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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. What did John Wayne Gacy say about his career murdering thirty-three people?

2. What impression do astute observers sometimes get about psychopaths?

3. What is the most common effect of psychopaths on their victims?

4. What phrase did Alice's parents use to describe her behavior as a child?

5. How did Ray take revenge on the author for not getting him work in his father's firm?

Short Essay Questions

1. What distinguishes psychopaths who become criminals?

2. What motivates most people to abide by the rules of society?

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

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

5. Why is it important to determine whether a psychopath is mentally ill or simply a wrongdoer?

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

7. How are psychopaths often able to pass themselves off as experts?

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

9. 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?

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

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 2

Imagine that you have a friend whose new romantic interest appears to you to be a psychopath. You know that if you directly make this suggestion to your friend, your friendship will be at an end. Write an essay on the nature of psychopathy that you could show your friend in hopes that s/he would see the similarities between the cases to which you refer and her own situation. Feel free to invent the facts of your friend's situation, remembering that those facts have to demonstrate psychopathy.

Essay Topic 3

Consider the grey boxes in this book. What do you think was the author's purpose for including these anecdotal materials? Do you think that if he were writing for a professional, rather than a lay audience, he would have included the boxed material? Do you think it contributes to your understanding or interest in the text? In your essay, give your opinion regarding the purpose and effectiveness of the boxed material.

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