![]() |
Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What is the difficulty in using empathy, egocentricity, or guilt as determinants in a diagnosis?
2. How do psychopaths often react to perceived insults?
3. What does the author advise readers not to do with his book?
4. How exactly does psychopathy correspond with troubled childhood?
5. What phrase did Alice's parents use to describe her behavior as a child?
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 has the author determined not to devote much of his book to psychodynamic, unconscious processes of psychopathy?
3. How do psychopaths come to be involved in crime?
4. Why is it important to determine whether a psychopath is mentally ill or simply a wrongdoer?
5. What motivates most people to abide by the rules of society?
6. What factor in Ray's behavior puzzled the author and led him to further study?
7. How do psychopaths tend to view themselves in relation to others?
8. Why are psychopathic killers often judged legally sane?
9. Why did Ray's showing a knife to the author put the author in an impossible position?
10. What are some important differences between the violent acts of psychopaths and the violent acts of other criminals?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
It has been said that "guilt is a blessing, not a curse". Using evidence from the text, write an essay for or against the proposition that guilt is an important, useful tool in our individual lives and social interactions.
Essay Topic 2
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.
Essay Topic 3
An Australian judge put a psychopathic killer into a mental institution rather than a prison on the grounds that "anyone would have to be crazy to behave in that fashion." In your essay, support or refute the argument that psychopaths are obviously mentally ill. Use information from the text to support your thesis.
This section contains 1,004 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
![]() |