– Introduction to FLP Full Summary –
1: Verbal credibility
Main lecture takeaways
→ Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA): assumes that memory of an actual experience differs in
verbal quality and content from statements that were invented.
- Around 70% accuracy rating
- This can only be used for deception and is not accurate for false memories.
→ Reality Monitoring approach (RM): Cues: Clarity/vividness, Sensory information, Spatial information,
Time information, Reconstructability, Emotions/feelings, Realism, Cognitive operations
- Applicable to any case or suspect
- Around 70% accuracy rating
→ Verifiability approach: liars often provide details that are harder to verify, whereas truth tellers can
provide details that are verifiable
→ The use-the-best heuristic: Keeping it simple, and only looking for 1 type of deception que. “Use the
best and forget the rest”. They look at detailedness and reach an accuracy significantly higher than
chance (around 70%).
→ Consistency is not a strong predictor. Problem with this is that normal people are often slightly
inconsistent even when they are truthful, often due to delay, forgetfulness, or nervousness.
→ Malingering
- Faking good: Complaint underreporting
- Faking bad: Complaint overreporting
→ Supernormality Scale-Revised: (SC-R) → Underreporting of “normal” symptoms may indicate faking
good, or supernormality. The lower the score, the higher the chance of supernormality.
Supernormality Article: Cima 2008 - Development of the Supernormality Scale- Revised and
Its Relationship with Psychopathy
Aim: address psychometric properties of the supernormality scale revised + see if its related to
psychopathy
Supernormality scale revised (SS-R) → a self report measurement which measure supernormality, the
tendency to systematically deny presence of common symptoms (eg: intrusive thoughts)
Supernormality → gross exaggeration of healthy features
- Not just of psychiatric symptoms but also common symptoms
- Differs from social desirability as it doesn't depend on social context
Malingering → faking ‘bad’, exaggeration psychiatric symptoms (eg: adult with lengthy history of
antisocial behaviour who’s facing a long prison sentence may be motivated to feign insanity in an
attempt to avoid a long and harsh incarceration
Faking good → Exaggeration of positive features (eg: when this person is already serving his time in a
mental institution; he then might be motivated by different factors. Exhibiting signs of mental illness
may prolong his stay in a mental hospital. Thus, in this context, deception may manifest itself in
minimising psychopathology.)
Relationship psychopathy & supernormality → according to DSM, there is relationship, nonetheless
results are often mixed
Study 1: properties of the SS-R
, Participants
- Forensic patients (psychiatric ⁄ criminal)
- Psychiatric patients (psychiatric ⁄ noncriminal)
- Students (nonpsychiatric ⁄ noncriminal)
- Instructed students (nonpsychiatric ⁄noncriminal)
SSR material: 56 items, 7 domains
- Social desirability
- Mood disorders
- Obsessive compulsive symptoms
- Psychotic symptoms
- Dissociative symptoms
- Aggression
- Anxiety symptoms
→ Items selected in such a way that normal people experience them on a regular basis, hence
normal people would provide positive answers on nearly all items.
→ low scores on the SS- R indicate supernormal behavior
- Paranoia Scale (PS) – self-report test containing 20 items fulfilling at least one aspect of paranoia (e.g.
belief that people are against you). It is expected that high levels of paranoia are expected to correlate
with low levels of supernormality
Results
- Reliability: test-retest reliability = good
- Internal consistency = excellent (cronbach = 0.88)
- Validity = scores significantly differed between groups (p<0.01)
- Forensic patients scored similar to instructed controls, had significantly lower scores
than those of the psychiatric patients & honestly responding controls (high
supernormality)
- Psychiatric patients scored similar to honest controls, but significantly higher than the
instructed controls (low supernormality)
- Honestly responding controls scored significantly higher than the instructed controls
- Construct validity (correlations significant, subnormality was related to paranoia)
- Supernormality was found to be moderately, but significantly related to paranoia
- Diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity = 80%; fakers identified correctly, non fakers were classified
correctly (specificity), PPP=0.88, NPP=0.86
Study 2: relationship psychopathy (PPI) & supernormality (SS-R)
- Psychopathy is characterised by superficial charm and manipulative behaviour: seems plausible
that it would be related to supernormality
Participants N = 152
- Control
- Forensic patients
Instruments:
- SS-R
- PPI
- 8 scales
- Machiavellian Egocentricity→ assesses narcissistic and ruthless attitudes in
interpersonal functioning.
- Social Potency scale → perceived ability to influence and manipulate others.
- Coldheartedness→ propensity toward callousness, guiltlessness, and lack of
sentimentality
- Carefree Non Planfulness → assesses an attitude of indifference in planning
actions
- Fearlessness → level of absence of anticipatory anxiety concerning harm and a
willingness to participate in risky activities.
- Alienation or Blame Externalization → tendency to blame others for one’s
1
1: Verbal credibility
Main lecture takeaways
→ Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA): assumes that memory of an actual experience differs in
verbal quality and content from statements that were invented.
- Around 70% accuracy rating
- This can only be used for deception and is not accurate for false memories.
→ Reality Monitoring approach (RM): Cues: Clarity/vividness, Sensory information, Spatial information,
Time information, Reconstructability, Emotions/feelings, Realism, Cognitive operations
- Applicable to any case or suspect
- Around 70% accuracy rating
→ Verifiability approach: liars often provide details that are harder to verify, whereas truth tellers can
provide details that are verifiable
→ The use-the-best heuristic: Keeping it simple, and only looking for 1 type of deception que. “Use the
best and forget the rest”. They look at detailedness and reach an accuracy significantly higher than
chance (around 70%).
→ Consistency is not a strong predictor. Problem with this is that normal people are often slightly
inconsistent even when they are truthful, often due to delay, forgetfulness, or nervousness.
→ Malingering
- Faking good: Complaint underreporting
- Faking bad: Complaint overreporting
→ Supernormality Scale-Revised: (SC-R) → Underreporting of “normal” symptoms may indicate faking
good, or supernormality. The lower the score, the higher the chance of supernormality.
Supernormality Article: Cima 2008 - Development of the Supernormality Scale- Revised and
Its Relationship with Psychopathy
Aim: address psychometric properties of the supernormality scale revised + see if its related to
psychopathy
Supernormality scale revised (SS-R) → a self report measurement which measure supernormality, the
tendency to systematically deny presence of common symptoms (eg: intrusive thoughts)
Supernormality → gross exaggeration of healthy features
- Not just of psychiatric symptoms but also common symptoms
- Differs from social desirability as it doesn't depend on social context
Malingering → faking ‘bad’, exaggeration psychiatric symptoms (eg: adult with lengthy history of
antisocial behaviour who’s facing a long prison sentence may be motivated to feign insanity in an
attempt to avoid a long and harsh incarceration
Faking good → Exaggeration of positive features (eg: when this person is already serving his time in a
mental institution; he then might be motivated by different factors. Exhibiting signs of mental illness
may prolong his stay in a mental hospital. Thus, in this context, deception may manifest itself in
minimising psychopathology.)
Relationship psychopathy & supernormality → according to DSM, there is relationship, nonetheless
results are often mixed
Study 1: properties of the SS-R
, Participants
- Forensic patients (psychiatric ⁄ criminal)
- Psychiatric patients (psychiatric ⁄ noncriminal)
- Students (nonpsychiatric ⁄ noncriminal)
- Instructed students (nonpsychiatric ⁄noncriminal)
SSR material: 56 items, 7 domains
- Social desirability
- Mood disorders
- Obsessive compulsive symptoms
- Psychotic symptoms
- Dissociative symptoms
- Aggression
- Anxiety symptoms
→ Items selected in such a way that normal people experience them on a regular basis, hence
normal people would provide positive answers on nearly all items.
→ low scores on the SS- R indicate supernormal behavior
- Paranoia Scale (PS) – self-report test containing 20 items fulfilling at least one aspect of paranoia (e.g.
belief that people are against you). It is expected that high levels of paranoia are expected to correlate
with low levels of supernormality
Results
- Reliability: test-retest reliability = good
- Internal consistency = excellent (cronbach = 0.88)
- Validity = scores significantly differed between groups (p<0.01)
- Forensic patients scored similar to instructed controls, had significantly lower scores
than those of the psychiatric patients & honestly responding controls (high
supernormality)
- Psychiatric patients scored similar to honest controls, but significantly higher than the
instructed controls (low supernormality)
- Honestly responding controls scored significantly higher than the instructed controls
- Construct validity (correlations significant, subnormality was related to paranoia)
- Supernormality was found to be moderately, but significantly related to paranoia
- Diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity = 80%; fakers identified correctly, non fakers were classified
correctly (specificity), PPP=0.88, NPP=0.86
Study 2: relationship psychopathy (PPI) & supernormality (SS-R)
- Psychopathy is characterised by superficial charm and manipulative behaviour: seems plausible
that it would be related to supernormality
Participants N = 152
- Control
- Forensic patients
Instruments:
- SS-R
- PPI
- 8 scales
- Machiavellian Egocentricity→ assesses narcissistic and ruthless attitudes in
interpersonal functioning.
- Social Potency scale → perceived ability to influence and manipulate others.
- Coldheartedness→ propensity toward callousness, guiltlessness, and lack of
sentimentality
- Carefree Non Planfulness → assesses an attitude of indifference in planning
actions
- Fearlessness → level of absence of anticipatory anxiety concerning harm and a
willingness to participate in risky activities.
- Alienation or Blame Externalization → tendency to blame others for one’s
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