Chapter 11: Psychopaths Flashcards
psychopathy
a personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioural characteristics, including manipulation, lack of remorse or empathy, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviours
Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)
a 20-item rating scale that uses a semi-structured interview and a review of file information to assess interpersonal, affective, and behavioural features of psychopathy
what is the most popular rater-based method of assessing psychopathy in adults?
PCL-R
Interpersonal aspects of psychopathy
grandiosity, manipulativeness
Affective aspects of psychopathy
lack of remorse, shallow emotions
Behavioural aspects of psychopathy
impulsivity, antisocial acts
2 correlated factors of the PCL-R
- The combination of interpersonal and affective traits
- A combination of unstable and socially deviant traits
factor 1 of the PCL-R is associated with ___
instrumental violence, emotional-processing deficits, dropping out of treatment, and poor treatment response
factor 2 of the PCL-R is associated with ___
reoffending, substance abuse, lack of education, and poor family background
3 pronged model of psychopathy
- Arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style
- Deficient affective experience
- Impulsive and irresponsible behavioural style
4th proposed factor of psychopathy
antisocial items
Advantages of self-report measures
- They can measure attitudes and emotions that are not easily observed by others
- They are easy to administer
- You don’t have to worry about integrated reliability
- Some questionnaires include measures of faking good or bad
Challenges of self-report measures
- Psychopaths often lie
- Psychopaths may not have sufficient insight to accurately assess their traits
- It will be difficult for psychopaths to report on specific emotions if they have not experienced those emotions
Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PRI-R)
- A 154-item self-report inventory designed to measure psychopathic traits in offender and community samples
- Measures fearless dominance and self-centred impulsivity
Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP)
a 58-item self-report scale that measures boldness, meanness, and disinhibition
Antisocial personality disorder (APD)
a personality disorder characterized by a history of behaviour in which the rights of others are violated
sociopathy
a label used to describe a person whose psychopathic traits are assumed to be due to environmental factors
antisocial personality disorder vs. psychopathy
- Antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy overlap
- Nearly all psychopathic offenders meet the diagnostic criteria for APD, but most offenders diagnosed with APD are not psychopaths
- 60-80% of adult offenders in prison have APD, but only 10-25% are psychopaths
Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV)
a 12-item version of the PCL-R that takes less time to administer and places less emphasis on criminal behaviour for scoring
prevalence of psychopathy in the community
Psychopathy is very rare in the general population (approximately 0.6 %)
prevalence of psychopathy by gender
Females consistently score lower than males on the PCL: SV
Babiak, 2000 psychopaths in organizations study
investigated companies undergoing dramatic organizational change. He found that employees with many psychopathic features were at the root of some of the company’s problems
Babiak et al., 2010 psychopaths in the corporate world study
assessed psychopathic traits in corporate professionals. They found that the professionals with psychopathic traits were less likely to be team players, had poorer management skills, and had poorer performance appraisals than professionals with few psychopathic traits. However, the more psychopathic professionals were more creative, engaged in more strategic thinking, and had stronger communication skills than the less psychopathic professionals
Boddy, 2014 psychopaths in the white-collar world study
senior-white collar employees in Britain reported more conflict, counterproductive work behaviours, and negative emotions if they had a psychopathic manager
Neumann et al., 2012 psychopaths in the community study
used a short form of the SRP to measure psychopathic traits in 33,000 people across the world. They found that males scored higher than females, with lifestyle traits being most prevalent and antisocial traits being least prevalent. There were variations in psychopathic traits, suggesting that cultural factors play a role in how psychopathic traits are expressed
Smith et al., 2014 general knowledge about psychopathy study
asked U.S. citizens called in for jury duty to provide examples of psychopathic individuals in society, to indicate where they got information about psychopathy and to identify features of psychopathy. They found that the majority of participants identified serial, mass murders, or fictional characters. The most common source of information about psychopathy came from movies and TV. many participants had an accurate understanding of the range of psychopathic traits, but some described symptoms of psychosis
Eight characteristics of male psychopaths in heterosexual relationships
1.Talking the victim into victimization
2. Lying
3. Economic abuse
4. Emotional abuse/psychological torture
5. Multiple infidelities
6. Isolation and coercion
7. Assault
8. Mistreatment of children
psychopathy and law enforcement
- Psychopathy is one of the greatest challenges in law enforcement
- Psychopaths engage in higher rates of crime, including violent offences
psychopathy in police officer killers
Almost half of the killers of police officers had personality and behavioural features consistent with psychopathy
manifestations of impulsivity
Impulsivity can be manifested at the crime scene by injury pattern to the victim, choice of weapon, and the time and location of the crime
manifestations of charm and manipulation
Charm and manipulation can be manifested at the crime scene by using a con to minimize the threat they pose when approaching a victim
what behaviours are psychopaths more likely to engage in during an interrogation?
- Try to outwit the interrogator
- Enjoy being the focus of attention
- Attempt to control the interrogation
- Will not be followed by bluffs
- Attempt to shock
Suggestions for interviewing a psychopathic suspect
- Ensure case familiarity
- Convey experience and confidence
- Show liking or admiration
- Avoid criticism
- Avoid conveying emotions
Rice et al., 1992 psychopathy intervention program study
investigated the effects of an intensive therapeutic treatment program on violent psychopathic and nonpsychopathic forensic psychiatric patients. They found that treatment was associated with a reduction in violent recidivism among non-psychopaths but an increase in violent recidivism among psychopaths
Reasons why a treatment may not work
- The use of an inappropriate treatment
- Problems in implementing the treatment
Sewall & Olver, 201 psychopathy intervention in sex offenders study
found that psychopathic sex offenders who stayed in treatment and showed positive treatment gains were less likely to violently re-offend. The affective deficits facet of psychopathy was most strongly related to dropping out of treatment.
Olver et al., 2013 effective psychopathy treatments study
found that treatment is effective at reducing violent reoffending in psychopaths. The most effective treatment programs for offenders with psychopathic traits are those that are intensive, target the criminogenic needs of the offender, and use a cognitive behavioural approach
Criminogenic needs
risk factors that are related to why an offender engages in criminal behaviour
Current assumption in youth psychopathy
psychopathy does not suddenly appear in adulthood but instead gradually develops from various environmental and biological antecedents
Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD)
observer rating scale to assess psychopathic traits in children
3 factors of the APSD
- Callous-unemotional factor
- Impulsivity factor
- Narcissism factor
Hare Psychopathy Checklist Youth Version (PLC: YV)
a rating scale designed to measure psychopathic traits in adolescents
Edens et al., 2005 psychopathy and support of the death penalty study
found that mock jurors were more likely to support the death penalty for a psychopathic defendant than for a psychotic or non-disordered defendant
Edens et al., 2003 psychopathy and support of the death penalty in youth study
presented mock jurors with two versions of a modified newspaper clipping about a 16-year-old facing the death penalty: one where he was described as having psychopathic traits, and the other where he was remorseful. They found that mock jurors presented with the psychopathic traits version were more likely to support the death penalty and to be less supportive of the defendant receiving intervention in prison. Jurors were also less likely to support the death penalty for juveniles than for adults
Edens et al., 2013 capital punishment and psychopathy study
found that Texas undergraduates were more likely to support capital punishment if the defendant was described as being psychopathic. The one trait that was most strongly associated with capital punishment was a lack of remorse.
Blais & Forth, 2013 impacts of being labelled a psychopath study
investigated the potential influence of a diagnosis vs. conduct disorder vs. no diagnosis on mock undergraduate jurors in Canada. Defendants described as psychopaths were rated as less credible compared to other defendants. Defendants described as diagnosed with conduct disorder/antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy were more likely to be found guilty and were rated as a higher risk for future violence and recidivism. Neither age nor sex of the defendant influenced mock jurors’ ratings
stability of psychopathic traits in youth
There is a moderate level of stability of psychopathic traits in youth
prevalence of psychopathic traits in youth
Psychopathic traits are very low in community youth
unemotional dimension of the APSD and outcomes study
Boys who score high on the callous/unemotional dimension of the APSD have more police contacts, more conduct problems, and are more likely to have a parent with APD than are children who score low on this dimension
Adolescents with psychopathic traits are more likely to _____
- become involved in criminal behaviours at an earlier age
- engage in more violence in institutions and the community
- are at a higher risk of reoffending once released
PCL: YV in female offenders
Some research has questioned the validity of the PCL: YV to predict violence in adolescent female offenders
is youth psychopathy responsive to interventions?
Youth psychopathy may be more responsive to interventions
Caldwell et al., 2006 youth psychopathy interventions study
compared the treatment outcomes of youth who were given intensive treatment at a juvenile treatment centre for psychopathy and those who were given treatment at a juvenile correction centre. Youth who were released from the correctional centre violently reoffended at twice the rate in a two-year follow-up as compared with the youth receiving intensive treatment at the treatment centre
Dads et al., 2014 parental affection and psychopathy study
observed mothers interacting with their children and measured eye contact and affection. Found that children with high levels of CU traits were more likely to reject affection from their mothers and have low levels of eye contact
Dads et al., 2014 study takeaway
children with CU traits may fail to attend to the eyes of their parents, which leads to problems with the development of empathy and conscience
Parent-child interaction therapy
an intervention that focuses on increasing the parent-child relationship using positive reinforcements and teaching positive parenting strategies
impact of parent-child interaction therapy
Parents reported they were very satisfied with the program and there were decreased child conduct problems and increases in empathy
how do researchers study the nature-nurture debate?
- In research designed to tease apart the nature-nurture debate, researchers try to hold either genes or the environment constant
- Ex. comparing identical twins raised in different environments and biological and adoptive siblings living in the same environment
genetic influence on PPI subscales
Genetic influences account for 29-59% of the variance for each of the different PPI subscales
genetic influence on psychopathy
A recent U.S. study found that genetic influences explain 69% of the variance in psychopathy scores
prospective longitudinal studies
study a group of young children and follow them into adulthood, measuring family background variables and psychopathic traits
strengths of prospective longitudinal studies
allow researchers to avoid retrospective bias and establish causal order
retrospective bias
the tendency to reconstruct past events so that they are consistent with an individual’s current beliefs
parental care in psychopathic individuals
Retrospective studies show that psychopathic individuals report lower levels of parental care
The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development
a 40-year prospective study of antisocial behaviour of 411 boys. They found that the best predictors of adult psychopathy were having a criminal father or mother, being a son whose father was uninvolved with him, having a low family income, coming from a disrupted family, and experiencing physical neglect
Weiler & Wisdom, 1996 abuse and PCL-R study
found that children who had been abused had slightly higher modified PCL-R scores as compared with the control sample.
conclusion of nature-nurture research in psychopathy
Current research shows that there are multiple developmental pathways to the development of psychopathy
2 main theories of psychopathy
Response modulation deficit theory & emotional deficit theory
Response modulation deficit theory
A theory that suggests psychopaths fail to use contextual cues that are peripheral to a dominant response set to modulate their behaviour
what theory has been used to explain why psychopaths fail to learn to avoid punishment?
Response modulation deficit theory
emotional deficit theory
Proposes that psychopaths have a deficit in the experience of certain emotions that guide prosocial behaviour and inhibit deviance
lexical-decision task
A task used in cognitive and linguistic experiments that measures how fast people classify stimuli as words or nonwords
Williamson et al., 1991 lexical-decision task in psychopaths study
administered a lexical-decision task to psychopathics and nonpsychopathic offenders. In this task, emotional and neutral words and nonwords. were presented briefly on a screen and participants indicated as quickly as possible whether what was on the screen was a word. When the word was emotional, non-psychopaths were able to do this task faster than if the word was neutral. However, psychopaths failed to show a normal, faster reaction time to emotional words. In addition, the study found that psychopaths’ brainwave activity did not differentiate between emotional and neutral words.
what theory does the Williamson lexical-decision study support?
emotional deficit theory
Blair et al., 2005 recognizing emotions in psychopathic children study
asked children to identify the emotions in neutral words spoken with intonations conveying happiness, disgust, anger, sadness, and fear. Boys with many psychopathic traits were impaired at recognizing fearful vocal affect
Patrick et al., 1993 startle reflexes in psychopaths study
compared startle reflexes of psychopathic and nonpsychopathic sexual offenders to slides of positive, neutral, and negative stimuli. The startle-elicited blinks of nonpsycho- pathic offenders were smaller when watching positive slides, moderate when watching neutral slides, and enhanced when watching negative slides. In contrast, the psychopathic offenders’ startle-elicited blink did not differ in magnitude across the different types of slides
amygdala
Part of the limbic centre of the brain, which regulates the expression of emotion and emotional memory
amygdala dysfunction theory of psychopathy
Some researchers propose an amygdala dysfunction theory of psychopathy, which argues that a dysfunction in the amygdala is responsible for psychopaths’ blunted emotional reactions
