Lec 7/ Ch 11

Question 1

Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder

• Psychopathy
• APD
• Sociopath vs psychopathy

Answer 1

• Psychopathy: maladaptive and/or unacceptable in one’s culture; Manipulative, lack empathy, impulsive, and engage in anti-social behaviors
• APD: rights of others are violated
  
  • 80% of people in prison are diagnosed with APD
  • all psychopathic offenders have APD but offenders with ADP are not psychopaths

APD, sociopathy and psychopathy

• related constructs but distinct
• Sociopath vs psychopath
  
  • Sociopath: psychopathic traits are due to env factors
    
    • Ex. poor parenting
    • Rarely use in literature; most lit show psychopathy = genetics
  • Psychopaths: dev psychopathic traits due to genetically predisposed to a temperament that makes them difficult to socialize
• Psychopathy vs APD
• APD: focus = antisocial
• APD related psychopathy b, not the interpersonal or affective feature

Question 2

Assessment of Psychopathy

• Checkley
• Hare psychopathy checklist-revised (PCL-R)
  
  • review file info to assess 3 things
  • 3 point scale
  • Early factor analyses → 2 factors
  • Revised: 4 factor

Answer 2

Assessment of Psychopathy

• Cleckley – Empirically identified characteristics of psychopathy
• Hare psychopathy checklist-revised (PCL-R)
  
  • 20 item rating scale, semi-structure interview, review file info to assess 3 things
    
    • interpersonal b (ex. manipulativeness)
    • affective b (ex. lack remorse, shallow emo), and b
    • Psychopathic b (ex. impulsive, antisocial acts)
  • 3-point scale
    
    • 2 = definitely applies
    • 1 = apply to some extent
    • 0 = definitely does not apply
  • Items summed up to a total score from 0-40
• Early factor analyses → 2 factors
  
  • Factor 1: interpersonal + affective traits
    
    • Correlated to instrumental violence, emo deficits, drop out treatment, and poor treatment response
  • Factor 2: socially deviant traits
    
    • Related to reoffending, substance abuse, lack of edu, poor fam background
• Revised: 4 factor
  
  • 1. interpersonal
  • 2. affective
  • 3. Iifestyle
  • 4. antisocial
       *

Question 3

Self reports

• 5 pros
• 3 cons
• 2 self-report scales
  
  • PPI-R
  • SRP (match onto PCL-R - Hare)
    
    • 4 factors
    • correlate w/ 2 traits

Answer 3

Assess psychopaths w/ self report questionnaires

• 4 pros
  
  • 1. Can measure those attitudes and emo not easily observed by others (ex. feelings of low SE)
  • 2. Easy to administer (ex. online)
  • 3. quick to score
  • 4. inexpensive
  • 5. Don’t need to worry about inter-rater reliability since only the indiv is doing it
  • Although there are concerns about psychopaths lying on SR, some questionaries mv measures to detect faking good or bad
• 3 challenges
  
  • 1. Psychos lie (Ex. they may malinger (fake) to have MD to avoid facing serious sanctions
  • 2. May not have sufficient insight
       * Ex. they do not consider themselves arrogant, dominant, or opinionated, whereas others do
  • 3. It is difficult for psychopaths to report specific emotions if they have not experienced these emotions
       * Ex. if asked if they feel remorse for the suffering they have caused others: confuse empathy with regret of getting caught
• • 2 self-report scales
    
    • Psychopathic personality inventory-revised (PPI-R)
    • Self-report psychopathy scale (SRP)
• PPI-R
  
  • 154 item inventory, measure psychopathic traits in offender and community samples
  • 8 content scales, 2 validity scales (check for carelessness and +ve or -ve response styles)
  • Measure 2 factors (fearless dominance, and SC impulsivity)
• SRP
  
  • A self-report scale designed to match the factor-structure of the PCL-R (Hare)
  • 64 item
  • 4 factors
    
    • Erratic lifestyle (I am a rebellious person)
    • Callous affect (I’m more tough minded than others)
    • Interpersonal manipulation (I think I can beat a lie detector)
    • Criminal tendencies (I have been arrested by police)
  • Correlate w/ low C,A

Question 4

• how heritable are psychopathic traits
• behavioural genetics
• heritability
• 3 ways to study

Does fam matter

• prospective longitudinal study
• Farrington 2006: Men who scored 10 + → ?
• Weiler and Widon 1996: env factors of those w/ higher PCL-R scores

Answer 4

• psychopathic traits are substantially heritable
  
  • 69% of the variance in psychopathy can be attributed to genetic factors
• Behavioral genetics: the study of genetic and environmental influences on behavior
• Heritability: the contribution of genetics to the variation of a trait observed in a population

3 ways to study

• Ex. identical twins compared when raised apart
  
  • Genetic influences are constant, env vary
  • Twins are compared w/ randomly paired indiv
• Ex. fraternal twins are raised together are compared w/ identical twins raise together
• Ex. biological sibling (share half of genes) raised tougher compared w/ adoptive sibling (no genes in common, live together)

Does Family Matter?

• Use prospective longitudinal study to determine if family experiences are related to psychopathy dev
  
  • Study young kids, follow them to adult -> measure fam background v and psychopathic traits
  • This allow rs to avoid retrospective bias (tend to reconstruct past events so that they are consistent w/ one’s current beliefs) -> establish causal order
  • Few prospective studies on psychopathy
• Retrospective study: Found psychopathic ppl report lower levels of parental care (warmth, attachment)
• Farrington 2006
  
  • Cambridge study in delinquent dev
  • 40 yr prospective study of antisocial b of 410 boys in UK
  • Followed from 8 to 48 yo
  • Men who scored 10 +
    
    • 97% convicted
    • 49% were chronic offenders (convicted more than 10 times)
• Weiler and Widon 1996
  
  • 900 kids
  • Those who were abused or neglected b4 age 11 had higher PCL-R scores compared to control gp matched on age and demog v
  • Multiple env factors that contribute to psychopathy

Question 5

Psychopathy and Law Enforcement

• challenge in interrogation
  
  • can we use normal tactics, why?
  • 5 things psychopaths will do
  • Quayle 2008 – 5 suggestions to interview psychopaths

Answer 5

• Officers will come in contact w/ them -> may die
• Psychopaths engage in lots of crime → in contact w/ police often
• Half of the killers had personality and b consistent w/ psychopathy
• Challenge: difficult to interrogate them
  
  • typical tactics don’t work (ex. minimization)
  • Need to appeal to their grandiosity and need for status
  • Psychopaths will
    
    • Try to outwit them (they make think interrogation is a game to win)
    • Enjoy being the focus of attention (they act like holding a press conference)
    • Attempt to control the interrogation (they attempt to turn the tables and be the interrogator)
    • Will not be fooled by bluffs (can con others and see through interrogators’ attempt to obtain confession)
    • Attempt to shock (tell you how they have treated others)
  • Quayle 2008 – suggestions to interview psychopaths
    
    • Ensure case familiarity (interrogators need to be familiar w/ evidence to counteract psychos evasiveness and deceitfulness)
    • Convey experience and confidence (interrogators need to control the interview and create atmosphere of authority)
    • Show liking or admiration (if interrogators show they want to learn from them, this encourages them to keep talking)
    • Avoid criticism (they get hostile)
    • Avoid conveying emotions

Question 6

2 famous serial killer psychopaths

Answer 6

ted bundy

Paul Bernardo

Question 7

Treatment

• Rice et al 1992
  
  • methods 2x2
  • Violent recidivism rates
  • conclusion
• Faint hope clause - parole & murder
• Bill C-48 - parole for repeated murders
• lec: rs on psychopath treatment
• Other POV – psychanalytic perspective

Answer 7

Psychopathy and Treatment

• psychopaths have little motivation for treatment
• Some think they are treatment-resistant, some think they can recover
• Rice et al 1992
  
  • Retrospective study 2 (treatment or not) x2 (psycho or not)
  • Rs investigate effects of intensive therapeutic treatment program on violent psychos and non psycho forensic patient
  • Forensic patients who spent 2 years in treatment program (treated gp) were paired w/ forensic patients who were assessed but not admitted to the program (untreated)
  • Used file info to score all patients on PCL-R and divided them into psychopaths (25+) and nonpsychos (< 25)
  • Patients were followed up for an avg of 10 years after release
  • Violent recidivism rates
    
    • 39% for untreated nonpsychos
    • 22% for treated nonpsychos
    • 55% for untreated psychos
    • 77% for treated psychopaths
• Treatment increase in violent recidivism, among psychos
• Some clinicians concluded that we should not bother to treat psychos since treatment make them worse
• NOTE: this doesn’t mean they are untreatable; it may mean treatments for psychos have not worked so far

Section 754—The “Faint Hope Clause”

• CCC section 745
  
  • Faint hope clause: 1^st degree and 2^nd degree murderers can apply for hearing to request an earlier parole eligibility date after serving 15 yr
  • Introduced in 1976 when death penalty was abolished and replaced w/ mandatory life sentences for 1^stand 2^nd degree murder
  • Parole ineligibility period for
    
    • 1^st degree murder – 25 y
    • 2^nd degree murder – 10 y
  • Judge can increase this period up to 25 y
  • This is to provide murderers w/ an incentive to behave in prison
  • Make prisons safer for correctional officers and motivate murderers to participate in rehab
• Bill C-48: protecting Canadians by ending sentence discounts multiple murders act
  
  • Allow judge to give consecutive life sentences to ppl convicted of multiple murders (ex. serial killers)
• lec: rs on psychopath treatment
• quality of rs out there is shit → little evidence that treatment can make psychopaths worse

Other POV – psychanalytic perspective

• A Psychoanalytic Perspective - Drs. Stanton Samenow and Samuel Yochelson, suggested that criminals who undergo therapy learned to better manipulate others and are more likely to re-offend than those who do not go through therapy.

Question 8

Forensic Use of Psychopathy

• 5 psychopathy and associated constructs were used to make sentence decisions
• insanity defence & psychopathy
  
  • why is it not eligible
• Adversarial allegiance
  
  • Murrie et al 2013
    
    • method
    • results
    • 2 explanations for crown vs defence expert scores
• Myth: psychopaths do not know the difference b/w right and wrong

Answer 8

• 5 psychopathy and associated constructs were used to make sentence decisions
  
  • Testimony associated with increased severity of disposition
  • support case transfer from youth to adult court,
  • dangerous offender hearings,
  • determine parole,
  • assess MH state at time of offence hearings
• • For the insanity defence, psychopathy diagnosis
    
    • fulfils disease of mind requirement
    • Never fulfils requirement 2: not appreciate the nature of act/ knowing it is wrong
• • Adversarial allegiance: Forensic expert tend to be biased to those who hire them
    
    • Rs found that PCL-R scores from prosecution experts are higher compared to those by defence experts
    • Murrie et al 2013
      
      • Asked psychologists and psychiatrists to complete the PCL-R on offenders from case info
      • Rs deceived the MH professionals, told some they were consulting for the prosecution and some for defence
      • Results: “prosecution” professionals gave higher PCL-R scores compared to “defence” pros
    • Hare 2016
      
      • scoring differences may be due to
        
        • lack of training and improper use of PCL-R
        • some experts might be a “hired gun” (expert who adapts their assessment to the side who hires them)
        • • • Myth 7: Psychopaths are all intelligent
    • Strong association w/ psychopaths and intelligence; some are not that smart
• Myth 10: psychopaths do not know the difference b/w right and wrong
  
  • They know what is morally right and wrong but do not care

Question 9

Psychopathy and Violence

• types of crime psychopaths commit
• violence
• instrumental violence rate

Answer 9

Psychopathy and Violence

• Characteristics that help inhibit aggression and violence (ex. empathy emo bonds, internal inhibitions) are lacking/ineffective in psychopaths
• Psychos are rare but
• Psychopaths: high-density, versatile offenders
  
  • Crimes range from minor theft and fraud to murder
  • They offend younger, persist longer, more violent, more diff offences, more violence w/ institutions, more violent after release
  • But they don’t commit more homicide cases
• Nature of Psychopaths violence are different
  
  • Predatory, hv goals, calculated manner, no emo
  • Offenders who engage in instrumental violence (goal-motivated) score higher on psycho than those engage in reactive violence (impulsive, response to provocation)
  • Williamson et al 1987
    
    • Non-psychopath commit violence target ppl they know; violent b occur due to context of strong emo arousal
    • Psychopaths are more likely to target strangers, motivated by revenge or material gain
  • Blais et al 2014
    
    • Meta-analysis: psychopathy is related to both reactive and instrumental violence
    • Interpersonal feature (facet 1) were strongly related to use f instrumental violence
    • Social deviance (factor 2) most related to reactive violence
• Psychopaths use instrumental motives extends to homicides
  
  • Woodworth and porter 2002
    
    • Examine association b/w psychopathy and nature of homicides by 135 offenders
    • Used PCL-R scores to divide offenders in 3 groups
    • 1. Nonpsychopaths (PCL-R < 20)
    • 2. Moderate scorers’ (PCL-R: 20-30)
    • 3. Psychopaths (PCL-R > 30)
  • Homicides that were primarily instrumental, planned and motivated by external goal) = 30%, 70%, and 95%
  • This shows psychopaths engage in cold blooded homicides more often than nonpsychos
• Ted Bundy (notorious serial killer) can tell a victim by the way she walked down the street

Psychopaths in the Community

• Rs on community sample use self-report scales of Hare psychopathy checklist: screening version (PCL-SV)
  
  • 12-item, take less time to administer, less emphasis on criminal b than PCL-R
• General pop: psychopathy is rare
• Coid et al 2009
  
  • 300 M, 320 F
  • 1% had scores 13+; 1 person scored abv cut off score
  • 70% had no psychopathic traits
• Others: 75% of sample has scores of 2 or less, 1.2% had scores in “potential psychopathic” range (13+ range)
• F score lower than males on PCL-SL and other measures
• Not all psychopaths are violent/ end up in prison
• Easier to lose our life savings than our life to psychopath
• Babiak 2000
  
  • Consulted 6 companies undergoing big organizational chances (ex. merging, downsizing)
  • Those w/ many psychopathic features are at the root of some of the company problems
  • They were skilled at getting info on other employees, spreading rumours, causing fights among employees
  • They suck at pulling their weigh on the job
  • Good at manipulating key players in the organization and blame others for failures
• Babiak et al 2010
  
  • Assessed psychopathic traits in 200 corporate professionals
  • Avg PCL-R = 3.6
  • 8 (5%) scored abv 30 cut-off -> psychopathy
  • Professionals w/ psychopathic traits were
    
    • less likely to be team players
    • poor management skills
    • poorer performance appraisals than those w/ fewer psychopathic traits
    • more creative
    • engaged in strategic thinking
    • stronger communication skills
• Boddy 2014
  
  • Online survey: 300 senior employers
  • Ask them to assess past and current managers for psychopathic traits
  • Those w/ psychopathic manager reported
    
    • More conflict (ex. arguments, hv ppl yell at them)
    • Counterproductive work b (waster material, fail to follow instructions)
    • -ve emo (ex. anxiety, depression, anger)
  • Boddy conclude that psychopathic managers cause toxic work env
• Mathieu et al 2015
  
  • Psychopathic supervisors leadership style
  • Asked 500 civic employees, 120 bank emp to rate supervisors
  • Supervisors w/ high psychopathic traits were more likely to use Lassez-Faire leadership style (give little guidance, leader is unconcerned about employees) and less likely to use a +ve leadership style
• Neumann et al 2012
  
  • Largest study to measure psychopathic traits
  • Examine sex differences across the globe
  • Use short form SRP to measure psychopathic traits in 33k ppl across 11 countries
  • M score higher than F
  • Lifestyle traits (ex. impulsive, risk taking) are most prevalent
  • Antisocial traits (arrest history, violence) are least prevalent
  • Variations in psychopathic traits suggest cultural factors influence expression
• One area lack rs: victims of psychopaths
• There is only 1 published study exploring the experiences of victims of psychos
• Kirkman 2005
  
  • Interviewed 20 F victims
  • Identify b and personality characteristics of nonincarcerated psycho M
  • 8 characteristics in male psychos in heterosexual relationships
  • 1. Talking victim into victimization
  • 2. Lying
  • 3. Economic abuse
  • 4. Emo abuse/psycho torture
  • 5. Multiple infidelities
  • 6. Isolation an coercion
  • 7. Assault
  • 8. Mistreatment of kids

Question 10

Psychopathy and Sexual Violence

• generally speaking
• Sexual homicides
• Child molestors

Answer 10

Psychopathy and Sexual Violence

• Psychopathy is associated w/ violent offences, not as strongly w/ sexual offences
• child molesters: not many psychopathic traits
• commit sexual homicides - most psychopathic
  
  • -> then mixed sexual offenders (those sexually assault both kids and adults)
  • -> then rapists
  • Lowest score among child molesters

Question 11

Psychopathy in Youth

• 2 instruments
• treatment
• label stigma

Answer 11

• 2 instruments developed to identify psycho traits early on (adapted from PCL-R)
• antisocial process screening device (APSD)
  
  • Parents or teachers assign ratings
  • kids
  • Has 3 dimensional structure:
    
    • Callous unemotional
    • Impulsivity
    • narc
• For teens: Hare psychopathy checklist version (PCL: YV)
  
  • 12-18 yo
• One aspect of psychopathy in youth that differ from adult is youth w/ psychopathic traits may be more responsive to interventions
• Psychopathy Label: The Potential for Stigma
• Demonstrated general labelling effect

Question 12

What Makes Them Tick? Cognitive and Affective Models of Psychopathy

• response modulation deficit theory
• emo
• amygdala

Answer 12

Response modulation deficit theory: fail to use env cues to modulate their b

• When they are engaging in specific rewarded b, they will not pay attention to other info that may inhibit b (ex. not sensitive to punishment)
• Theory 2: can’t experience critical emo that motivate prosocial b and inhibit deviance
• Other proposed theories
  
  • Amygdala dysfunction theory
    
    • Amygdala regulates expression of emo and emo memory
    • Linked to many brain regions responsible for memory, control of ANS, aggression, etc
  • Paralimbic model
  • Attention deficit theory (not due to amygdala deficit)