ch 27. psychopathy

Question 1

history psychopathy term

Answer 1

early 19th century; Pinel; patients who behaved violently and inadequately
1940s; Milton Cleckley; combi socially abnormal behavior and personality traits

Question 2

clinical picture & diagnostics psychopathy

Answer 2

Lombroso 1867: facial features like wide jaws and deep-set eyes
1991: PCL = degree of psychopathy measured in prisoners and forensic patients
PPI= normal population personality check

Question 3

psychopathy characteristics

Answer 3

• insensitivity
• coldness
• lack of empathy
• pathological lying
• manipulation
  precursor = child conduct disorder

Question 4

prevalence and risk factors

Answer 4

1-4% normal pupulation, 15-30% international patients
men score higher on characteristics bc of masculine description

Question 5

4 models/hypothesis about aetiology neuropathology psychopathy

Answer 5

• Low Fear model (LFM) = abnormal reduced anxiety responses + coordinate behavior less as result of negative feedback
  –> looks specifically at insensitivity to punishment + sensation seeking
  criticism: would hinder moral socialization, studies dont show lowered fear response
• Response Modulation Hypothesis (RMH) Harpur &Hare (1990) = peripheral stimuli that dont receive immidiate attention are not properly processed. They dont make attention shift so that they can calculate their behavioral consequences and adapt their behavior.
  criticism; they can make this shift
• Violence Inhibition Model (VIM) Blair et al (2005) = psychopaths have disorder in Basal Threat System which is activates by grief&anxiety, consequently their violence inhibition mechanism isnt developed.
  criticism; doesnt expalin emotional and attentional disturbances
• Integrated Emotion System (IES) model Blair et al 2005 = five systems; 1. transfer sensory representations, 2. make quick decisions based on reward/punishment (valence repfresentation) –> disturbed 3. motor responses 4. response selection system based on largest possible reward 5. response-gating system activates when reward/punishment pattern is violated
  Amygdala plays large role! explains why aversive conditioning not possible in psychopaths
  = more broadly applicable

Question 6

why neuroimaging data difficult to compare

Answer 6

• definition psychopathy differs
  -collection & processing data differs
• there is almost always comorbidity
• no consensus about perfect control group
• no consensus perfect cutoff score PCL-R

Question 7

neuroimaging findings psychopathy

Answer 7

• structural deviations prefrontal-temporo-limbic structures; smaller PFC volume gray matter, amygdala, posterior hippocampal regions and superior temporal gyrus + corpus callosum larger
• lower metabolism + reduced perfusion in both temporal and frontal lobes
• smaller error related negativities (ERNs) which detect errors

Question 8

behavior & cognition psychopaths

Answer 8

• higher intelligence =/= inhibitory factor problem behavior as in normal population
• attention (deviations in shifting to non-dominant stimuli)
• learning (from rewards rather than punishment, early error detection system is weak & low error awareness)
• decisionmaking (riskier)
• social cognition (preference negative stimuli, reduced apathy abilities (respons less to others distress), cant distinguish between harming behavior or behavior that disrupts social order moral vs conventional transgression)

Question 9

why aggression in psychopaths & how to fix this

Answer 9

• lower serotonin level causes uninhibited aggressive behavior
  –> SSRIs + tryptohpan increase these levels
  –> antipsychotics block dopamine receptors
• strong positive relation testosterone and violent/antisocial behavior; psychopaths higher testosterone level