Word usage patterns in psychopathic jail inmates

This research investigated a new technique for the assessment of psychopathy. Psychopathy has devastating social consequences, and systematic screening of this disorder is crucial to inform decisions about sentencing, level of supervision, and treatment in the correctional system. The current "gold standard" for assessing psychopathy is too time-intensive for regular use outside of research, and a more efficient alternative is unavailable. Research on language processing has evidenced differences between psychopaths and non-psychopaths, which may suggest a new pathway for distinguishing them. An unrelated line of research using computerized content analysis has demonstrated that word use is a reliable, individual difference variable which can provide information about psychological functioning. Psychological theory and previous research suggest that psychopaths may evidence distinct word use patterns in speech. The current research drew on data from the ongoing George Mason University study on Moral Emotions and Recidivism, to investigate whether content analysis of brief speech samples could identify psychopathy. The strongest relation was found between IQ and word use, whereas the other psychological correlates, including psychopathy, showed small, yet significant, relations to some of the word use categories. When IQ was controlled for, reading ability demonstrated a much greater association with word use, yet no appreciable changes were found in the association of word use to other psychological variables. As a predictive factor, word use accounted for only a small percentage of the variance in psychopathy and features of borderline personality disorder. Though this research does replicate previous findings that word use is associated with psychological variables, including psychopathy, it does not support the utility of the content analysis system as a diagnostic or predictive tool for this disorder.