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Forensic Psychology > Chapter 11 - Psychopaths > Flashcards

Chapter 11 - Psychopaths Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a psychopath?

A

A personality disorder defined by a collection of characteristics

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2
Q

A personality disorder defined by a collection of characteristics:

A
  • interpersonal
  • affective
  • behavioral
    (Including manipulation, lack of remorse or empathy, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviors)
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3
Q
  • Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is the most popular method of
A

assessing psychopathy in adults

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4
Q

characteristics Hare’s PCL-R

A
  • 20-item scale
  • Semi-structured interview and review of file information
  • Assesses interpersonal, affective, and behavioral features
  • Each item is given a score of 0, 1, or 2
  • Scores range from 0 to 40
  • 30 or higher is a psychopath (However, 25+ may be sufficient to indicate that someone is a psychopath)
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5
Q

What is the rate of psychopathy?

A
  • 0.6-1% of the general population
  • 15-20% of male offenders
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6
Q

Are there Self-Report Measures?

A

*Yes, there are some advantages but also some disadvantages
* E.g., easy to administer, but require self-knowledge and honesty

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7
Q

Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)

A
  • A personality disorder characterized by a history of behaviors in which the rights of others are violated
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8
Q

Symptoms of APD

A

*Repeatedly engages in criminal activity
* Dishonest
* Impulsive
* Irritable
* Irresponsibility
* Lack of remorse
* Reckless behaviours

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9
Q
  • Almost all psychopaths can be classified as having APD, but
A

most offenders diagnosed with APD are not psychopaths

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10
Q
  • APD, psychopathy, and sociopathy are used
A

interchangeably in our culture
(They are related but distinct constructs)

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11
Q

Does psychopathy work for the NCRMD (Not Criminally Responsible by reason of Mental Disorder) defense?

A

No. Psychopaths know the difference between right and wrong.

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12
Q
  • Psychopaths make up a small proportion of the population but account for
A

a large proportion of all crime committed

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13
Q

Psychopaths in crime

A

*Start their criminal careers younger

*Persist longer and commit a greater variety of crime

*Engage in more violent crime

*More likely to reoffend

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14
Q

Psychopathy and Violence

A
  • Prisons
  • Forensic Psychiatric Institutions
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15
Q

*In murder cases, psychopaths typically have

A

*multiple victims

*victims that may be strangers

*male victims

*the tendency leave the scene of the crime

*the tendency to deny responsibility

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16
Q

Psychopathic homicide offenders are more likely to engage in

A

instrumental homicide (as compared to non-psychopathic homicide offenders)

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17
Q
  • Instrumental Homicide
A

Murder to obtain a goal

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18
Q

*Psychopathic violence is more likely to be: P.I.C.C.O.N.T

A
  • Predatory
  • Instrumental
  • Callous
  • Calculated
  • Opportunistic
  • Not reactive in nature
  • Target strangers
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19
Q

Psychopaths in the Community

A

*Not all psychopaths are violent offenders

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20
Q
  • One study showed that _% of their sample of corporate professionals met the criteria for psychopathy
A

5%

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21
Q

Psychopathic professionals in the workforce tend to have

A
  • Poor management and performance appraisals
  • Better creativity
  • Stronger communication skills
  • Less likely to be team players
  • Engage in more strategic thinking
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22
Q

Psychopathy is only ______ associated with sexual offenses

A

weakly

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23
Q
  • One study reported that psychopathy was related to the number of previous ______, but not related to ________
A

-the number of previous violent offenses
-not related to previous sexual offenses

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24
Q

offenders who commit sexual homicide score _____ on psychopathy

A

higher

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25
Q
  • Compared to other sex offenders, child molesters have the ____ psychopathy scores
A

higher

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26
Q

Psychopathy and Treatment

Does treatment work?

A
  • Little research
  • Results are mixed
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27
Q

Youth who score high on PCL:YV:

A
  • Begin criminal behaviors younger
  • Engage in more violence
  • Are at greater risk to reoffend once released
  • Psychopathic traits are linked with delinquency and aggression
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28
Q

Nature versus Nurture

A
  • Nature: Innate characteristics
  • Nurture: Personal experiences and environment
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29
Q

Evidence to suggest genetic contribution to psychopathy:

A
  • Identical twins have more similar scores on Psychopathic Personality Inventory than do fraternal twins
  • Genetics seem to account for between 37% and 44% of psychopathic scores
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30
Q

Does Family Matter?

Strongest family background predictors of developing psychopathy in adulthood are

A
  • Criminal parent
  • Having an uninvolved father
  • Low family income
  • Disrupted family life
  • Experiencing physical neglect/maltreatment
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31
Q

Nature AND Nurture? – Epigenetics (the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself)

A
  • Gene must be “turned on” to be expressed
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32
Q

Psychopathy and Law Enforcement

They:

A

*Try to outwit police

*Attempt to control the interrogation

*Will not be fooled by bluffs

*Enjoy being the focus of investigation

*Attempt to shock

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33
Q

What stage occurs first in the role of memory

A

The encoding stage occurs first

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34
Q

factor: inattention (example)

A

She is not paying attention to her surroundings

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35
Q

factors: unexpectedness ( example)

A

amount of time to view environmental details
ex. Unexpectedly, there is a brief interaction between her and an unfamiliar male

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36
Q

factor: hearing others describe the same environmental details she saw (example)

A

Amanda is now a witness, and she is interviewed with several other people in the cafe by police

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37
Q

factor: the wording of the questions

A

The police officer asks Amanda a few brief questions

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38
Q

factor: the amount of time elapsed between having witnessed the event and having to retrieve the information; type of lineup procedure used

A

Amanda is called six months after the crime to examine a lineup

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39
Q

factor: relation between confidence and accuracy

A

Amanda is confident when she identifies the perpetrator

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40
Q

Give an example of the stages of memory with the example: I see an unfamiliar male. I notice he has a round face and bushy eyebrows.

A
  1. Perception/Attention Stage
    (I see an unfamiliar male. I notice he has a round face and bushy eyebrows.)
  2. Encoding Stage
    (Male, round face, bushy eyebrows)
  3. Short-term memory
    (male, full eyebrows)
  4. Long-term memory
    (male, full eyebrows)
  5. Retrieval Stage
    (What did he look like? He had full eyebrows.)
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41
Q
  1. memory is like a videotape, that is, an exact representation of what occurred.
  2. the wording of a question does not influence an eyewitness’ response.
  3. Greater stress improves an eyewitness’ memory.
  4. the race of the eyewitness and perpetrator has no impact on identification accuracy.
  5. the presence of a weapon does not impact an eyewitness’ memory.

These are?

A

Eyewitness myths

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42
Q

Recall memory

A

Reporting details of a previously witnessed event or person

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43
Q

Recognition memory:

A

Determining whether a previously seen item or person is the same as what is currently being viewed

44
Q

How do we study eyewitness issues

A

The laboratory simulation study is the most common paradigm used to study eyewitness issues.

45
Q

Estimator variables

A

Variables that are present at the time of the crime and that cannot be changed

46
Q

System variables

A

Variables that can be manipulated to increase (or decrease) eyewitness accuracy

47
Q

Open-ended recall

A

Witnesses are asked to either write or orally state all they remember about the event without the officer (or experimenter) asking questions. Also known as a free narrative

48
Q

Free narrative

A

Witnesses are asked to either write or orally state all they remember about the event without the officer (or experimenter) asking questions. Also known as open-ended recall

49
Q

Direct question recall

A

Witnesses are asked a series of specific questions about the crime or the perpetrator

50
Q

The three general dependent variables in eyewitness studies are

A

(1) recall of the event/crime
(2) recall of the perpetrator
(3) recognition of
the perpetrator.

51
Q

A witness’s recall of the crime or the perpetrator can be examined for the following:

A
  1. The amount of information reported
  2. The type of information reported
  3. The accuracy of information reported
52
Q

Memory conformity

A

When what one witness reports influences what another witness reports

53
Q

a witness’s recall report can be altered by ?

A

can be altered by the phrasing of a question

54
Q

Are the misinformation effect and the post-event information effect the same?

A

Phenomenon where a witness who is presented with inaccurate information after an event will incorporate that misinformation into a subsequent recall task. Also known as the post-event information effect

55
Q

Misinformation acceptance hypothesis

A

An explanation for the misinformation effect where the incorrect information is provided because the witness guesses what the officer or experimenter wants the response to be

56
Q

Source misattribution hypothesis

A

Explanation for the misinformation effect where the witness has two memories, the original and the misinformation; however, the witness cannot remember where each memory originated or the source of each

57
Q

Memory impairment hypothesis

A

Explanation for the misinformation effect where the original memory is replaced with the new, incorrect information

58
Q

How can the misinformation effect happen in real life?

A

A witness can be exposed to inaccurate information in a number of ways

59
Q

For example, the officer may ask the witness, “Did you see the gun?” rather than asking the more neutral question ___

A

“Did you see a gun?”

60
Q

A police officer may incorporate an erroneous detail from a previous witness’s interview. For example, the officer may ask the witness, “What was the perpetrator with the scar wearing?”

What effect does this have on the witness

A

The witness may subsequently report that the perpetrator had a scar when in fact there was none.

61
Q

A hypnotized witness may be able to produce a greater number of details than a nonhypnotized witness; this phenomenon is termed

A

hypnotically refreshed memory

62
Q

two techniques that are often used in hypnosis are

A

age regression and the television technique

63
Q

age regression

A

the witness goes back in time and re-experiences the original event

64
Q

the television technique

A

the witness imagines that he or she is watching an imaginary television screen with the events being played as they were witnessed

65
Q

Brown, Scheflin, & Hammond, 1998; Reiser, 1989; Steblay & Both- well, 1994). These reviews found that individuals under hypnosis will

A

provide more details, but those details are just as likely to be inaccurate as accurate

66
Q

The difficulty with using hypnosis

A

not being able to differentiate between the accurate and inaccurate details

67
Q

Cognitive interview

A

Interview procedure for use with eyewitnesses based on principles of memory storage and retrieval

68
Q

Compared with the “standard” police interview and hypnosis, the cognitive interview produced

A

the greatest amount of accurate information without an increase in inaccurate details.

69
Q

Enhanced cognitive interview

A

Interview procedure that includes various principles of social dynamics in addition to the memory retrieval principles used in the original cognitive interview (supportive, witness has relationship and control)

70
Q

What is most accurately reported vs inaccurately reported

A

Gender Vs Age

71
Q

the researchers found that the use of a standard (did/ did not) help witnesses to recall accurate person information

A

did not

72
Q

Target-present lineup

A

A lineup that contains the perpetrator

73
Q

Target-absent lineup

A

A lineup that does not contain the perpetrator but rather an innocent suspect

74
Q

correct identification

A

The witness can identify the guilty suspect

75
Q

foil identification

A

witness identifies a foil

76
Q

the witness may state that the perpetrator is not present

A

false rejection

77
Q

Three types of identification decisions can occur with a target-absent lineup

A

correct rejection, foil identification, false identification

78
Q

Psychopaths have been called

A

intraspecies predators : They seek vulnerable victims to use for their own benefit. Sometimes they get what they want by charming their victims, while at other times they use violence and intimidation to achieve their goals. Lacking a conscience and feelings for others, they satisfy their own selfish needs by preying on others

79
Q

Initial factor analyses of the PCL-R indicated that it consisted of two correlated factors:

A
  • Factor 1 reflects the combination of interpersonal and affective traits
  • factor 2 is a combination of unstable and socially deviant traits.
80
Q

Some researchers have argued for a three-factor model of psychopathy (Cooke & Michie, 2001). These three factors are

A

(1) arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style
(2) deficient affective experience
(3) impulsive and irresponsible behavioural style.

81
Q

Two of the most widely used self-report scales are

A

i) Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R; Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005) (154 questions)

ii) Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP; Paulhus, Neumann, & Hare, 2016) (64 questions)

82
Q

Adversarial allegiance

A

The tendency for forensic experts to be biased toward the side 􏰀defence or prosecution􏰁 that hired them

83
Q

Myths about psychopathy

A

Myth 1. Psychopaths are born, not made.
Myth 2. Once a psychopath, always a psychopath.
Myth 3. All psychopaths are violent.
Myth 4. You either are or are not a psychopath.
Myth 5. There are no female psychopaths.
Myth 6. Psychopathy and APD are different labels for the same construct.
Myth 7. Psychopaths are all intelligent.
Myth 8. Psychopaths are untreatable.
Myth 9. Psychopathic traits cannot be measured via self-report instruments.
Myth 10. Psychopaths do not know the difference between right and wrong.

84
Q

Lassez-Faire leadership style

A

provide little guidance, leader is unconcerned about employees

85
Q

Which offenders are the most psychopathic

A

Offenders who commit sexual homicides

86
Q

Treatment was associated with an ______ in violent recidivism among psychopaths

A

Treatment was associated with an increase in violent recidivism among psychopaths

87
Q

What is the faint hope clause

A

he faint hope clause and was introduced in 1976, when the death penalty was abolished and replaced by mandatory life sentences for first-degree and second-degree murder. The parole ineligibility period for first-degree murder was 25 years; for second-degree murder, it was 10 years, although the judge has the power to increase this period to up to 25 years. The underlying motivation for this clause was to provide murderers with an incentive to behave in prison, making prisons safer for correctional offic- ers, and to motivate murderers to participate in rehabilitation.

88
Q

The Hare Psychopathy Check- list: Youth Version (PCL:YV) (Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) is a rating scale designed to measure psychopathic traits and behaviours in

A

The Hare Psychopathy Check- list: Youth Version (PCL:YV) (Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) is a rating scale designed to measure psychopathic traits and behaviours in male and female adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18.

89
Q

Antisocial Process Screening Device:

A

observer rating scale to assess psychopathic traits in children

90
Q

(CU) traits

A

callous-unemotional (CU) traits

91
Q

(T/F): Children with high levels of CU traits were more likely to reject affection from their mothers and have high levels of eye contact.

A

F: Children with high levels of CU traits were more likely to reject affection from their mothers and have LOW levels of eye contact.

92
Q

What is the only type of studies that have been done to measure the heritability of psychopathic traits?

A

studies comparing identical and fraternal twins. Several twin studies have been done and all have yielded similar findings in children, adolescents, and adults. These studies point to the importance of genetic factors, but environmental factors, such as adverse family background, may influence how these innate traits are expressed.

93
Q

Children who had been abused had slightly ___ modified PCL-R scores as compared with the control sample.

A

Children who had been abused had slightly higher modified PCL-R scores as compared with the control sample.

94
Q

Another challenge for law enforcement personnel is to develop effective methods for interrogating psychopathic suspects.
What might police officers have to do to in order to appeal to the psychopaths?

A

appealing to the psychopath’s sense of grandiosity and need for status might be more productive.

95
Q

psychopathic suspects are likely to engage in the following types of behaviours during an interrogation:

A
  1. Try to outwit the interrogator
  2. Enjoy being the focus of attention
  3. Attempt to control the interrogation
  4. Will not be fooled by bluffs
  5. Attempt to shock
96
Q

Quayle (2008) offered several suggestions for interviewing a psychopathic suspect, including the following:

A
  1. Ensure case familiarity
  2. Convey experience and confidence
  3. Show liking or admiration
  4. Avoid criticism
  5. Avoid conveying emotions
97
Q

Two of the most prominent theories of psychopathy place emphasis on what 2 processes?

A

Two of the most prominent theories of psychopathy place emphasis on either cognitive or affective processes.

98
Q

Response Modulation Deficit Theory

A

A theory that suggests that psychopaths fail to use contextual cues that are peripheral to a dominant response set to modulate their behaviour

99
Q

Williamson, Harpur, and Hare (1991) what did their study find

A

the study found that psychopaths’ brain-wave activity did not differentiate between emotional and neutral words.

100
Q

These findings of emotional deficits in psychopaths have led some researchers to propose what theory?

A

an amygdala dysfunction theory (Blair, 2006, 2008)

101
Q

amygdala dysfunction theory (Blair, 2006, 2008)

A

The amygdala is part of the limbic centre, which regulates the expression of emotion and emotional memory. It is linked to many other brain regions responsible for memory, control of the autonomic nervous system, aggression, decision-making, approach and avoidance behaviour, and defence reactions.

102
Q

Psychopathy, sociopathy, and antisocial personality disorder are?

A

Psychopathy, sociopathy, and antisocial personality disorder are overlapping but distinct constructs.

103
Q

What violence do psychopaths commit?

A

They commit both reactive and instrumental violence. Most of the murders committed by psychopaths are instrumental.

104
Q

providing the wrong type of treatment to psychopaths can result in?

A

high rates of violent reoffending.

105
Q

What concerns have been raised about the potential problems with labelling youth as psychopaths?

A

(1) the issue of labelling youth as a psychopath

(2) the stability of psychopathic traits from late childhood to early adulthood

(3) the possibility that characteristics of psychopathy are common features of normally developing youth.

106
Q

Newman and his colleagues have proposed that psychopaths have a?

A

response modulation deficit

107
Q

response modulation deficit

A

psychopaths fail to use contextual cues that are peripheral to a dominant response set to modulate their behaviour

Forensic Psychology (5 decks)

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