Psychopathy Flashcards by Marijke Nawalkowski

What is psychopathy?

A personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioural characteristics, including manipulation, lack of remorse/empathy, impulsivity and antisocial behaviour. Can experience emotion, but struggle with empathy and theory of mind.

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Which groups tend to have psychopathy?

All soioeconomic groups and cultures have some form of psychopathy

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What is ASPD correlated with?

Poverty and urban settings- biopsychosocial factors that include a flat affect/expression and invulnerability to emotion.

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What are female psychopaths typically depicted as?

Lack of concern for impact of behaviour, use of sexuality to manipulate, scheming.

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What score on Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist Revised does one have to achieve to be determined as a psychopath?

30 or higher.

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What score do corporate psychopaths typically receive on the HPCLR?

20.

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What does the average person who is not a psychopath receive on the HCLR?

5-6/

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What does the HCLR assess?

Interpersonal (manipulativeness), affective (lack of remorse), and behavioural (antisocial) features.

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What percentage of the general population are psychopaths and what percentage of the prison population are psychopaths?

1% general population, 20% prison.

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What is psychopathy predictive of?

Violent recidivism- the higher you score, the higher the likelihood- 3x more likely to reoffend within 1 year.

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What are the 2 factors of psychopathy?

Factor 1: Interpersonal and affective states (psychophysiologiy)
Factor 2: Unstable and socially deviant traits

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What is betrayal trauma?

A significant betrayal in childhood contributing to a lack of empathy.

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What is Facet 1?

Interpersonal: glib and superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, conning and manipulation.

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What is facet 2?

Affective: Lack of remorse/guilt, shallow affect, callous lack of empathy, no responsibility.

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What is facet 3?

Lifestyle: Stimulation seeking, impulsivity, irresponsible, parasitic orientation, lack of realistic goals.

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What is facet 4?

Antisocial: Poor behavioural controls, early behavioural problems, juvenile delinquency, revocation of conditional release, criminal versatility.

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What other disorders are correlated with these facets?

Borderline, ADD/ADHD, substance abuse.

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What are some advantages of self-report measures like the HPCLR?

Can measure things that are not easily observed, easy to administer, inexpensive, do not require inter-rater reliability, can detect faking.

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What are some disadvantages of self-report measures?

Often can lie, manipulate, or malinger.

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What are subclinical psychopaths?

People who score under 30, but are still high.

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What are subclinical psychopaths more likely to do?

Defraud the experimenter, better at IDing vulnerable victims, more likely to cheat- business faculty has more of these.

What is antisocial personality disorder?

Characterized by a history of behaviours in which rights are violated.

What are the 7 symptoms of ASPD?

1) Engagement in criminal activity
2) Risk taking
3) Deceitful, irresponsible, impulsive (to gain profit/pleasure)
4) Little guilt for ones behaviours
5) Failure to comply with social norms and violating rights of others.

What can almost all psychopaths be classified as?

Having ASPD (offenders with ASPD are usually not psychopaths)

What are sociopaths?

More anxious, behaviour as environmentally motivated, impulsive crimes, more emotional blowups. Not an official diagnosis, falls under the umbrella of ASPD. Less due to genetics.

What are some factors for criminality in people with ASPD?

High disinhibition and meanness, lower boldness.

What are some factors for criminality in people who are psychopaths?

Higher in boldness compared to ASPD.

What are some general factors for criminality?

Disinhibition, meanness, boldness

What is the idea of adversarial allegiance?

Tendency for forensic experts to be biased towards those who hire them.

How does the adversarial allegiance affect PCL-R scores?

Scores provided by experts hired by the prosecution are higher compared to defense team experts.

What are some of the ways that psychopathy relates to criminal behaviour?

1) Start criminal careers younger 2) Persist longer/variety of crimes 3) Engage in more violent crimes 4) Recidivism more likely 5) Do not commit homicide more often than non-psychopathic offenders.

What is the most active age for psychopathy?

16-30

What is psychopathic violence typically like?

Predatory, instrumental, callous, calculated, targeted at strangers.

What are psychopathy scores typically correlated with?

younger age, male, suicide attempts when caught, violent behaviour. imprisonment, homelessness, drug dependence.

What is the weighted prelvalence of psychopathy in the community?

0.6%

What do psychopathic professionals tend to have?

1) Poor management skills and performance appraisals 2) Better creativity 3) Stronger communication skills 4) Less likely to be team players

What are some traits of the victims of psychopaths?

Talked into being victims, lied to, economically, emotionally, and psychologically abused, victims of multiple infidelities, isolated, had children who were mistreated

Psychopaths often engage in more violent offences than nonpsychopaths, but do they also engage engage in more sexual offences?

No, typically fewer.

What type of sex offender has the lowest psychopathy score?

Child molesters.

What are some traits of psychopathic sexual offenders compared to nonpsychopathic rapists?

Psychopathic: More likely to be vindictive and opportunistic Non: More likely to feel anxious prior to rape

What are the recidivism rates among untreated nonpsychopaths, treated nonpsychopaths, untreated psychopaths, and treated psychopaths respectively?

39%, 22%, 55%, and 77% respectively.

What are two ways of assessing psychopathic traits in youth?

1) Antisocial process screening device | 2) Hare Psychopathy Checklist Youth Version

What have studies found with regards to the stability of psychopathic traits in children?

Fairly high stability across a 4 year period, moderate stability in traits from ages 13-24, and moderate trait stability from childhood to age 48 with the largest change in adolescence.

What are some traits of youth who score higher on the PCL YV?

Began criminal behaviours younger, engage in more violence, and are at a greater risk to reoffend once released.

What are some genetic evidences for psychopathy?

Identical twins have more similar scores than fraternal on the PPI (psychopathic personality inventory). Genetics account for 29-59% of the variance on these subscales.

What is a possible brain environment interaction suggested for psychopathy?

Low active MAOA genotype in maltreated children- brain imaging studies show that individuals with this show arousal in brain regions associated with aggression.

What are some of the best predictors of adult psychopathy?

Having criminal parents, sons with uninvolved fathers, low family income, disrupted families, and physical neglect

Why are psychopathic suspects difficult to interrogate?

Because they will try to outwit, enjoy being the focus of the investigation, attempt to control the interrogation, will not be fooled by bluffs, attempt to shock.

What is response modulation deficit theory?

Psychopaths fail to use contextual cues that are peripheral to a dominant response set to modulate their behaviour- do not pay attention to cues that would inhibit behaviour and fail to learn to avoid punishment.

What is the affective theory of psychopathy?

Psychopaths have a deficit in the experience of certain critical emotions that guide prosocial behaviour

What did the two studies find when looking into the affective theory of psychopathy?

1) Psychopaths did not identify emotional words faster than neutral words 2) Psychopaths startle-elicited blinks did not differ in magnitude across pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral slides.

What are some neurobiological theories of psychopathy?

Brain damage, underarousal hypothesis (cortical arousal too low), cortical immaturity hypothesis, fearlessness hypothesis, Gray's model of behavioural inhibition and activation