Lifespan Psychopathy Flashcards
1
Q
Hervey Cleckley Influence in the Field of Psycopathy
A
- Created a set of criteria for the characteristics of psychopathy based on his experiences with psychiatric patients
- He narrowed the psychopathy construct, including positive adjustment, chronic behavioural deviance, emotional-interpersonal deficits
- Forms basis for modern conceptualisations
2
Q
Positive Adjustment (Cleckley)
A
- Superficial charm and good “intelligence”
- Absence of delusions/irrational thinking
- Absence of nervousness, anxiety or neuroses
- Would rarely carry out suicide
3
Q
Chronic Behavioural Deviance
A
- Inadequately motivated antisocial behaviour
- Poor judgement / failure to learn from experience
- May be told something is wrong or punished for it but they continue to do it despite
- Unreliability
- Fantastic and uninviting behaviour with/without drinking
- Sex life impersonal, trivial, poorly integrated
- Failure to follow any life plan
4
Q
Emotional-interpersonal deficits
A
- Thought to be the most core symptom of psychopathy
- Untruthfulness and insincerity
- Lack of remorse or shame, which is most recognised
- General poverty in major affective reactions
- Pathological egocentricity and incapability for love
- Specific loss of insight
- Unresponsiveness in
general interpersonal relations, they may be living their lives like healthy human beings but their emotional experiences are not typical
5
Q
Prevalence of Psychopathy
A
- 1% of people have psychopathic traits in comparison with antisocial behaviour being about 10%
- These 1% are causing more than $460 billion societal costs because of the crimes they commit, the cost of health services and damage to victims etc
Of all criminal offenders:
- 50-90% have antisocial personality disorder
- 16-25% of this group have psychopathy
- 4% of white collar “successful psychopaths” outside of criminal settings
6
Q
DSM Definition of Antisocial Personality Disorder
A
- Pervasive pattern of disregard for/violation of others’ rights occurring since age 15 (3 or more):
- Repeated criminal behaviour
- Repeated lying or conning of others
- Impulsivity or poor planning
- Irritability and aggressive behaviour
- Reckless disregard for others’ safety
- Chronic irresponsibility
- Lack of remorse (this has come under controversy because people believe this should only be specific to psychopathy)
7
Q
Robert Hare Influence on the Field of Psychopathy
A
- Developed the psychopathy checklist (PCL) and its derivatives
- Connected Cleckley’s clinical work in a structured, standardised system for prison measures
- Addressed lack of objective psychopathy measures
- Initially validated in relation to global and checklist measures of Cleckley psychopathy
- 1980, revised in 1991
8
Q
How is the Psychopathy Checklist by Robert Hare Assessed?
A
- Semi-structured face to face interview covering a lot of the domains of their life
- Pick up elements that might be consistent with 20 different criteria
- Supplemented by detailed review of institutional file material (there is a lot of dishonesty, so you cannot verify what they say)
9
Q
The Basics of Scoring the PCL-R
A
Each item scored on a 3 point scale
- 0 = item does not apply to individual
- 1 = item applies to individual but only somewhat, or mixed evidence
- 2 = item describes individual in most respects
Item scores summed to generate total and factor scores
- 30+ psychopath
- 21-29 intermediate
- <20 non-psychopath
- Not particularly a scientific measure, arbitrary choice
10
Q
PCL-R: Items and Structure
A
- Psychopathy split between factor 1 (interpersonal facet - affective facet) and factor 2 (lifestyle facet - antisocial facet)
- Sometimes argued
11
Q
Paul Frick and Measuring Youth Psychopathy
A
1st Gen Instrument: Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD)
- found that what predicted it most in children was in the affective domain
- callous-unemotional traits (CU) subscale
12
Q
The Development of Adding a Classification for CU Traits
A
a lot of children from ODD or CD had some slightly distinct enough traits to warrant new classification
13
Q
CU Traits and Police Contact
A
- Groups with CU traits and conduct disorder had the largest contact with the police
- Kids with conduct disorders plus CU traits, their conduct problems are more severe, engaging at all different sides of delinquency, started delinquency much earlier, more proactive and reactive aggression
- More likely to have ASPD as adults, and more likely to have psychopathy
- CU increases risk
- “Punishment doesn’t work”
14
Q
Reactive VS Proactive
A
- reacting
- bullying, planned, hurting others for no personal defence
15
Q
High PCL Scorers are:
A
- Disproportionate criminal involvement- versatile offenders
- Most severe and violent - predatory aggression
Predictor of future violence and criminal involvement - general and violent recidivism - nonviolent and violent infractions
- Unique causal factors
- Poor response to treatment
