad dimension accounts for most of the
variance individuals use when rating words. Psychopaths
appeared to make less use of t h i s basic component of word
meaning than did nonpsychopaths.
Taking t h i s observations into account, i n the second
experiment of Williamson et a l . (1990), i t was hypothesized
that i f psychopaths have a d e f i c i t i n making use of information
concerning emotional p o l a r i t y then they would tend to make
errors suggestive of a confusion of emotional valence. Other
psychopathological groups, most notably depressives
(Williamson, Crockett, Hurwitz, & Remick, i n press) and
schizophrenics (Cramer, Weegman, & O'Neil, 1989), have
previously been shown to confuse emotional valence.
-20-
Tests were constructed which required subjects to match
clauses or pictures on the basis of inf e r r e d emotional
information. Errors could be made in a number of ways including
the matching of emotions of opposite valence. A s i m i l a r l y
constructed p i c t o r i a l task was included to assess the
s p e c i f i c i t y of t h i s e f f e c t to l i n g u i s t i c information. An
analysis of the types of errors made supported the hypothesis
that psychopaths show a tendency to confuse emotions of
opposite p o l a r i t y , p a r t i c u l a r l y for the l i n g u i s t i c task. The
authors suggested that the results across the p i c t u r e and
sentence tasks may have indicated that psychopaths have
d i f f i c u l t y i n integrating information across l i n g u i s t i c units
only when a f f e c t i v e processing i n the formation of conceptual
relationships i s required.
For t h i s reason, i n the present study, subjects were asked
to produce two s t o r i e s , both of which were drawn from the
subjects' own experience. One concerned a putative emotional
topic and the other a neutral topic. I t was predicted that
psychopathy would be most strongly associated with dependent
measures i n the analysis of the a f f e c t i v e rather than the
neutral narrative.
Thought Disorder
Formal thought disorder has been described as a disruption
in the l o g i c a l r e l a t i o n s h i p among ideas (Bleuler, 1950).
Concept boundaries may become f l u i d so that incongruous ideas
-21-
and objects are seen as related (e.g. Meehl, 1962). In
addition, disorders r e l a t i n g to the content of thought, rather
than i t s form, have also been included under the d e f i n i t i o n of
thought disorder. For instance, responses to s t i m u l i may be
bizarre or i d i o s y n c r a t i c (e.g. Harrow, Grossman, Marshall,
S i l v e r s t e i n , & Meltzer, 1982). I n i t i a l l y , c l i n i c a l observation
led to the b e l i e f that thought disorder was pathognomic of
schizophrenia (Bleuler, 1950); however, recent studies suggest
that thought disorder may be present i n nonschizophrenics (e.g.
Andreasen & Powers, 1974; Harvey & Brault, 1986). Some
investigators have suggested that disordered thinking f i t s
along a continuum with normal thinking (Harrow & Quinlan,
1977). Harrow and Quinlan (1977) found that schizophrenics
d i f f e r e d from other patient groups on measures of severe
deviant thinking, but not on measures of milder thought
disorder. Andreasen and Grove (1986) suggested that i n fact
normal indivi d u a l s may exhibit mild thought disorder. One
category of thought disorder - derailment - i s found i n normal
individuals at s i g n i f i c a n t levels. Twenty to t h i r t y percent of
normals have been reported to exhibit derailment at greater
than mild l e v e l s (Andreasen & Grove, 1986; Oltmanns, Murphy,
Berenbaum, & Dunlop, 1985).
Andreasen (1979a, 1979b) developed a set of d e f i n i t i o n s
that many researchers have used in studying disordered speech.
These d e f i n i t i o n s cover eighteen categories of thought disorder
- 2 2 -
such as derailment, tan g e n t i a l i t y (replying to a question i n an
oblique or irrelevant manner), and poverty of content of speech
(an adequate amount of speech containing l i t t l e information).
The scale that the categories form i s known as the Scale for
the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication
Disorders (TLC; Andreasen, 1980). This scale emphasizes the
d i r e c t observation of language behaviour i n evaluating thought
disorder. The author makes the point that thought disorder i s
most often assessed from speech, and not from an i n d i v i d u a l ' s
thoughts; therefore "disorganized speech" rather than "thought
disorder" i s a more accurate term. As previously stated, the
present study conceptualized ratings on the TLC as being
indi c a t i v e of disordered communication or language. The TLC has
been shown to be both a r e l i a b l e and v a l i d instrument (e.g.
Andreasen, 1979a, 1979b; Andreasen & Grove, 1986; Docherty,
Schnur, & Harvey, 1988; Harvey, 1983; Harvey, Earle-Boyer, &
Levinson, 1988; Harvey, Earle-Boyer, & Weilgus, 1984) .
Past research has found that TLC-rated thought disorder i s
made up of several components that have d i f f e r e n t prognostic
significance and are sensitive to patient diagnosis. For
instance, poverty of speech appears to be an enduring feature
of chronic schizophrenic i l l n e s s (Andreasen, Hoffman, & Grove,
1985; Docherty, Schnur, & Harvey, 1988; Pogue-Geile & Harrow,
1984) and to predict poor outcome (Harvey et a l . , 1988).
Andreasen and Grove (1986) found that the negative signs of
- 2 3 -
thought disorder, poverty of speech and poverty of content of
speech (adequate amount of speech conveying l i t t l e
information), were most useful in predicting continued
impairment amongst ps y c h i a t r i c patients. In manic patients,
pos i t i v e rather than negative signs of thought disorder have
been found to be most stable in the acute stage of i l l n e s s
(Harvey et a l . , 1984).
In the present study, the scores for two subscales based
on TLC categories, as well as an o v e r a l l measure of thought
disorder, were calculated (Andreasen, 1979a). P o s i t i v e formal
thought disorder encompasses pressure of speech, t a n g e n t i a l i t y ,
derailment, incoherence, and i l l o g i c a l i t y . Negative formal
thought disorder includes only poverty of speech and poverty of
content of speech. The o v e r a l l score was the t o t a l of a l l
thought disorder categories. It was predicted that increasing
psychopathy would be associated with higher scores on p o s i t i v e
thought disorder, since the scale contains categories related
to a previous c l i n i c a l observation, namely that i n psychopathic
speech concepts are not well connected.
Cohesion: Meaning and Measurement
Cohesion i s defined by Halliday and Hasan (1976) as a
semantic relationship. Cohesion i s based on the meaning
existing between an element in a text and some other element
that i s c r u c i a l to i t s interpretation. The r e l a t i o n between
elements can be systematized by c l a s s i f y i n g them i n t o a small
-24-
number of d i s t i n c t categories: reference, conjunction, l e x i c a l ,
substitution, and e l l i p s e s . The l a t t e r two w i l l not be
discussed further as they are not included i n the present
research. Their occurrence i n the speech of subjects i n similar
studies has been shown to be of very low frequency (e.g.
Rochester & Martin, 1979; Wykes & Leff, 1982). I t should be
noted that since cohesion i s text based, t i e s may occur between
clauses that are not immediately adjacent to one another.
The various types of cohesion measured i n the present
study can be seen i n Table I. Referential cohesion ref e r s to
how an in d i v i d u a l i s able to interpret the meaning of one text
element because of i t s rel a t i o n s h i p to another text element. I t
i s interpretable either because i t i s i d e n t i f i e d with the
referent (pronomial, demonstrative) or because i t i s compared
with the referent (comparative). Conjunction i s d i f f e r e n t from
other cohesive relationships in that i t expresses the l o g i c a l
r elationships e x i s t i n g between clauses. These can be additive,
adversative, temporal, causal, or continuative i n nature. The
conjunction w i l l stand i n some type of r e l a t i o n s h i p to the
sentence preceding i t , l i n k i n g i t to the one that follows.
Lexical cohesion i s the r e i t e r a t i o n of a previous text element.
This can occur through straight r e p e t i t i o n (same roo t ) , a
synonym, a superordinate, or a general item. I t may involve the
r e p e t i t i o n of words, phrases, or whole clauses.
-25-
Table I
Categories of Cohesion
Category Subcategory Examples
Reference
Conjunction
1. Pronomial
2. Demonstrative
3. Comparative
1. Additive
2. Adversative
When we were walking out
of the bar one night a guy
grabs her // So I just
about got i n a f i g h t with
him
"And when the door opens
I'm going to get you" // I
just t o l d them that
It could take two months
to save the money //
That's a long time
I knew the bartender there
// And he always makes
nice strong drinks
I just took o f f // But
i t was the only time
(table continues)
-26-
Le x i c a l
3. Causal
4. Temporal
5. Continuative
1. Same root
2. Synonym
(or Co-hyponyms)
3. Superordinate
4. General item
We went out drinking //So
I had a l o t to drink
She went out that night
// But then I went out
with my buddies
He never taught before //
Actually the second year I
had my f i r s t year teacher
They put me i n to see the
doctor // I seen the
doctor
And I despised i t // Cause
I hate that c i t y with a
passion
We were s i t t i n g i n
Alph a v i l l e // This c i t y i s
dead
It was a puzzle that was
given to me // I can get
that thing together
Note. Categories are adapted from Rochester and Martin (1979) .
Quotations are from subjects in the present study. Presuming
-27-
items and t h e i r referent are underlined. // indicates
independent clause boundaries.
Halliday and Hasan have argued that the cohesive relations
that are established by conjunction and reference are semantic
i n nature while those established by l e x i s are
lexicogrammatical i n nature. However the expression of the
r e l a t i o n s requires both the semantic and lexicogrammatical
systems. This implies that simple word r e p e t i t i o n establishes
some type of semantic relationship. However, when a speaker
repeatedly uses some form of a word i n a text l e x i c a l cohesion
i s coded i r r e s p e c t i v e of the meaning of that word. Simple
l e x i c a l r e p e t i t i o n may not require the semantic encoding of
actual word meanings to act as a form of text cohesion. This i s
p a r t i c u l a r l y evident when the same l e x i c a l items are used
repeatedly across clauses or sentences, a speech p e c u l i a r i t y
that has been related to empty speech (Nicholas, Obler, Albert,
& Helm-Easterbrooks, 1985) and "schizophasic" speech (Chaika,
1974). Chaika (1974) suggested that schizophrenics may not be
able to match semantic features to words i n the lexicon.
Fine (1978) has suggested that conjunction and reference
should be viewed as tending to establish meaning relationships,
whereas l e x i c a l t i e s should be viewed as e s t a b l i s h i n g more
formal l i n k s . Generally, simple r e p e t i t i o n has been viewed as
carrying the least amount of meaningful information (Fine,
-28-
1978; Rochester & Martin, 1979).
Past studies have investigated whether"or not thought
disordered i n d i v i d u a l s r e l y more on r e i t e r a t i o n than on the
semantic r e l a t i o n s h i p s expressed by r e f e r e n t i a l cohesion (e.g.,
Rochester and Martin, 1979). However, the r e s u l t s of these
studies have been mixed.
Rochester and Martin (1979) , i n t h e i r study of
schizophrenic speakers, examined cohesive r e l a t i o n s h i p s as a
means of describing how thought disordered speakers might
d i f f e r from non-thought disordered speakers. They hypothesized
that the vague and tangential speech often seen i n thought
disordered speakers may be due to a f a i l u r e to l i n k clauses to
p r i o r discourse. They predicted that t h i s might be r e a l i z e d i n
fewer cohesive t i e s of a l l types, or i n a preponderance of
l e x i c a l t i e s . The authors hypothesized that r e i t e r a t i o n seems
to require le s s extensive integration of textual information
than do other forms of cohesion. The authors' hypotheses proved
to be p a r t i a l l y correct. Overall, both thought disordered and
non-thought disordered schizophrenics used le s s cohesion than
the normal group. However, as predicted, the thought disordered
group used more l e x i c a l cohesion than did the non-thought
disordered group. Thought disordered speakers tended to r e l y
very heavily on l e x i c a l cohesion, es p e c i a l l y simple r e p e t i t i o n
as opposed to synonymy or general categories. The investigators
concluded that thought disordered speakers were a c t i v e l y
- 2 9 -
p r o c e s s i n g a t a l e x i c o g r a m m a t i c a l l e v e l , t h e r e b y f o r m i n g
l e x i c a l c h a i n s , but t h e y o f t e n d i d not form t h e more m e a n i n g f u l
semantic t i e s .
S i m i l a r r e s u l t s were o b t a i n e d f o r t h e o f f s p r i n g o f
s c h i z o p h r e n i c s i n a s t u d y of t h e speech o f c h i l d r e n v u l n e r a b l e
t o p s y c h o p a t h o l o g y (Harvey, Weintraub, & N e a l e , 1982). These
c h i l d r e n used more l e x i c a l t i e s t h a n d i d normal c h i l d r e n .
C h i l d r e n o f s c h i z o p h r e n i c s a l s o used fewer c o h e s i v e t i e s
o v e r a l l . The a u t h o r s suggested t h a t t h e i r r e s u l t s were
i n d i c a t i v e o f p o o r l y l i n k e d speech u n i t s i n t h e c h i l d r e n o f
s c h i z o p h r e n i c p a r e n t s .
R o c h e s t e r and M a r t i n (1979) found t h a t t h o u g h t d i s o r d e r e d
speakers used more l e x i c a l c o h e s i o n t h a n d i d n o r m a l s p e a k e r s .
Other r e s e a r c h e r s have found no d i f f e r e n c e s between normal
a d u l t s and p a t h o l o g i c a l groups i n t h e i r use o f l e x i c a l t i e s
(Harvey, 1983; R a g i n & Oltmanns, 1986). However, R o c h e s t e r and
M a r t i n (1979) used as t h e i r dependent measure t h e p r o p o r t i o n o f
l e x i c a l c o h e s i o n t o o t h e r t y p e s o f c o h e s i o n , whereas Harvey
(1983) and R a g i n and Oltmanns (1986) used number o f t i e s p e r
c l a u s e . Harvey r e p o r t e d t h a t i f R o c h e s t e r and M a r t i n s ' method
had been used i n h i s s t u d y , then t h e r e l a t i v e p r o p o r t i o n s o f
l e x i c a l c o h e s i o n would have d i s t i n g u i s h e d n o r m a l s from
p a t i e n t s . R a g i n and Oltmann's study o f l e x i c a l c o h e s i o n and
thought d i s o r d e r s u f f e r e d from a number o f m e t h o d o l o g i c a l
problems w h i c h makes i t d i f f i c u l t t o e v a l u a t e . I n comparing
-30-
normals, schizophrenics, schizoaffectives, and manics the
authors used an average of less than ten subjects per group and
based t h e i r analysis on only f i f t e e n clauses per subject. Not
s u r p r i s i n g l y , they found few group differences. Those that did
prove s i g n i f i c a n t were related to within-clause l e x i c a l
cohesion (the r a t i o n a l e for t h i s measurement was not made
clear) and changes i n cohesion over time. The lack of within-
clause l e x i c a l cohesion was related to thought disorder and not
c l i n i c a l diagnosis. As the pathological subjects became less
thought disordered they used less l e x i c a l cohesion.
A number of studies have looked at cohesive t i e s i n
r e l a t i o n to thought disorder and d i f f e r e n t types of
psychopathology (e.g. Harvey, 1983; Ragin & Oltmanns, 1986;
Wykes & Leff, 1982). This research has grown out of the debate
about whether or not manics, l i k e schizophrenics, can be
considered thought disordered. Harvey (1983), found that
thought disordered schizophrenics and manics used less
reference and conjunctive t i e s than did normal speakers. The
non-thought disordered speech segments of thought disordered
patients did not d i f f e r from those of normals.
What i s most important about t h i s study i s that i t
established a r e l a t i o n s h i p not between disordered communication
and diagnosis, but between disordered communication and c e r t a i n
patterns of cohesive t i e s . Wykes and Leff (1982) suggest that
cohesion analysis may uncover whether or not ideas and phrases
-31-
are appropriately linked. If they are not, the authors f e l t
that such a d e f i c i t was most closely related to the thought
disorder category of derailment.
In the present study cohesion analysis allowed the
assessment of the extent to which psychopathy was associated
with a tendency to produce poorly developed texts through an
inadequate use of cohesive t i e s , or perhaps through the
inordinate use of l e x i c a l cohesion. It was hypothesized that i f
psychopaths have a general d e f i c i t in integrating semantic
information to form cohesive texts, then psychopathy would be
associated with narratives f i l l e d with l e x i c a l t i e s at the
expense of other cohesive t i e s . An alternative p r e d i c t i o n was
that i f psychopathy i s related to a generalized d e f i c i t i n the
formation of a text through cohesive re l a t i o n s h i p s , then
psychopathy would be associated with fewer t i e s of a l l types.
If psychopathy i s related s p e c i f i c a l l y to a verbal a f f e c t i v e
d e f i c i t that involves a d i f f i c u l t y in carrying out the semantic
integration necessary for combining a f f e c t i v e and l i n g u i s t i c
information, then i t was predicted that these d e f i c i t s would be
apparent only for a f f e c t i v e texts.
The Register of the Narratives
Halliday and Hasan (1976) stress the fact that r e g i s t e r ,
along with cohesion (e.g. E l l i s & Ure, 1969; Hymes, 1964)
define a text. The concept of register has been described i n
various ways but usually includes information concerning the
-32-
topic or f i e l d of a text, i t s mode, i t s purpose or message-
form, and the rel a t i o n s h i p existing between l i s t e n e r and
speaker. Register re l a t e s to the context of a s i t u a t i o n and the
fact that a text i s a communication.
The narratives produced in the present research were texts
of planned discourse. Subjects were asked to produce a story
about a past event i n t h e i r l i v e s based on a p a r t i c u l a r topic.
They were given a few minutes to think about what to say and
how to say i t . They were given some di r e c t i v e s on what form i t
should take. The topics of the discourses were r e l a t i v e l y
unrestricted i n that subjects could t e l l a story about any time
they f e l t angry or had d i f f i c u l t y i n doing something. The
relationship e x i s t i n g between the l i s t e n e r and speaker was
f a i r l y formal; however the li s t e n e r was not perceived as being
a member of the prison bureaucracy. The mode of the s i t u a t i o n
was oral with an orientation to relate past events that were
personal to the speaker. From the l i s t e n e r ' s viewpoint, the
purpose of the communication was for the speaker to produce a
planned discourse i n story form. Ochs (1979) has pointed out
that there are often differences between planned and unplanned
discourse. E s s e n t i a l l y , discourse that i s planned makes
r e l a t i v e l y more use of adult sy n t a c t i c a l constructions than i s
seen i n unplanned discourse. For instance, the syntax w i l l make
a semantic l i n k e x p l i c i t and s p e c i f i c so that conjunctions such
as "because" or "so" are expressed (e.g. "I'm so t i r e d - I went
-33-
running today - I think I ' l l r est" versus "I'm so t i r e d because
I went running today so I think I ' l l r e s t " ) . This may be
because i t takes more planning to form s p e c i f i c semantic
relationships.
There i s no reason to believe that psychopathy might be
associated with a f a i l u r e to be s e n s i t i v e to the r e g i s t e r of a
discourse. I f i n fact psychopaths can be charming and are good
manipulators, and yet produce speech that i s not well
connected, then one might expect them to be e s p e c i a l l y
sensitive to the demands of the l i s t e n e r at a pragmatic l e v e l .
It should be noted that other authors have had a less
rigorous view of what constitutes textness. P e t o f i (1985)
defines a text as a verbal object which i s i d e n t i f i e d as a text
by any one interpreter at any p a r t i c u l a r time. Brown and Yule
(1983) simply state that a text " i s the verbal record of a
communicative event (p. 190)." From t h i s viewpoint, nothing
defines textness except for an individual's d e c i s i o n that a
given object i s a whole i n the communication context. Coherence
i s not necessary to form a text. For example, a disorganized
monologue produced by a thought disordered speaker may form a
text since i t can be viewed as a sample of incoherent speech.
Reference Patterns
Unlike l e x i c a l and conjunctive cohesion, r e f e r e n t i a l
cohesion i s part of one of the p h o r i c i t y systems i n English.
Phoricity systems r e f e r to the structuring of utterances on the
- 3 4 -
basis of what speakers assume the i r l i s t e n e r s know. They
involve speech units that require previously presented
information for t h e i r interpretation. The noun phrase or
nominal group i s one such speech unit. Generally, there are two
types of nominal groups. The f i r s t simply presents new
information and the second presumes previous information so
that i t may be understood by the l i s t e n e r . Information can be
presumed from previous verbal information as i n r e f e r e n t i a l
cohesion, e i t h e r e x p l i c i t l y (e.g., So I was i n the c i t y and I
didn't l i k e i t ) or i m p l i c i t l y (e.g., I went to the c i t y and
robbed the bank). Information can also be presumed from the
immediate environment (e.g., Look at that guard), or general
knowledge (e.g. The p o l i c e are bad). Sometimes, the references
contained i n a text are ambiguous. One example of t h i s type of
reference would be:
I was d r i v i n g i n my car with my g i r l f r i e n d and my ex-
g i r l f r i e n d
Then she said that she didn't believe me
Since i t i s unclear who i t i s that she r e f e r s to, the
l i s t e n e r i s unable to interpret the second clause. References
can also be unclear. For instance a speaker may make a
pronomial reference when there i s no previous referent. If an
individual's utterances are f u l l of unclear or ambiguous
references then the l i s t e n e r i s unable to e f f e c t i v e l y
understand what the speaker means.
- 3 5 -
Rochester and Martin (1979) found that thought disordered
speech samples contained more unclear and ambiguous references
than did non-thought disordered samples. This f i n d i n g has been
consistent across a number of studies. Harvey (1983) found that
unclear and ambiguous references d i f f e r e n t i a t e d between the
speech of thought disordered and nonthought disordered manics
and schizophrenics. Harvey et a l . (1982) also reported that the
speech of children of schizophrenics contained more of these
types of references than did the children of normals and other
at r i s k groups. Based on a study that assessed thought disorder
and reference d i f f i c u l t i e s at a six month i n t e r v a l , Docherty et
a l . (1988) suggested that the frequency of incompetent
references (ambiguous and unclear combined) may be a stable
t r a i t of schizophrenics.
In the present study the unclear and ambiguous references
categories were coded and combined into the category of
incompetent references (Docherty et a l . , 1988). This category
was then correlated with PCL-R scores. I t was predicted that i f
increasingly high scores on the PCL-R are associated with a
f a i l u r e to develop texts on a semantic l e v e l , then they should
also be associated with a r e l a t i v e l y high degree of incompetent
references. A l t e r n a t i v e l y , i f psychopathy i s associated with
p a r t i c u l a r d i f f i c u l t i e s i n the integration of a f f e c t and
language, then incompetent references would be mostly
associated with the a f f e c t i v e narrative.
-36 -
C o h e r e n c e : M e a n i n g a n d M e a s u r e m e n t
A l t h o u g h c o h e s i o n c a n b e u s e d t o i d e n t i f y t h e u n i t y o f a
t e x t i t d o e s n o t t h e g u a r a n t e e t h a t a d i s c o u r s e w i l l b e
u n d e r s t a n d a b l e o r m e a n i n g f u l . C o h e s i o n c a n b e s c o r e d
i r r e s p e c t i v e o f m e a n i n g r e l a t i o n s h i p s a n d i s t h e r e f o r e n o t a n
a d e q u a t e a s s e s s m e n t o f t h e o v e r a l l u n d e r s t a n d a b i l i t y o f
d i s c o u r s e . I n a s s e s s i n g t h e c o h e r e n c e o f s p e e c h t h e
r e l a t i o n s h i p s e x i s t i n g b e t w e e n e v e n t s w i t h i n a d i s c o u r s e a r e
t a k e n i n t o a c c o u n t . I f c o n n e c t i o n s b e t w e e n p r o p o s i t i o n s a r e
w e a k , t h e n t h e o v e r a l l t e x t w i l l b e r e l a t i v e l y l e s s c o h e r e n t o r
u n d e r s t a n d a b l e . I n a n a l y z i n g a t e x t i t i s i m p o r t a n t t o
u n d e r s t a n d how a s e r i e s o f c o n c e p t s l i n k u p t o f o r m m o r e
c o m p l e x m e a n i n g s . T h i s c a n b e d o n e by e x a m i n i n g c o h e r e n c e . I n
c o n t r a s t t o c o h e s i o n , c o h e r e n c e i s more c o n c e r n e d w i t h
d e l i n e a t i n g t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p s t h a t e x i s t b e t w e e n e v e n t s
d e s c r i b e d w i t h i n a t e x t . T h e r e a r e a number o f s y s t e m s f o r
e x a m i n i n g t h e s e r e l a t i o n s h i p s ( e . g . G u l i c h & Q u a s t h o f f , 1 9 8 2 ;
O m a n s o n , 1 9 8 2 ; R e i s e r & B l a c k , 1 9 8 2 ) ; h o w e v e r t h e y h a v e n o t
o f t e n b e e n u s e d t o i n v e s t i g a t e p s y c h o p a t h o l o g i c a l g r o u p s . One
s t u d y h a s shown t h a t t e x t - b a s e d p r e s u p p o s i t i o n a l r e l a t i o n s h i p s
b e t w e e n p r o p o s i t i o n s t e n d t o b r e a k down i n s c h i z o p h r e n i c s
( H o f f m a n , K i r s t e n , S t o p e k , & C i c c h e t t i , 1982) .
P l o t - u n i t A n a l y s i s
I n t h e p r e s e n t s t u d y , t h e n a r r a t i v e s s u b j e c t s p r o d u c e
s h o u l d c o n t a i n some s t r u c t u r i n g o f s e m a n t i c r e l a t i o n s h i p s s o
-37-
that they form a meaningful text. The story should begin at the
beginning, move ahead reasonably smoothly i n time, and evaluate
states and events so that i t i s possible to i n f e r what the
story i s about (Polanyi, 1985). Subject narratives should meet
these conditions i f t h e i r discourse i s to be seen as coherent
and meaningful.
One way of describing these relationships i s through the
use of story grammars. Story grammars were constructed for the
description of the structure of a genre of s t o r i e s known as
f o l k - t a l e s . Very s p e c i f i c and invariant rules were developed to
describe the ordering of events within these s t o r i e s . However
these rules may not be appropriate for the analysis of
narratives that may be structured d i f f e r e n t l y (Mandler, 1984,
p. 17). For t h i s reason, the use of story grammars would not
seem to be appropriate f o r the present purposes.
Another way to approach the problem i s to look at the way
i n which expectancies are set up in the l i s t e n e r by information
given i n the narrative (Black & Reiser, 1982). Generally, i f a
problem i s mentioned that i s central to the point of the story,
then information concerning some type of re s o l u t i o n or outcome
i s expected to be provided by the narrator. I f the narrator i s
able to structure the story appropriately then both problem and
resolution or r e s u l t w i l l be provided. For instance, i f the
event involves anger, then the narrator should attempt to
explain what led to the anger and i t s outcome.
- 3 8 -
One way to assess t h i s i s through the use of p l o t - u n i t
analysis (Botvin & Sutton-Smith, 1977; Sutton-Smith, Botvin, &
Mahony, 1976). Compared to story grammars there i s more
emphasis on meaning in p l o t - u n i t analysis. Instead of
consisting of a schematic structure within which elements are
placed, p l o t - u n i t analysis i s directed at discovering how the
text explains the actions of the main characters. P l o t - u n i t s
are verbal noun dyads indicating action (or the p o t e n t i a l for
action) and resolution (e.g. injury - recovery or death). As
well as being sensitive to the structural complexity of a story
(Botvin & Sutton-Smith, 1977), these dyads are also useful i n
assessing the extent to which one concept i s linked to another
within a text. For instance, i f the occurrence of an injury i s
central to a story then some type of resolution or r e s u l t
should occur with regard to the injury. I f i t does not, then
the discourse may seem unconnected or vague. Secondary dyads
should not interrupt the flow of the story. If present, they
should be embedded within primary dyads (Botvin & Sutton-Smith,
1977).
As previously indicated, psychopaths may have d i f f i c u l t y
i n l i n k i n g conceptual units to form a coherent text. Plot-unit
analysis allowed the assessment of t h i s hypothesized d e f i c i t
through the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of l o g i c a l conjugates which should
be present i n p a i r s . I t was predicted that psychopathy would be
associated with a tendency to introduce the f i r s t part of a
-39-
plo t - u n i t , but not to complete i t . The dependent measure i n
t h i s case was the proportion of closed to open p l o t u n i t s .
-40-
Experimental Hypotheses
It has been suggested that psychopaths' concepts, as
expressed i n t h e i r speech, are not well connected to one
another. This d e f i c i t may take one of a number of forms. Based
on c l i n i c a l observation and the research reviewed above, i t was
hypothesized that:
1. Psychopathy i s associated with an increase i n l e x i c a l
cohesion or a decrease i n the use of a l l types of cohesion.
2. Psychopathy i s associated with an increase i n the use of
incompetent references.
3. Psychopathy i s associated with a f a i l u r e to open and close
the same plot-unit.
4. Psychopathy i s associated with p o s i t i v e , but not negative
measures of thought disorder.
These hypotheses were modified by the caveat that, i f
abnormalities i n speech production are a f f e c t i v e l y based i n
psychopaths, then these predictions would be r e a l i z e d for the
a f f e c t i v e , but not the neutral s t o r i e s .
- Method
Subjects
Subjects were 40 male inmates from a Canadian Federal
prison near Vancouver, B.C. who had volunteered to p a r t i c i p a t e
i n an ongoing research project. Psychopathy was assessed using
the PCL-R, a 20 item scale of proven r e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y
(e.g., Hare, 1980, 1985, 1991; Hare et a l . , 1990). I t measures
-41-
both behavioural and personality variables on the basis of an
extensive interview with the inmate and a review of h i s
i n s t i t u t i o n a l f i l e s . The summed score (maximum of 40) provides
a global measure of psychopathy. The i n t r a c l a s s c o r r e l a t i o n
c o e f f i c i e n t for the PCL-R i n the population from which t h i s
sample was drawn was .84. The interview and ratings were
ca r r i e d out by individuals trained in i t s use (not the
experimenter). When ava i l a b l e the means of double r a t i n g s were
used to increase r e l i a b i l i t y . Past research has demonstrated
that those indiv i d u a l s with low and high PCL-R scores do not
d i f f e r on l e v e l s of education, parents' s o c i a l c l a s s , I.Q. or
other neuropsychological variables (e.g. Hare, F r a z e l l e , Bus, &
J u t a i , 1980; Harpur et. a l . , 1989; Hart, Forth, & Hare, 1990).
In most studies, subjects have been divided into high
(PCL-R 30 or greater) or low (less than or equal to 20 on the
PCL-R) psychopathy groups for comparative research. For the
primary analysis i n the present study, however, psychopathy was
treated as a continuous variable. Some ad d i t i o n a l analyses were
ca r r i e d out using subjects c l a s s i f i e d as psychopaths (PCL-R
score 30 or greater; n = 21) or as nonpsychopaths (PCL-R score
less than 30; n = 15). For a l l analyses, 4 subjects who
received diagnoses of eit h e r schizophrenia or s c h i z o a f f e c t i v e
disorder were omitted as described below.
The i n d i v i d u a l who performed the i n i t i a l PCL-R assessments
re c r u i t e d subjects to par t i c i p a t e in the present research i f
- 4 2 -
they had learned English as their f i r s t language and i f they
were between the ages of 18 and 60. The mean age of the 36
subjects was 29.6 years (S.D. = 9.1; range = 19 to 56 years).
The Mean years of education was 8.9 (S.D. = 1.9; range = 4 to
12) . Neither education nor age was found to c o r r e l a t e with PCL-
R ratings nor any of the dependent variables. The mean PCL-R
score was 29.4 (S.D. = 8.2; range = 7.5 to 40.0).
Procedure
Two s t o r i e s , one involving an angry incident, and one
involving a topic of personal d i f f i c u l t y , were c o l l e c t e d from
the subjects at the beginning of the session. This was followed
by the administration of the SADS-L interview. C o l l e c t i o n of
the speech samples and the administration of the SADS-L
interview were carried out by the author, a Ph.D. l e v e l
c l i n i c a l psychology graduate student, who was b l i n d to PCL-R
ratings. Subjects were paid $7.00 for the session which lasted
from 1 to 2.5 hours. Subjects were tested i n d i v i d u a l l y .
Speech Samples
The subject was asked to produce two types of s t o r i e s that
were to be based on personal experience. This task required a
subject to r e c a l l a time when he was angry and a time when he
had d i f f i c u l t y in doing or learning something. The d i r e c t i v e
f o r the angry ( d i f f i c u l t y ) story was: "I want you to t e l l me a
story about a time you f e l t r e a l l y angry (had d i f f i c u l t y i n
doing or learning something). Like most s t o r i e s , i t should have
- 4 3 -
a beginning, a middle, and an end. T e l l the story as i f you are
there. Describe what happened and what you did. I ' l l give you a
couple of minutes to think about i t . Then I want you to t e l l me
what happened l i k e i t was a story. You should speak f o r a few
minutes. Are there any questions?" The interviewer then
answered any questions that the subject had concerning the
instructions and t o l d him not to talk to the interviewer while
he was t e l l i n g the story. I f a subject asked f o r s p e c i f i c
advice about what to speak about he was encouraged to continue
to t r y to r e c a l l an angry ( d i f f i c u l t ) time. Two subjects (both
nonpsychopaths) could not think of a angry time so they were
asked to speak about a sad incident. Some subjects were not
sure what was meant by the topic " d i f f i c u l t y i n doing or
learning". The experimenter gave the example of " t r y i n g to
figure out a math problem". None of the subjects used t h i s
example i n creating a story. After questions were answered the
interviewer repeated the instructions and the subject began. A
couple of the subjects asked the interviewer questions about
story content af t e r they had begun t h e i r narration. For
example, one subject asked i f someone that he was describing
was known to the interviewer. In these cases the interviewer
responded with "mmm" and the subject continued.
The emotional topic occurred f i r s t or second on a random
basis. There was 20 minutes between each story. A f t e r the
t e l l i n g of each story the experimenter asked questions about
-44 -
i t s content for about 10 minutes. The narratives were recorded
on audio tape with high q u a l i t y head-held microphones.
SADS-L
After c o l l e c t i n g the speech samples the SADS-L structured
interview was administered. The f i r s t 15 to 30 minutes were
spent gathering demographic information from the subject.
General questions about the subject's past p s y c h i a t r i c history
were also asked. The subject was then t o l d that he would be
asked a set of standard questions about how he f e l t and
thought. The interview took from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours and
was videotaped.
Before making RDC diagnoses both the experimenter and the
r e l i a b i l i t y coder reviewed the t r a i n i n g materials provided by
the authors. The r e l i a b i l i t y coder was a M.A. l e v e l graduate
student i n c l i n i c a l psychology who had a great deal of previous
experience i n the administration of structured interviews and
t h e i r scoring. The experimenter had been previously trained i n
the use of the SADS in a p s y c h i a t r i c h o s p i t a l . Both the SADS-L
videotapes and prison f i l e s were used to make diagnoses. The
second rater made diagnoses for a randomly selected set of 20
subjects based on the same information.
Subjects met the c r i t e r i a for a variety of diagnoses.
However, for the present study only the subjects who met the
c r i t e r i a for disorders found to have been related to thought
disorder were of i n t e r e s t . Two subjects met the c r i t e r i a for
-45-
schizoaffective disorder (both depressed type), and two
subjects met the c r i t e r i a for schizophrenia (one paranoid and
one disorganized). These subjects were excluded from the study.
The two subjects who were rated as s c h i z o a f f e c t i v e by the
experimenter were given the same diagnoses by the student. The
two raters also agreed on a past instance of s c h i z o a f f e c t i v e
disorder (depressed type) for one of the subjects. Neither
r a t e r gave any other current diagnosis of schizophrenia,
schizoaffective disorder, mania, or depression. Agreement was
almost perfect on other diagnoses not relevant to the current
study.
One of the two subjects diagnosed as schizophrenic had
been rated i n the psychopathic range on the PCL-R with a score
of 30. The other subjects excluded from the study had PCL-R
scores of 24, 23, and 5.
I t was surprising to f i n d that 10% of the i n i t i a l sample
suffered from serious psychopathology. However, the prison from
which the inmates were drawn was at the time being used to
house the most dangerous and disturbed offenders i n i t s
geographic area. The mean PCL-R score obtained i n the present
study i s i n fact s l i g h t l y higher than has been found i n past
research, as i s the proportion of inmates defined as
psychopathic by the PCL-R. Both the elevated PCL-R scores and
the serious pathology that was found may have been a r e f l e c t i o n
of prison p o l i c y . At the time, offenders were being screened
-46-
upon a r r i v a l at the i n s t i t u t i o n , and the less v i o l e n t and less
dangerous inmates were being sent to other i n s t i t u t i o n s .
Cohesion and Reference Ratings
The experimenter transcribed a l l of the 80 s t o r i e s from
the audio tapes, including pauses and word r e p e t i t i o n s . The
st o r i e s were then broken down into independent clauses based on
the d e f i n i t i o n of Rochester and Martin (1979): an independent
clause i s a unit which stands by i t s e l f as a de c l a r a t i v e ,
interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory structure. Relative
clauses, adverbial clauses, and fact or report complements were
treated as part of t h i s basic unit as were sentence modifiers.
Number of words and number of clauses were counted. Cohesion
and incompetent references were scored according to a manual
that was created for t h i s study based on the book Cohesion i n
English (Halliday & Hasan, 1976) and an unpublished manual
provided by Harvey (1983).
Hanging clauses were included at the beginning of a new
clause. Unless these clauses were necessary for the
interpretation of subsequent information they were not scored
for l i n g u i s t i c variables nor were they included i n the word
count. Repetitions of words within a clause were also not
scored (e.g., "They - they went to the store"; only the second
"they" was coded for l i n g u i s t i c variables and included i n the
word count). A masters l e v e l graduate student from speech and
hearing sciences who was f a m i l i a r with the coding of cohesion,
-47-
but knew nothing about psychopaths, then performed the same
analysis on 30 (15 a f f e c t i v e and 15 neutral) of the 80 s t o r i e s
using the manual provided by the experimenter.
Previous investigators have found the r e l i a b i l i t y for
coding cohesion to be high. Harvey (1983) obtained Kappas of
.79 for l e x i c a l cohesion, .87 for r e f e r e n t i a l cohesion, and .94
fo r conjunction. Ragin and Oltmanns (1986) obtained an
i n t e r r a t e r r e l i a b i l i t y of .95 for the amount of l e x i c a l
cohesion per t r a n s c r i p t . Rochester and Martin (1979) computed
Kappas of .73 to 1.00 for selecting cohesive items and .96 for
se l e c t i n g referents. In the present study i n t e r r a t e r
r e l i a b i l i t y (Pearson product moment correlation) f o r the
neutral (affective) story for number of cohesive t i e s per
t r a n s c r i p t was .81 (.84) f o r l e x i c a l cohesion, .82 (.88) for
r e f e r e n t i a l cohesion, and .92 (.90) for conjunction. For the
i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of incompetent references i t was .91 (.90).
Interrater r e l i a b i l i t y for the number of words and clauses
ranged from .95 to .98 for the a f f e c t i v e and neutral s t o r i e s .
Plot-Unit Ratings
There i s no set of standard plot-units for the analysis of
narratives of r e a l l i f e events. For t h i s reason, p l o t - u n i t s
were selected that had proven useful i n a previous story
structure analysis (Gillam, 1989). In addition, new p l o t - u n i t s
were created based on a subset of the present n a r r a t i v e s . The
author and the same coder who had scored cohesion f o r
-48-
r e l i a b i l i t y j o i n t l y reviewed the 30 narratives (15 a f f e c t i v e
and 15 neutral) that had previously been coded by the second
r a t e r . They i d e n t i f i e d and discussed new p l o t u n i t s , i n
addition to those given i n Gillam (1989), necessary f o r coding
the narratives. The basic unit of analysis was the independent
clause. The p l o t units that were used, both from Gillam (1989)
and newly created, are shown i n Table I I .
A l l of the plot-units were then used by both r a t e r s to
independently analyze 5 s t o r i e s selected from a book of short
s t o r i e s . R e l i a b i l i t y for these ratings was high, and any
discrepancies were discussed by the raters. F i n a l l y , t h i r t y new
narratives from t h i s study were selected ( f i f t e e n a f f e c t i v e and
f i f t e e n neutral s t o r i e s ) , and were coded by both r a t e r s . The
i n t e r r a t e r r e l i a b i l i t y i n the present study for the neutral
(affective) s t o r i e s was .88 (.89) for the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of
p l o t - u n i t s (the same plot u n i t opened and closed). This value
compares favourably with those reported by Botvin-and Sutton-
Smith (1977), who reported interrater agreement of .81 for the
i d e n t i f i c a t i o n of p l o t - u n i t s using graduate students with three
hours of t r a i n i n g , and by Gillam (1989), who reported an
i n t e r r a t e r r e l i a b i l i t y of .91. Using the same p l o t - u n i t s , the
author then rated the remaining 42 narratives.
Thought Disorder Ratings
The TLC was scored according to the manual provided by i t s
author (Andreasen, 1980) and the revisions proposed by Oltmanns
- 4 9 -
Table II
Plot-units and Their Definitions
Problem Result
Negative Feeling State N u l l i f i e d / n o t N u l l i f i e d
Description of s e l f as having
negative feelings.
V i l l a i n y N u l l i f i e d / n o t N u l l i f i e d
Injurious or malevolent act
committed on the speaker.
Deception Revealed/not revealed
A misleading act or statement
that i s intended to cause a
p a r t i c i p a n t i n the narrative
to act or think wrongly.
Threat N u l l i f i e d / n o t n u l l i f i e d
A p o t e n t i a l source of danger,
harm, or d i s t r e s s .
(table continues)
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Table II continued
Problem Result
Plan
A scheme (thought, intention)
f o r doing something.
Attack
To attack a participant with
intent to harm (can be verbal).
Carried Out/not Carried Out
Counterattack/Wound/Flee
Injury Recovery/Death
Physical harm or damage to
a par t i c i p a n t .
Pursue Capture/Escape/Release
To chase i n order to capture
or harm.
Search Find/not f i n d
To look for something.
(table continues)
-51-
Table II continued
Problem Result
Compete Win/Lose
To compete with another par t i c i p a n t
for something.
Command Obeyed/Not obeyed
To be ordered to do something.
Aid Accepted/Not accepted
To o f f e r aid to a p a r t i c i p a n t .
Promise Kept/Not kept
To promise a p a r t i c i p a n t something.
Problem Resolved/not Resolved
A problem that i s hard for a
participant to contend with.
Note. Adapted from Gillam (1989).
- 5 2 -
et a l . (1985) based on the f i r s t 30 minutes of the SADS-L
interview, with the appropriate correction for time as
instructed i n the manual. Each TLC category i s scored on a 0 to
3 or 4 point scale. In the present study, the experimenter and
a PhD graduate student i n forensic psychology, not involved i n
any of the previous ratings, f i r s t read the manual, and scored
5 t r a i n i n g tapes to discuss discrepancies i n scoring. Then the
experimenter rated a l l the subjects on the TLC and the student
rated 50% of the subjects to assess r e l i a b i l i t y .
T y p i c a l l y , for any category a score of 0 i s considered to be
i n d i c a t i v e of no thought disorder, a score of 1 to be
representative of mild thought disorder, and 2 taken to
indicate the d e f i n i t e presence of thought disorder. Kappa
c o e f f i c i e n t s of agreement for the presence (2 or greater) and
absence (less than 2) of thought disorder for the frequently
occurring categories of t h i s scale are given i n Table I I I . They
range from .58 to .82 and are quite similar to those obtained
by other researchers (e.g. Andreasen, 1979a; Harvey, 1983;
Oltmans et a l . , 1985). For categories having a base-rate of
le s s than 20 percent, Kappas were not calculated; however the
absolute agreement between raters for these categories was high
(at least 95 percent).
Results
Thought Disorder
The thought disorder ratings were highly negatively skewed
- 5 3 -
r e s u l t i n g i n a non-linear relationship with the PCL-R. The
thought disorder ratings were therefore transformed by t h e i r
square root (Cohen & Cohen, 1983) . This produced an
approximately normal d i s t r i b u t i o n for thought disorder and an
approximately linear relationship between thought disorder and
the PCL-R. The PCL-R was found to correlate .35 (p_ < -03) with
the transformed scores. This suggests that increasing
psychopathy i s accompanied by an increased tendency to produce
disordered communications.
R e l i a b i l i t i e s , means, and standard deviations f o r thought
disorder categories, broken down by psychopathy group, are
presented i n Table I I I . Only categories for which at l e a s t one
i n d i v i d u a l scored a 1 are included.
A score of 1 or below on the TLC i s considered to be
i n d i c a t i v e of mild thought disorder or no thought disorder.
Thought disorder appears to have occurred with r e l a t i v e l y
greater frequency among subjects r e l a t i v e to a sample of normal
ind i v i d u a l s assessed by Andreasen and Grove (1986). The
percentage of individuals exhibiting scores of 2 or greater for
that sample and the present sample can be compared i n Table
I I I .
A Chi-Square analysis was performed, with subjects
c l a s s i f i e d by the presence or absence of thought disorder and
by the presence or absence of psychopathy. The analysis was
highly s i g n i f i c a n t (Chi-sguare(1) = 13.02, p < .001). Twenty
-54-
Table III
Summary of Information for Thought Disorder (TD) Categories
Psychopaths Nonpsychopaths
(n = 21) (n = 15)
Category M ( SD ) p a M ( SD ) p a pb Kappa
Poverty of Speech .81 (1.0) 29 .07 ( -3) 0 5 .58
Poverty of Content . 10 ( -3) 0 .07 ( -3) 0 1 -Pressure of Speech .33 ( -9) 14 .00 ( .0) 0 6 -Tangentiality .76 ( .9) 29 .46 ( -9) 13 2 .82
Derailment 1.24 (1.2) 48 .40 ( .6) 17 32 .82 I l l o g i c a l i t y .09 ( .4) 5 .00 ( -0) 0 0 -Incoherence .23 ( -4) 9 . 00 ( .0) 0 0 -D i s t r a c t i b l e Speech . 10 ( -3) 0 .00 ( -0) 0 3 -Circumstantiality 1.20 (1.0) 48 .80 (1.0) 26 6 .78 Loss of Goal 1.29 (1.0) 53 .73 (1.1) 23 18 .80
R e l i a b i l i t y P o s i t i v e TD 2.67 (3.1) 57 1.00 (1.9) 13 .91 Negative TD .81 (1.0) 29 . 13 ( -4) 0 .87
Total TD 6.14 (3.7) 95 2.67 (3.9) 33 .86
(table continues)
-55-
Table III continued
Note. Only categories for which at least one subject scored a
one or more are included. aThe percentage of individuals scoring greater than
2 or greater on the variable. ^The percentage of 94 normal
in d i v i d u a l s scoring 2 or greater on the variable as reported by
Andreasen and Grove (1986).
-56-
out of 21 subjects i n the psychopathic range of the PCL-R were
c l a s s i f i e d as thought disordered, whereas only 5 of the 15
subjects i n the nonpsychopathic range were so c l a s s i f i e d .
Similar analyses were carr i e d out separately f o r p o s i t i v e and
negative thought disorder. Neither positive (r = .16, p > .34)
nor negative (r = .29, p_ > .09) thought disorder c o r r e l a t e d
s i g n i f i c a n t l y with psychopathy. This apparent lack of
rel a t i o n s h i p may have been due to the highly skewed nature of
the thought disorder d i s t r i b u t i o n s that were not amenable to
correction. However, there was a relationship between PCL-R
group and po s i t i v e thought disorder for the Chi-Square
analysis, (Chi-square (1) = 7.07, p_ < .01). The most frequently
occurring categories of p o s i t i v e thought disorder were
derailment and tang e n t i a l i t y . Group differences i n negative
thought disorder were not s i g n i f i c a n t after the Yates
Correction, (Chi-square(1) = 3.29, p > .07), with 6 psychopaths
and none of the nonpsychopaths scoring 2 or greater. A l l of the
6 psychopaths' scores of 2 or greater were due to poverty of
speech and not poverty of content of speech. The mean values
for each group for positive, negative, and t o t a l thought
disorder can be found i n Table III.
Aff e c t Manipulation Check
Whether or not the two story types d i f f e r e d on
emotionality was assessed by two raters, not involved i n any
other ratings, who rated each story on two 7-point Lykert
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scales. One of the raters was a graduate student i n c l i n i c a l
psychology and the other had just completed an undergraduate
degree i n psychology. For the f i r s t scale, ratings were made to
the question "How emotional i s t h i s story?" with scale anchors
of "Extremely" (7) and "Not at a l l " (1). For the second scale,
ratings were made to the question "How much interpersonal
c o n f l i c t i s there i n t h i s story?" with scale anchors of "A l o t "
(7) and "None at a l l " (1). The intra c l a s s c o r r e l a t i o n f o r the
average of two raters was .69 for emotionality and .79 f o r
c o n f l i c t . Paired sample t - t e s t s were carried out on the
resultant mean scores. On the emotionality dimension the two
story types d i f f e r e d (t = 2.59, p < .01; mean f o r the
d i f f i c u l t y story = 3.9, SD = 1.7; mean for the angry story =
4.8, SD = 1.3). The s t o r i e s also d i f f e r e d on the interpersonal
c o n f l i c t dimension (t = 3.99, p < .001; mean f o r the d i f f i c u l t y
story = 3.2, SD = 1.6; mean for the angry story = 4.8, SD =
1.3). These results suggest that the two s t o r i e s d i f f e r e d on
the rated dimension of emotionality; however they may al s o have
d i f f e r e d on other dimensions. In subsequent discussions the
angry story w i l l be referred to as af f e c t i v e and the d i f f i c u l t y
story w i l l be referred to as neutral. However, even though the
"neutral" story was rated as les s emotional then the angry one,
there i s no evidence that i t was not emotional.
Discourse Variables
The Means and S.D.s for t o t a l number of words, t o t a l
- 5 8 -
number of clauses, mean length of utterance (MLU; mean number
of words per independent clause) and open and closed p l o t - u n i t s
for each story type can be found i n Table IV. No s i g n i f i c a n t
differences were found between high and low psychopathy groups
for any of these variables. As can be seen i n Table IV, the
number of clauses and words used was sensitive to whether or
not subjects related a neutral or an a f f e c t i v e story. Subjects
t o l d longer s t o r i e s for the a f f e c t i v e topic; however MLU d i d
not d i f f e r for the two story types. Subjects also produced more
open and closed plot-units for the a f f e c t i v e story suggesting
i t was more complex than the neutral story.
In order to assess the r e l a t i o n s h i p between the dependent
variables and the discourse variables, correlations were
calculated between the two sets of variables f o r a l l subjects.
These correlations are shown i n Table V.
The number of open and closed plot-units was included on
the dependent variable l i s t so as to assess the r e l a t i o n s h i p
between story length and story complexity. The c o r r e l a t i o n s
show that the t o t a l number of clauses was highly r e l a t e d to the
number of open and closed p l o t - u n i t s . This suggests that story
complexity, as assessed by the number of p l o t - u n i t s , was
r e l a t e d to story length. However, story length was not
s i g n i f i c a n t l y associated with the degree to which subjects
opened and closed the same plot- u n i t s , as indicated by the
nonsignificant c o r r e l a t i o n , suggesting that coherence was not
-59-
Table IV
Means and Standard Deviations of the Discourse Variables f o r the A f f e c t i v e and Neutral Stories
Neutral A f f e c t i v e
Story Story
Variable M (SD) M (SD) £(34)
Open Plo t Units 3.94 (1.97) 5. 67 (3.57) 3.18**
Closed Plot Units 2.75 (1.75) 4.36 (2.98) 3.50***
Number of Words 395 (205) 537 (384) 2.75**
Number of Clauses 45 ( 26) 61 ( 46) 2.50*
MLUa 9. 07 (1.73) 9.00 (2.20) .24
a MLU length of utterance which i s the number of words per
independent clause.
* E < .05. * *
p_ < .01.
*** E < .001.
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Table V
Correlations of the Dependent Variables with Total Words, Clauses and MLU for the A f f e c t i v e and Neutral Stories
Variable Total Words Total Clauses MLUa
Neutral Story
L e x i c a l Cohesion .07 .23 . 35*
Referential Cohesion .07 -.01 . 32*
Conjunctive Cohesion -.08 .02 -.01
Total Cohesion .07 -.06 . 35*
Incompetent References .27 * .33 -.12
Closed/Open Plot-units .05 . 05 .02 Open Plo t Units .63*** . 7 2 * * * -.19
Closed Plot Units . 54 .63*** -.15
(table continues)
Table V continued
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Variable Total Words Total Clauses MLUa
A f f e c t i v e Story
Le x i c a l Cohesion .07 .23 .28
Refer e n t i a l Cohesion .07 -.01 .39* Conjunctive Cohesion -.08 . 02 -.02 Total Cohesion .07 -.06 AC**
. 46 Incompetent References . 14 . 12 . 08 Closed/Open plot-units .02 . 05 . 02 Open Pl o t Units .68*** * * *
.82 -.20
Closed P l o t Units .58*** .70*** -.14
Note. Cohesion variables and incompetent references are
occurrences per clause. a Mean length of utterance.
* p < .05.
** p < .01.
-62-
r e l a t e d to story length. MLU was related to t o t a l cohesion for
both story types. Rochester and Martin (1979) demonstrated that
for non-thought disordered individuals the longer the MLU the
greater the number of cohesive t i e s . However, the authors also
found that t h i s relationship did not hold for thought
disordered individuals.
Cohesion
Table VI displays the correlations between the PCL-R and
the dependent variables. These correlations reveal a negative
association between the PCL-R and the cohesion variables f o r
the neutral, but not the a f f e c t i v e , s t o r i e s . This appears to be
due to a general trend for psychopaths to use l e s s cohesion
than the nonpsychopaths i n the neutral story. In the a f f e c t i v e
story the groups used similar amounts of cohesion.
The relationship between psychopathy and the e f f e c t of an
emotional topic on story t e l l i n g was assessed by p a r t i a l i n g the
variance of the neutral story variables out of the c o r r e l a t i o n s
between psychopathy and the a f f e c t i v e dependent variab l e s . The
p a r t i a l correlations between psychopathy and the cohesion
variables for the a f f e c t i v e story, with neutral story variance
removed, are shown in Table VI. None of these c o r r e l a t i o n s were
s i g n i f i c a n t , suggesting that the relationship between
psychopathy and cohesion was not p a r t i c u l a r to an emotional
story t o p i c .
-63-
Table VI
Correlations of the PCL-R with the Dependent Variables for the Neutral and A f f e c t i v e Stories
Neutral A f f e c t i v e A f f e c t i v e Story
Story Story (neutral variance Variable partialed)
Lexical Cohesion -.41** .07 .20
Referential Cohesion -.30 -.20 -.07
Conjunctive Cohesion * -.37 -.01 -.07
Total Cohesion -.47** -.08 .20 Incompetent References . 23 .43** . oo
Closed/Open plot-units A A * *
-. 44 -.40* .29
Note. Cohesion variables and incompetent references are
occurrences per clause.
* p_ < .05. * *
E < .01. * * *
E < -001.
-64-
The Means and S.D.s for the cohesion variables f o r each
a f f e c t type are presented i n Table VII for psychopaths and
nonpsychopaths. Due to the number of t tests that were
performed the Bonferonni correction was used across each story
type. The familywise Type I error rate was held at .05 by
t e s t i n g each comparison at p_ =.008 (.05/6 v a r i a b l e s ) .
Total cohesion was about 2.48 t i e s per clause across the
d i f f e r e n t types of s t o r i e s . This figure compares favorably with
those previously found for interviews and the r e t e l l i n g of a
story j u s t heard, which have ranged from 2.04 to 3.86 i n normal
in d i v i d u a l s (Harvey, 1983; Rochester and Martin, 1979).
Referential and conjunctive cohesion are also i n the same range
as that previously found. Harvey (1983) reports values of .97
for reference and .45 for conjunction i n normals based on an
open top i c interview.
Close i n value to those figures are those found i n the
present study: .88 (neutral story) and .92 ( a f f e c t i v e story)
for reference and .41 (neutral story) and .43 ( a f f e c t i v e story)
for conjunction. What i s d i f f e r e n t from previously reported
values are the figures for l e x i c a l cohesion. For both the
a f f e c t i v e and neutral story r e l a t i v e l y high amounts of l e x i c a l
cohesion were found: 1.18 t i e s per clause for the neutral story
and 1.14 t i e s per clause f o r the a f f e c t i v e story. Harvey (1983)
reported .66 t i e s per clause and Ragin and Oltmanns reported
-65-
Table VII
Means and Standard Deviations of the Dependent Variables for the Affective and Neutral Stories for Psychopaths
and Non-psychopaths
Psychopaths Nonpsychopaths
(n = 21) (n = 15)
Variable M (SD) M (SD) t(34)
Neutral . Story
L e x i c a l Cohesion 1.11 ( -19) 1.29 ( .29) 2.31
Re f e r e n t i a l Cohesion .78 ( -27) 1.01 ( .23) 2.43
Conjunctive Cohesion . 38 ( -09) .43 ( .08) 1.74
Total Cohesion 2.28 ( .43) 2.73 ( . 39) 3. 19*
Incompetent References .08 ( .07) .04 ( .06) 1.69
Closed/Open Plot-units .60 ( .34) •89 ( .20) 2.99*
(table continues)
-66-
Table VII continued
Psychopaths Nonpsychopaths
(n = 21) (n = 15)
Variable M (SD) M (SD) t(34)
Affective s Story
Lex i c a l Cohesion 1.13 ( -28) 1.15 ( .29) . 17
Ref e r e n t i a l Cohesion .84 ( -31) 1.03 ( -22) 2.00
Conjunctive Cohesion .43 ( .15) .43 ( .10) .04
Total Cohesion 2.40 ( -49) 2.61 ( .34) 1.40
Incompetent References . 11 ( -06) .04 ( .06) 2.98*
Closed/Open Plot-units .67 (. -16) .91 ( -16) 3.29*
Note. Cohesion variables and reference f a i l u r e s are occurrences
per clause. The familywise Type I error rate was held at .05 by
te s t i n g each comparison at p_ = .06/6 = .008.
* E < .008.
-67-
.71. However, Rochester and Martin (1979) found that the
proportion of cohesion to t o t a l cohesion i s se n s i t i v e to
context i n that for interviews, where topics were based on past
experience, subjects used l e x i c a l cohesion to a greater degree
than they d i d other types of cohesion. For the r e t e l l i n g of a
story just heard subjects tended to use reference to a greater
degree than other types of cohesion. I t may be that the
p a r t i c u l a r context of the present study led to the p a r t i c u l a r
amounts of cohesion that were found, or i t may be that inmates
tend to use more l e x i c a l cohesion i n t h e i r speech than
noninmates.
Group differences were apparent for t o t a l cohesion i n the
neutral story. Psychopaths used less cohesion over a l l than the
nonpsychopathic group. There were also trends for group
differences on l e x i c a l (p = .03) and r e f e r e n t i a l (p_ = .02)
cohesion. Nonpsychopaths tended to use both types of cohesion
more often than dis psychopaths. For the a f f e c t i v e story, no
group differences were found, although once again there was a
trend for nonpsychopaths to use more r e f e r e n t i a l cohesion than
the psychopaths (p = .05).
Incompetent References
As can be seen i n Table VI, increasing psychopathy was
related to a tendency to make incompetent references. For the
a f f e c t i v e story psychopathy added a s i g n i f i c a n t amount of
variance to t h i s relationship, over and above that contributed
- 6 8 -
by the neutral story.
The mean number of incompetent references for the
a f f e c t i v e and neutral s t o r i e s can be seen i n Table VII. Amounts
of .06 (neutral story) and .08 (a f f e c t i v e story) per clause are
higher than the zero values previously reported for normals
(Harvey, 1983; Rochester & Martin, 1979). In the present study,
psychopaths, when compared to nonpsychopaths, were found to use
more incompetent references for the a f f e c t i v e , but not the
neutral, story. A value of .11 i s f a r above that previously
reported f o r normal individuals, but below .19, a value
reported f o r TD schizophrenics (Harvey & Brault, 1986).
Coherence
Correlations shown in Table VI suggest that increasing
psychopathy was associated with a f a i l u r e i n p l o t - u n i t closure
fo r both the affect i v e and neutral s t o r i e s . As i s shown i n
Table VII, f o r both story types psychopaths produced fewer
completed plot-units than nonpsychopaths, about 65 versus 90
percent. These results suggest that the s t o r i e s produced by
psychopaths were less coherent than those produced by
nonpsychopaths.
Discussion
The most general conclusion that can be drawn from the
res u l t s of t h i s study i s that psychopathy i s associated with a
tendency to produce disordered communications. These
communications appear to f a i l on a number of l e v e l s . F i r s t ,
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psychopathy i s associated with the use of few cohesive l i n k s
between sentences. Secondly, psychopaths sometimes f a i l to
provide the appropriate referent for what they are t a l k i n g
about. T h i r d l y , they frequently introduce information that sets
up expectations i n li s t e n e r s about what they might hear next,
and then f a i l to provide that piece of information. F i n a l l y ,
psychopathy appears to be related to c l i n i c a l l y - r a t e d d e f i c i t s
i n communication, as measured by the TLC.
The l e v e l of impaired communication found i n the
psychopathic subjects was somewhat unexpected. I t was thought
that psychopaths would score higher than nonpsychopaths on
p o s i t i v e thought disorder. This would be consistent with the
c l i n i c a l observation that t h e i r speech tends to s l i p o f f track.
The f i n d i n g that almost 30 percent of the psychopaths exhibited
negative formal thought disorder, and that t h i s was due to
poverty of speech and not poverty of content of speech, was
su r p r i s i n g . Poverty of content of speech might have been
expected, based on the c l i n i c a l impression that psychopaths
speak a l o t but impart l i t t l e information. That they exhibited
poverty of speech could be an a r t i f a c t of prison l i f e , i n that
an inmate often does not discuss or divulge personal
information. Alternatively, i t could be representative of more
serious pathology. Andreasen and Grove (1986) found that
negative thought disorder was associated with more long term
impairment i n functioning than was p o s i t i v e thought disorder.
- 7 0 -
Negative thought disorder also appears to be a stable t r a i t of
schizophrenia, whereas posi t i v e thought disorder does not
(Docherty et a l . , 1988).
A l l but one of the psychopaths in the present study
exhibited a s i g n i f i c a n t amount of disorganized communication as
measured by the TLC. This needs to be reconciled with some of
the previous c l i n i c a l descriptions of psychopathy, and with the
c l i n i c a l presentation of other thought disordered groups.
Psychopaths have been described both as g l i b con a r t i s t s
who can t a l k almost anyone into anything, and as i n d i v i d u a l s
who produce poorly connected speech units . The findings of the
present study would seem to support the l a t t e r . Reduced
communicability, as measured by the TLC, was higher i n
psychopaths than in nonpsychopaths. It i s possible that the
pattern of the subcategories of thought disorder found f o r
psychopaths may d i f f e r from that found for other p s y c h i a t r i c
groups. For t h i s reason, psychopathic speech may communicate
more information than that of, say, schizophrenics.
A l t e r n a t i v e l y , i t could be that Hare's recent observations
concerning psychopathic speech are correct. Rather than being
the g l i b con a r t i s t s that they are commonly portrayed as, i t
may simply be that t h e i r lack of s o c i a l anxiety coupled with a
desire to be dominant in most s o c i a l s i t u a t i o n s makes them
i n i t i a l l y a t t r a c t i v e to others. This would allow them to take
advantage of some of the people some of the time, even i f , , i n
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r e a l i t y , t h e i r a b i l i t y to communicate ve r b a l l y i s somewhat
impaired.
In the present study s p e c i f i c patterns of thought
disorder, other than positive and negative, were not
investigated. I t was predicted that psychopathy would be
associated with positive signs, which i t was. The frequency of
derailment and tangentiality that was found i n the speech of
psychopaths would suggest that they frequently s l i p o f f top i c
when they are speaking, and that they often f a i l to answer
d i r e c t questions. Psychopaths exhibiting p o s i t i v e thought
disorder might be expected to produce speech that i s poorly
connected, but fluent. For the neutral story they did produce
speech that was lower in cohesion than that of nonpsychopaths.
They also produced fewer completed plo t - u n i t s for both story
types. Both of these findings are i n d i c a t i v e of a r e l a t i v e l y
high l e v e l of unconnected discourse i n psychopaths.
However, fluent speech that changes topic quickly may not
always sound strange to l i s t e n e r s ; without changes i n t o p i c ,
speech would become very boring. Schizophrenics or manics
presenting with s i g n i f i c a n t thought disorder are usually
immediately i d e n t i f i a b l e , without the aid of a c l i n i c a l r a t i n g
scale. Psychopaths are not generally recognized as thought
disordered. One possible reason for t h i s discrepancy i s that
there may be differences i n the content of speech when
comparing psychopaths and other thought disordered groups. The
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TLC focuses on the form of speech and not i t s content. Often,
both the form and content of schizophrenic speech are odd and
bizarre. Idiosyncratic speech i s common i n thought disordered
schizophrenics (Harrow et a l . , 1982). In psychopaths t h i s has
not been observed. If a psychopath r e p l i e s tangentially but
without strange content to a speaker's question, the speaker
may simply assume that individual i s evasive or g l i b . Consider
the following two responses to the question, "Do your moods go
up and down?"
1. "I'm ju s t such a - uh - believer that - uh - that l i f e
i s so short and that we're here for such a short time and
so - so we're a l l going to die anyways at one stage so
then - uh - you - we pass on into a t o t a l l y new s t r a t a and
a l l the problems of t h i s world for us are solved and then
we have a new set of problems and a new set of joys -
whichever one - uh - i t s not something I claim to
understand".
2. "Uh - up and down ? - well you know - some people worry
and I don't worry about much".
Both responses are tangential r e p l i e s to the question.
However, the second response, which was made by a psychopath,
would probably pass without comment i n a regular conversation,
despite the f a c t that i t f a i l s to answer the question. The
f i r s t response was produced by an i n d i v i d u a l that was excluded
from the present study due to an RDC diagnosis of
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schizophrenia. His checklist score was i n the nonpsychopathic
range. His response was not only tangential but contained
somewhat overly abstract,if not strange content. Most l i s t e n e r s
would immediately be aware that there i s something odd about
t h i s i n d i v i d u a l ' s speech and also would f i n d i t d i f f i c u l t to
understand. I t i s possible that although the form of
psychopaths' speech would be considered to be i n d i c a t i v e of
some type of communication disorder, i t s content i s ordinary
enough that l i s t e n e r s can e a s i l y i n f e r a meaning. Future
research might focus more on l i s t e n e r s and how i t i s that they
i n f e r meanings from the speech of psychopaths. For instance,
psychopaths may not produce unusual content i n t h e i r speech,
but instead exhibit d e f i c i t s i n the form of t h e i r discourse. I t
i s possible that i t i s easier for a l i s t e n e r to i n f e r what an
i n d i v i d u a l means i f form, rather than content, i s impaired.
Rosenberg and Tucker (1979) found that the content of
schizophrenic speech was d i s t i n c t from that of nonpsychiatric
patients. The authors suggested that schizophrenics v i o l a t e the
semantic baselines established by members of a language
community. These violations do not have to be i n the form of
bizarre content, but merely involve deviations from expected
sex and s o c i a l roles (e.g. age or f a m i l i a r i t y ) . These types of
deviations are related to the previously discussed concept of
r e g i s t e r . In the present study there was no indication that any
of the subjects f a i l e d to take into account the topic of the
- 7 4 -
story or, more generally, that they were to t e l l a story.
Neither did the raters of the story t r a n s c r i p t s encounter
bizarre or strange content. However they did sometimes
encounter information that seemed confused or did not make
sense. Consider the following story about being angry:
"My most emotional experience was - uh - one of them - the
most cl e a r e s t one was i n here when I was the - i n the
middle of l i f e s k i l l class when somebody pushed the panic
button by accident - I never had on a white t e e - s h i r t - I
had a blue tee-shirt on - And - uh - they pulled me out
there and centred me out i n front of c l - c l o - the crowd
- Cause they had no r e a l reason to take anybody away -
Because i t was by accident - So they decided to centre me
out - Because the copper i n M9 didn't say that he didn't
l i k e me - And he gave me a hassle - And said to centre me
out - And made me go back to the u n i t and change -I didn't
say anything - He was doing a l l the t a l k i n g - He asked me
why I didn't have a blue t e e - s h i r t on - I answered h i s
question by saying that a l l my white t e e - s h i r t s were i n
the wash - He said "well go to SIS" - "And grab a green
s h i r t then" - I said why" - "I'm already here" - "This -
the c l a s s i s almost over" - And - uh - he said "too bad" -
"Go back and do i t " in front of about 25 guys" (the panic
button i s pushed when a guard i s i n trouble; SIS i s
stores) .
- 7 5 -
Th i s story, the shortest produced, was t o l d by a
psychopath who scored in the moderate range on poverty of
speech and al s o exhibited derailment and loss of goal. This
i n d i v i d u a l ' s confusion over t e e - s h i r t colours i s obvious. He
also seemed to have d i f f i c u l t y i n producing a story with a
clea r beginning and end. His i n t e r j e c t i o n of information
concerning t e e - s h i r t s before i t was relevant suggests that he
may have had d i f f i c u l t y in either organizing the information
into a coherent account or that he f a i l e d to take into account
the l i s t e n e r ' s needs.
Bernstein (1966) has made a d i s t i n c t i o n between
elaborated and r e s t r i c t e d speech codes. Restricted speech
codes are those found among c u l t u r a l groups and the intent of
the speaker i s conveyed not through verbal selections, but
through changes i n gesture, physical set, and other such
devices. When using a r e s t r i c t e d code, speech sequences are
disju n c t i v e and concrete; propositions may not be f u l l y
developed and gaps in logic can be present; meanings are
discontinuous, but lis t e n e r s are able to i n f e r what the
speaker means by attending to extraverbal channels. This type
of speech i s often used between people who know each other
well.
Elaborate speech codes r e l y on the s e l f - e d i t i n g of
information so that i t takes into account the speaker's r o l e
i n a communication. The preparation and imparting of e x p l i c i t
\ - 7 6 -
information i s the major purpose of the elaborated code. I t i s
possible that some subjects i n the present study produced
s t o r i e s i n r e s t r i c t e d code form, perhaps that belonging to
prison inmates. This would mean that the l i s t e n e r would have
to make inferences about meanings based on information that i s
c u l t u r a l l y foreign, since the speaker has f a i l e d to be
sen s i t i v e to the register of the s i t u a t i o n . If t h i s were so,
the story quoted above would make more sense to another inmate
than i t did to the raters. This argument could be used to
suggest that psychopaths are somehow in s e n s i t i v e to a
l i s t e n e r ' s needs and therefore produce r e l a t i v e l y unconnected
restricted-code speech regardless of the s o c i a l context. This
would allow a psychopath to communicate with those i n a
si m i l a r c u l t u r a l group without having to produce e x p l i c i t
meanings. However, communication with those outside t h i s
c u l t u r a l group would be impaired.
In the present experiment, psychopathy was associated
with a f a i l u r e to present story information that was coherent.
Psychopaths presented information to open a pl o t - u n i t , and
then d i d not include enough additional information i n
subsequent discourse to l e t the l i s t e n e r know what happened.
This suggests that expectancies were set up i n the l i s t e n e r to
which the speaker was insensitive. I t also suggests that
psychopathy was associated with a f a i l u r e to l i n k actions and
resolutions within t h e i r narratives. This would make i t
- 7 7 -
d i f f i c u l t for the listener to understand what the speaker i s
t r y i n g to say.
Black and Reiser (1982) , i n t h e i r discussion of the
s t r u c t u r a l models of comprehension, have suggested" that a
model of text comprehension should explicate how knowledge
structures are used to guide the r e t r i e v a l of information from
a representation. They suggested that p l o t - u n i t s are useful i n
understanding a story because they allow the l i s t e n e r to
predict future story events. For example, i f a competition
p l o t - u n i t i s i d e n t i f i e d , then the l i s t e n e r can i n f e r and
expect that someone w i l l win and someone w i l l lose, based on
previous knowledge structures.
Black and Reiser (1982) also suggested that p l o t - u n i t
constituents have another function i n text comprehension. They
f a c i l i t a t e the r e c a l l of information. For example, an
in d i v i d u a l may r e c a l l that there was a competition i n a story.
In r e t r i e v i n g information about the competition, a strong
expectation w i l l be set up as to the competition outcome.
Additionally, the information i n other p l o t - u n i t s may become
activated. I f an individual remembers that someone won the
competition, then the expectancy for a rematch may be set up
and memory may be searched for such information. In t h i s way,
memory r e t r i e v a l from a representation begins with knowledge
structures that organize information. In psychopaths i t i s
possible that there i s some breakdown i n t h i s process, whereby
- 7 8 -
assessing one part of a plot-unit does not lead to the
a c t i v a t i o n of i t s corresponding constituent, or related p l o t -
u n i t s . I t i s also possible that the knowledge structures
themselves could be faulty, whereby the p l o t - u n i t based
expectations that psychopaths have are somehow d i f f e r e n t than
those of other individuals.
In the present study, t o t a l cohesion, l e x i c a l cohesion,
and conjunctive cohesion i n the neutral story decreased as
psychopathy increased. This was i n accordance with the
p r e d i c t i o n that psychopaths would use l i t t l e cohesion o v e r a l l .
I t suggests that the independent clauses i n the texts of
psychopaths are not as well-linked as those of nonpsychopaths.
For the a f f e c t i v e story t h i s r e l a t i o n s h i p did not hold.
Although i t appeared that cohesion measures were topi c
s e n s i t i v e i n t h e i r relationship to psychopathy, the actual
r e l a t i o n s h i p seems to be one where both groups changed l e v e l s
of cohesion across the two s t o r i e s , with the psychopaths
s l i g h t l y increasing and the nonpsychopaths s l i g h t l y decreasing
cohesion l e v e l s . This resulted i n no r e l a t i o n s h i p with the
PCL-R for l e x i c a l cohesion i n the a f f e c t i v e story. The f i n d i n g
that cohesion measures may be sensitive to t o p i c should be
useful knowledge for future studies of text cohesion.
Perhaps the most interesting finding i n the present study
was that psychopaths have a tendency to produce incompetent
references. This tendency did not d i s t i n g u i s h psychopaths from
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nonpsychopaths i n the neutral story, but i t did i n the
a f f e c t i v e story. Subjects tended to produce longer s t o r i e s ,
with more p l o t - u n i t s , in the a f f e c t i v e s t o r i e s than i n the
neutral ones. I t i s possible that the increased l i n g u i s t i c
processing demands required to produce the longer and more
complex s t o r i e s , and to integrate more p l o t - u n i t s , resulted i n
less resources being available for the e d i t i n g of
inappropriate references. Cohen (1978) has demonstrated that
reference f a i l u r e s increase i n normals, and to a larger extent
in schizophrenics, as the task of communicating a referent
becomes more d i f f i c u l t . Within the context of an emotional
story, the task of communicating may have been more d i f f i c u l t
for psychopaths than for nonpsychopaths.
After reviewing the l i t e r a t u r e covering information
processing and attentional functioning i n the developmental
course of schizophrenic disorders, Nuechterlein and Dawson
(1984) suggested that r e f e r e n t i a l communication d e f i c i t s
(among others) are l i k e l y to be the r e s u l t of a reduction i n
the processing capacity that i s available f o r task-relevant
cognitive operation i n persons vulnerable to schizophrenia. In
fact, the authors suggested that r e f e r e n t i a l communication
d e f i c i t s may represent a v u l n e r a b i l i t y factor for
schizophrenic disorders. Perhaps i n thought disordered
schizophrenics a genetic predisposition operates (Harvey et
a l , 1988) to l i m i t language-based resources. A similar
-80-
mechanism might underlie psychopaths' reference f a i l u r e s . Hare
et a l . (1988), have suggested that the resources for
processing language may be limited i n psychopaths.
Hare and Gillstrom (1990) have suggested that psychopaths
may produce short and poorly integrated sentences. In the
present study, psychopathy was not associated with the MLU, or
the number of clauses and words produced. This would suggest
that psychopaths do not produce shorter utterances, or
sentences, at l e a s t when t e l l i n g a story, but only that the
utterances they do produce are poorly connected.
There are a number of limitations to generalization of
the findings of the present study. The f i r s t has to do with
r e g i s t e r . In t h i s study subjects were asked to produce a
monologue i n story form. This form of communication i s much
d i f f e r e n t than, say, a two-way dialogue, or g i v i n g a prepared
speech. I t i s not known i f the results obtained here would be
reproduced across di f f e r e n t contexts and tasks. The r e l a t i v e
proportions of the di f f e r e n t cohesion v a r i a b l e s to t o t a l
cohesion are s e n s i t i v e to task (Rochester & Martin, 1979), and
task complexity may affect the degree to which individuals
produce unclear references (Cohen, 1978).
A second l i m i t a t i o n has to do with the basic unit of the
analysis. There were only about f i f t y clauses per story on
which to base the present conclusions. This represents only a
few minutes of speech. Although the e f f e c t s found i n these
-81-
samples were f a i r l y strong, the degree to which they would
generalize to other stories and subjects i s not clear.
Another l i m i t a t i o n of the current study has to do with
how b l i n d the raters were concerning group membership. A l l of
the r e l i a b i l i t y raters, except for the i n d i v i d u a l who scored
cohesion and coherence and the two i n d i v i d u a l s who scored
story a f f e c t i v i t y , had previously interviewed psychopaths.
This may or may not have had an e f f e c t on t h e i r ratings.
Another d i f f i c u l t y with interpreting the present r e s u l t s
i s that thought disorder ratings were made on conversational
speech patterns, whereas the dependent measures were derived
from a story monologue. Some authors have i d e n t i f i e d s p e c i f i c
passages of disordered speech for which cohesion and reference
ratings were performed (Harvey, 1983). These passages
contained s i g n i f i c a n t l y more incompetent references than did
samples of non-disordered passages. In the present study the
relati o n s h i p between psychopathy and the reference measures,
and between psychopathy and thought disorder, might have been
better c l a r i f i e d by looking s p e c i f i c a l l y at disordered speech
samples.
The coding of cohesion and reference f a i l u r e s i s a f a i r l y
straightforward enterprise. However, to capture a l l of the
information contained in a story, measures a d d i t i o n a l to p l o t -
units should be used. Information about s e t t i n g , characters,
and time could be included. Single-meaning constituents can be
-82-
used to assess information concerning actions (e.g.,
reactions, a c t i v i t i e s , announcements, narrator elaborations),
and contextual constituents (e.g., location, contextual
events, time) can be used to assess story background (Gillam,
1989). Future research might examine the degree to which these
other aspects of psychopaths' s t o r i e s deviate from those of
nonpsychopaths. For instance, meaning may be e a s i l y derivable
from psychopaths' s t o r i e s because the stoies include large
amounts of t h i s extra information. A d d i t i o n a l l y , the
s t r u c t u r a l complexity of psychopaths' s t o r i e s could be
evaluated by examining the relationships among pl o t - u n i t s
within a story (Botvin & Sutton-Smith, 1977).
F i n a l l y , the nature of the sample i n the present study
was somewhat d i f f e r e n t from that found i n other studies of
criminals. I t was not expected that four subjects would be
l o s t due to severe psychopathology. The sample was also
s l i g h t l y unusual i n the number of psychopaths i t contained.
Usually they form about a t h i r d of most volunteer samples i n a
prison population. As suggested above, the p o l i c y i n the
prison at the time the sample was c o l l e c t e d may have affected
i t s composition.
Despite these caveats, the present r e s u l t s s t i l l suggest
that a s i g n i f i c a n t number of psychopaths produce disordered
communications. Psychopathy was associated with the use of
r e l a t i v e l y few cohesive links between sentences, f a i l u r e to
- 8 3 -
provide appropriate referents in discourse, f a i l u r e to l i n k
actions and resolutions in stories, and a s i g n i f i c a n t c l i n i c a l
impairment i n the a b i l i t y to communicate. Generally, these
re s u l t s suggest that e f f e c t i v e connections among speech units
in psychopaths' discourse are not as numerous as those found
i n nonpsychopaths. In addition, psychopaths l i k e l y suffer from
a more general impairment in communication, r e l a t e d to, among
other things, discourse that has a tendency to s l i p o f f track
and that often f a i l s to d i r e c t l y answer a l i s t e n e r ' s
questions.
The r e l a t i o n s h i p between the communication d e f i c i t s
exhibited by psychopaths and other psychopathological groups
may be of in t e r e s t to future investigators. Whether or not
these d e f i c i t s share a common developmental h i s t o r y , or
underlying mechanism, may be of some importance to those
researchers engaged i n the task of looking f o r markers of
mental disorders. Future research on psychopaths might also
investigate the rel a t i o n s h i p between d e f i c i t s i n language
processing and production; a d e f i c i t i n one does not
necessarily explain a d e f i c i t in the other.
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