The Psychology of Dexter - Bella DePaulo [111]
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Hawes and Dadds, “The treatment of conduct problems in children with callous-unemotional traits,” Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 2005.
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Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group, 2004.
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A note about those used car salespeople: they really are good liars! My brother Peter DePaulo and I learned this when we made videotapes of experienced salespeople pitching products they really did like and also pitching products they hated (but had to try to sell anyway). We showed those tapes to more than 100 people and asked them how deceptive they thought the salespeople were in each of their pitches. The salespersons were seamless. The observers noticed no difference at all in how deceptive the salespeople seemed when they were claiming that some car they hated was terrific than when they were honestly praising a car they loved.
14
In the research literature, the terms “work-family balance” and “work-nonwork balance” are more common. I’ve chosen the less precise but more generally descriptive term “work-life balance” because for much of the early run of the series, what Dexter does outside of work is rarely either “family” or “non-work” as we might understand the terms. My choice of wording isn’t meant to imply that work is not a part of life, since obviously it is—Dexter is just a very special case, for a variety of reasons!I
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Merton, R. K., “The self-fulfilling prophecy,” The Antioch Review, Vol. 8, 1948; Merton, R. K., Social theory and social structure, 1957.
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Darley, J. M. and R. H. Fazio, “Expectancy confirmation processes arising in the social-interaction sequence,” American Psychologist, Vol. 35, 1980; Snyder, M., and A. A. Stukas, Jr., “Self-fulfilling prophecy,” Encyclopedia of Psychology, Vol. 7, 2000.
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James, W., Psychology: The Briefer Course, 1892/1985.
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Higgins, E. T., “Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect,” Psychological Review, Vol. 94, 1987.
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Carver, C. S., J. W. Lawrence, and M. F. Scheier, “Self-discrepancies and affect: Introducing the role of feared selves,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 25, 1999.
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Marcia, J. E., “Development and validation of ego-identity status,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 3, 1965.
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Winslow, M. P., “Reactions to the imputation of prejudice,” Basic and Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 26, 2004.
22
This sort of disguise is not unheard of in the real world of serial killing, as evidenced by two current cases: in Brazil, a retired police sergeant is the prime suspect in the killings of thirteen gay men; in Canada, the former commanding officer of a major air force base is charged with the murders and sexual assaults of four women, as well as scores of robberies. Nor is it unusual to find serial killers employed as health care professionals.
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Aron, A., E. N. Aron, M. Tudor, and G. Nelson, “Close relationships as including other in the self,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 60, 1991.
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Festinger, L., A. Pepitone, and T. Newcomb, “Some consequences of deindividuation in a group,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. 47, 1952.
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Brenner, M. “Caring, love, and selective memory.” Proceedings of the 79th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Vol. 6 (Part 1), 1971. See also Aron, et al., 1991, Experiment 2.
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Cialdini, R. B., S. L. Brown, B. P. Lewis, C. Luce, and S. L. Neuberg, “Reinterpreting the empathy-altruism relationship: When one into one equals oneness,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 73, 1997.
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Buber, M. Ich und Du [I and Thou]. 1923/2004.
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When, upon seeing his vigilante killing spree represented heroically in a comic book, Dexter began having visions of himself as the “Dark Defender,” a killer superhero who manages to save his own mother from being murdered, he was displaying a textbook narcissist fantasy although, based on his typical behavioral patterns, he himself would