The language of the psychopath: characteristics of prisoners' performance in a sentence completion test

Verbal productions of prisoners were studied as possible correlates of psychopathic personality.

A sample of 76 inmates of a German high-security prison were administered a new sentence completion test (SCT). The subjects' verbal responses to 63 sentence cues were coded using 23 content and linguistic categories which had been derived from Loevinger's stage model of ego development. Moreover, the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL R) was scored for each subject after a clinical interview and a perusal of the prisoner's file.

Moderate positive correlations were found between PCL R scores and cognitive and linguistic characteristics in the SCT (concerns with exerting power and being dominated, use of coarse language and the expression of dysphoric emotions). These characteristics were highly sensitive but not specific to psychopaths.

In the context of recent research, verbal patterns are seen, together with interpersonal behaviour patterns and linguistic properties, as valid indicators of psychopathy and might be particularly useful when biographical information is lacking.