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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Ted Bundy trick his victims into accompanying him when he was a stranger to them?

2. How well do psychopaths get along with one another?

3. How did Kenneth Bianchi convince some clinicians that he was not one of the Hillside Stranglers?

4. How did Clifford Olson become rich?

5. What was Ted Bundy's opinion of guilt?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why has the author decided that it's important to write about the technical topic of psychopathy at a level that the public can understand?

2. Why are psychopathic killers often judged legally sane?

3. Why did Ray's showing a knife to the author put the author in an impossible position?

4. In what ways are psychopaths compared to science fiction androids by the author?

5. How do psychopaths come to be involved in crime?

6. Why has the author mistrusted the results of psychological testing to identify psychopaths?

7. Without an internal motivation to abide by society's rules, what is the psychopath free to do?

8. What does William March list as some reasons good people do not readily recognize psychopathy?

9. Why has the author determined not to devote much of his book to psychodynamic, unconscious processes of psychopathy?

10. Why doesn't the psychopath's need for change and excitement make him a good candidate for dangerous jobs?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a descriptive essay detailing the characteristics of an ideal victim for a psychopath to use and manipulate. Would such a person be rich or poor? Single or married? Include as many details as you can, and support them with information from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Do you feel better prepared as a person for any encounters you may have with psychopathy in your own life after reading this book? In your essay, tell why or why not.

Essay Topic 3

Clearly, the author has an interest in promoting his Psychopathy checklist for use by mental health professionals and clinicians. But this book was not written for the scientific audience. Write an essay explaining what purpose you think the author had in presenting the results of his research to the lay public. Back up your thesis with information from the text.

(see the answer keys)

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