a psychological test
April 28, 2005
the mother of a woman died. at her mother's funeral the woman spotted a devilishly handsome man. the woman knew almost instantaneously that she had fallen in love with the handsome stranger, but she did not have a chance to speak with him or even catch his name. over the next few days she was extremely frustrated that she had not reunited with her newly found love.
two days later the woman killed her sister. why did she kill her sister? (think about this for a minute before proceeding.)
she killed her sister because she wanted the man to attend her sister's funeral so that she could see him once again.
this was just a little, very unofficial "test" to see if you think like a psychopath. psychopathy is a type of antisocial personality disorder that is characterized by a lack of sympathy, empathy, fear and/or guilt, and by an apparent disregard for the conequences of one's actions.
my abnormal psychology professor read this little vignette aloud to the lecture hall full of 250 students the other day. a few students voiced their opinions as to why the woman would kill her sister and of the incorrect responses there was one that seemed most popular: that the sister was the man's lover and the woman felt envious of their relationship. my thought (although i didn't voice it, because i never speak in class) was that the woman displaced her intense anger from the situation of being unable to contact the man by killing her sister. only one girl got the correct answer, and at that point i vowed never to sit next to her (kidding).
it seems interesting that a classroom full of (mostly) psychology majors didn't even think about one of the most simple reasons for the odd behavior... or is it even that simple? of course it would be simple or routine for your neighborhood psychopath to think in this inconsequential and unremorseful manner, but i think it's quite the positive when "normal" people aren't able develop these kinds of dysfunctional thought processes—and it's good to know that there's only one psychopath in my class (kidding again).
the discomforting thing is that the malicious style of thinking makes sense when you hear the answer, no?
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