Abstract
Most writers agree that the sociopathic personality is inflexible in behavior, immune to rewards and punishments, motivated to ward immediate rather than delayed gratification, and deficient in taking the role of the other. Agreement is based largely on observable behavior of the sociopath. Only inferences have been made regarding his cognitive organization, although the con cept of cognitive organization has been used to account for his asocial behavior. Using a sample of sociopaths and "normal" adult offenders, this study focuses on several properties of cogni tive structure. Several differences between sociopaths and non- sociopaths were observed in properties of cognitive structure as well as in the relation of the properties to one another.
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