Coherence in the narratives of psychopathic and nonpsychopathic criminal offenders

Previous research has demonstrated that the speech of psychopaths is more disorganized than that of nonpsychopaths [Williamson, S. E. (1991). Cohesion and coherence in the speed of psychopathic criminals. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of British Colombia]. This paper attempts to explain Williamson's findings and examines the specific hypotheses that (a) psychopaths are poor at resolving action in spoken narratives and (b) psychopaths' narratives can be improved by giving them tangible story guides. Prison inmates were asked to produce stories based on the content of two Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) cards, using specified story ideas. These narratives were coded using coherence/plot unit analysis. For Caucasians, psychopaths resolved fewer plot units than controls, but they were hindered by the story guides. For African-Americans, there were no significant group differences in the number of plot units resolved. Psychopaths do seem to have more poorly organized speech, but this effect appears to be limited to Caucasians. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.