An inmate peer and an adult professional were used as Es in a verbal conditioning study with sociopaths. The sociopaths were conditioned as a function of verbal reinforcement. They conditioned more readily to guilty content than to hostile content. The sociopaths emitted significantly more hostile verbs when reinforced by the adult E than when reinforced by the inmate E.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BernardJ. L.EisenmanR.Verbal conditioning of sociopaths with social and monetary reinforcement. J. Pers. soc. Psychol., 1967, 6, 203–206.
2.
BryanJ. H.KapcheR.Psychopathy and verbal conditioning. J. abnorm. Psychol., 1967, 72, 71–73.
3.
HetheringtonE. M.KlingerE.Psychopathy and punishment. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 1964, 69, 113–115.
4.
JohnsJ. A.QuayH. C.The effect of social reward in verbal conditioning in psychopathic and neurotic military offenders. J. consult. Psychol., 1962, 26, 217–220.
5.
LindquistE. F.Design and analysis of experiments in psychology and education. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1953.
6.
MosherD. L.Interaction of fear and guilt in inhibiting unacceptable behavior. J. consult. Psychol., 1965, 29, 161–167.
7.
PersonsR. W.BruningJ. L.Instrumental learning with sociopaths: a test of clinical theory. J. abnorm. Psychol., 1966, 71, 165–168.
8.
PetersonD. R.QuayH. C.CameronG. R.Personality and background factors in juvenile delinquency as inferred from questionnaire responses. J. consult. Psychol., 1959, 23, 395–399.
9.
QuayH. C.HuntW. A.Psychopathy, neuroticism, and verbal conditioning: a replication and extension. J. consult. Psychol., 1965, 29, 283.
10.
SchachterS.LataneB.Crime cognition and the autonomic nervous system. In LevineD. (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 1964. Lincoln: Univer. Nebraska Press, 1964. Pp. 221–273.
11.
TaffelC.Anxiety and the conditioning of verbal behavior. J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 1955, 51, 496–501.