The Assignment
As luck would have it, we’ve discussed the experimental literature on psychopathy in considerable detail. Moreover, you’ve all written a paper in which you discussed experimental work in support of several models of the disorder. And so, whether you believe it or not, you’re in a perfect position to begin brainstorming potential new treatment opportunities for the disorder.
That’s what your final paper is all about: I want you to use the knowledge you’ve gained in this course, including the characteristics of the disorder (written about in Assignment 1), and the scientific theories/evidence associated with the disorder (written about in Assignment 2), to identify faults in existing protocols, and to brainstorm potential avenues for improving future treatment protocols on psychopathy.
For instance, if the Response Modulation Hypothesis is correct, how might treatment programs need to change? Or what about research demonstrating that the psychopath can show neural evidence of emotion if asked to? Could this research be used to inform treatment protocols that are trying to teach the psychopath what empathy is? Or what about the fact that psychopaths don’t think there is anything wrong with them – would it be important to make them aware of this? Is that even possible?
These are all just examples, but they are good examples of the type of critical thinking that I want you to undertake. Specifically, I want you to:
1. Review existing treatment programs
2. Identify gaps/weaknesses in these programs (there are many)
3. Use what we’ve learned about psychopathy in this class to brainstorm more effective treatment opportunities
4. Explain why you believe your brainstormed ideas may improve on existing programs
Questions and Answers
1. Do I need to develop an entirely new treatment protocol from scratch? No – sometimes filling gaps in current treatment programs don’t require starting all the way from scratch. Indeed, it’s possible that certain aspects of existing protocols have strengths to them. And so it would be perfectly appropriate for you to build off an existing program, but to identify ways in which that program could become more successful.
2. Does it have to be an entire treatment protocol? Is this a treatment manual? I know some of you developed a ‘treatment manual’ in another class. This assignment is a bit different. It is not a formal treatment manual. I simply want you to develop ideas for how treatment programs could be better developed if they were to more fully consider the experimental literature on psychopathy.
3. How does that differ from a treatment manual? As this is not intended as a manual, I don’t require that you to go into step-by-step detail regarding exactly how to implement your treatment program. Rather, this is an essay, within which I want you to:
Review the existing treatment programs
Identify gaps in those programs
Use what you’ve learned about psychopathy in this course to brainstorm ways to identify more effective treatment opportunities
Explain why you believe your brainstormed ideas may improve on existing programs
4. Can I discuss an entirely new treatment idea? While you can often build off existing programs, the fact of the matter is not that much has yet been tried. And so it’s very possible that your idea will not “build off” existing programs very well at all. That’s perfectly fine. But the same thing goes with completely new brainstorms: I don’t need a step-by-step manual-style outline of the treatment. Rather, I want a broader essay that discusses what about your treatment idea will make it better than existing programs, and why.
5. Should I base this on Kuklinski? Technically this assignment doesn’t require that you directly apply your treatment program to any specific individual. That said, I believe that using Kuklinski as an example of the type of person you are trying to treat would be helpful and appropriate. So, yes, keep Kuklinski in mind as you’re brainstorming treatment opportunities. The Iceman Interviews on Richard Kuklinski: Richard Kuklinski: “The Iceman Tapes”
6. Why do you keep using the word ‘Brainstorm’? Because that’s really what I want you to do! While a few recent papers have been written, you are unlikely to find many theoretical papers specifically focused on treatments for psychopathy. They simply don’t exist. And so I really do want you to brainstorm potential treatment ideas. Think critically about the existing programs that are out there, think carefully about what is known about the disorder itself, and see if you can identify ways in which current treatment approaches can be improved.
7. How do I ‘brainstorm’ in a formal essay? While I want you to brainstorm during the idea stage of the paper, I want you to write your ideas in a formal essay style. This should flow fairly easily if you follow the four components I want in the paper:
Review the existing treatment programs
Identify gaps in those programs
Use what you’ve learned about psychopathy in this course to brainstorm ways to identify more effective treatment opportunities
Explain why you believe your brainstormed ideas may improve on existing programs
