Thoroughly read all course material on the topic of psychopathy and review the scoring criteria for Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R). Then select a fictional character from a movie that you feel portrays the characteristics of a psychopath.
For this assignment you will take the 20 items outlined in the PCL-R and rate your character on the three point scale ranging from zero to two. A score of zero indicates that this trait is absent, a score of one indicates the possible presence of the trait, and a score of two indicates the definite presence of the trait. A score of 30 is considered a conservative cutoff for psychopathy. Please see your course materials for more information on the use of the PCL-R.
Your submission for this assignment will be a minimum of 1500 words and will be presented in APA format with a title page, abstract, and reference section. Please provide APA formatted citations/references for your movie and any materials reviewed. Your paper should be free of any grammatical errors and reflect college-level writing.
The review should include the following elements:
A brief summary of the movie
An explanation of why your chosen character is a good (or not so good) example of a psychopath. This explanation should address at least 10 of the 20 characteristics of a psychopath outlined by Hare in the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). It is unlikely that the movie will provide you with all the information needed to score every item on the PCL-R. Use your judgment and omit items when necessary. Where possible please give examples from the movie of why (or why not) the character meets the given criteria for each element of psychopathy
An overall PCL-R score for all 20 characteristics
A summary of how accurate this character portrays the traits of a psychopath. Were there characteristics that suggest that he or she is not a true psychopath (e.g. evidence of anxiety or guilt)?
This paper will be written on the character Norman Bates in Psycho (1960) as directed by Alfred Hitchcock.