Lay Theories and Attitudes About Psychopathy

It is known that psychopaths receive harsher sentences than those who do not have the psychopathic label. And yet, jurors, or laypeople more broadly, do not have a thorough conception of psychopathy. Thus the goals of this research were to examine laypeople's understanding and attitudes about psychopathy, and to test if an educational experimental manipulation can improve laypeople's understanding of this disorder. Study 1 revealed that in a sample of 286, lay participants have misconceptions and a number of inaccurate attitudes about psychopathy. In Study 2, a sample of 259 lay participants was randomly assigned to watch a control video describing dog training myths or a video describing psychopathy myths. Compared to a control video, watching a short educational video about psychopathy helped improve lay participants' conception and misguided attitudes about psychopathy. This has promising implications for reducing mental health stigma and its associated negative consequences.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Ostapchuk, Nicholas

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2018 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, research, scholarship, and teaching. Theses may only be shared by linking to Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be used without proper attribution to the author. No part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2018-13195

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/39042