Psychopathy Flashcards
what is the most studied forensic psych?
psychopathy
what is psychopathy?
construct that describes
an element of personality predisposing one to criminal and other antisocial behaviors
- largely guided by media
- highly criminal people have lower id
who are among the worst criminals?
psychpaths
- 10-15%
who is the construct applied to?
self-serving indiviausl
who are the successful psychopaths?
those that have the drive and determination to undergo rigors of ed and hardwork
-personality not the driving factor
- cluster b features
the diagnosis of attribute progressed from?
purely theoretical and attributional def to one base don observable behaviors
- now add reliability and validity
early thinking
no payoff for the behavior
not only criminal behavior - looks intact but aren’t
Pinel
mania sans delire
- condition in which oen demonstrates high levels of social irresponsibility despite intact intellectual fxn
Rush
hypothesize physiological basis for antisocial behavior as characteriszed bu description of a “congenital defect of moral derangement” - treatable by medicine
moral insanity
coined by Pritchard and survived until quite recently. He wrote: “The intellectual faculties appear to have
sustained little or no injury, while the disorder is manifested principally or alone in the state of the feelings, temper, or habits.”
Kraepelin
7 subtypes
-> excitable, unstable, eccentric, liar, swindler, antisocial, quarrelsome
- survive current conceptualization of psychopathy, not discreet
Kahn
14 types
- nervous, anxious…
semantic dementia
Underscored the apparent rift between words and deeds that figures prominently into the many
vignettes characterizing the behavior of psychopaths. This idea is well represented in the often quoted phrase, “They know the words but not the music”
- more objective
- say the right thing but behavior is opposite reaction
- dont have the domain of affective response and unable to empathize with others
what is the problem?
virtually impossible to generalize findings from one group to next
Mask of Sanity
provided diagnostic criteria used today
- rely heavily upon inference concerning presence or absence of essential characteristcs
= things normal person does not experience, things they should have but don’t
Cleckley’s big 16
behavioral indicators but make inferences of psych factors
- see whether construct exists or not
Big 16
- Superficial charm and good intelligence
- Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking
- Absence of nervousness or psychoneurotic manifestations
- Unreliability
- Untruthfulness and insincerity
- Lack of remorse or shame
- Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior
- Poor judgement and failure to learn by experience
- Pathological egocentricity and incapacity for love
- General poverty in major affective reactions
- Specific loss of insight
- Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations
- Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink, and sometimes without
- Suicide rarely carried out
- Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated
- Failure to follow any life plan
what does DSM classify it as?
antisocial personality disorder
ASPD
pervasive pattern of disregard for a violation of rights of others occurring since 15 and has 3 OR MORE
- in all aspects of their life
what about DSM?
- rooted in behavioral descriptions and interrelated realiability
- central badass tendency
what are the 7 points for ASPD?
(1)Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors
(2) Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure.
(3) Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead.
(4) Irritability and aggressiveness
5) Reckless disregard for safety of self or others.
(6) Consistent irresponsibility,
(7) Lack of remorse
how was the DSM diff?
- hybrid approach
- 6 personality disorders
- from cluster B (antisocial/psychopathic and borderline)
- rated on 4 pt scale but total PD rated on 5 pt
antisocial/psychpathic proposed criteria
antagonism
- callousness
-aggression
- manipulativeness
- hostility
- deceitfulness
- narcissm
disinhibtion
- irresponsible
- reckless
- impulsve
0-3 (4pts)
why is the change helpful
Reduction in diagnostic overlap
Less arbitrary diagnostic threshold
Movement from a categorical to dimensional conceptualization - categorical
Recognition that symptom severity can fluctuate over time - how severe symptoms fluctuate, fxn of enviro or opport the person is exposed to
what is a precursor to ASPD?
conduct disorder
- A repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age appropriate societal norms or rules are violated, as manifested by the presence of three (or more) of the
following criteria in the past 12 months, with at least one criterion present in the past 6 months
-> aggression to people and animals
-> destruction of property
-> deceitful or theft
-> serious violations of rules
(rarely for someone over 18)
DSM-5 CHANGES TO CONDUCT
DISORDER CRITERIA
Callous-Unemotional
Presentation qualifier. Based on…
1.Lack of Remorse or Guilt
2.Callous-Lack of Empathy
3.Unconcerned about Performance
4.Shallow or Deficient Affect
- more psychopathic, not just impulsive
Hare
advocated and standardized diagnostic scheme based on behavioral criteria and also operationalizes characteristics
-> PCL-R
what is a good interrater reliability?
ranging from 0.42 to 0.86. Total score interrater reliabilities of 0.78 when single raters administer the PCL-R, and 0.87 when the averaged scores of two-rater teams are use
what is the correlation b/w PCL-R and ASPD?
0.48
correlation between PCL-R scores and number of ASPD criteria
0.72
% of subjects who met
the PCL-R criteria for classification
as psychopaths also met DSM-III-R criteria for ASPD
79.2
what % of ASPD definable as psychpaths?
30.2
what is the best studied experimentally?
psychopathy
Lykken found that psychopaths show?
deficient passive avoidance learning compared to control
- intelligence not a factor
- could not withhold a response
mental maze
threat of painful shock = engender anxiety, successful learning taks results in fewer shocks (neg reinforcement_
- number of shocks used as index of how effectively anxiety reduction would reinforce correct responding
why was Lykken consistent with Cleckley?
psychopaths do not develop emotional responses as readily as normals
- L found psycho recevied more shocks bc no anxiety
Chesno and Kilmann
extraneous stimulation assists psychopaths in learning
- Low anxious psychopaths made significantly more active errors (those resulting from pressing
the button when numbers signalling shock were not presented) than the other groups in the 35 dB condition, but they made no more errors when the background noise was higher.
- hypothesis: receiving shocks in low noise was beneficial to the low anxious psychopaths to increase level of central stimulation
-> LIKE ADHD
Schmauk
Psychopaths performed more poorly only when punished by shock or verbal feedback. Not when
financial punishments were used.
- This is consistent with the hypothesis that electric shock may improve central arousal in psychopaths.
- It also suggests that negative punishment (i.e., taking away something they like) is more effective with psychopaths than positive punishment (i.e.,
delivering something nasty).
Siegel
Prediction: Response suppression would be poorest among psychopaths when probability of
punishment was most uncertain.
- psychopaths’ responses were significantly less suppressed than those of controls
- most of the between-group difference originated in the fifth to ninth (40% to 80% punishment) decks.
- I.e., responding was comparable when the probability of punishment was very low or very high. They differed mainly in the middle
probability range.
- Psychopaths could estimate prior payoff rates
about as accurately as controls.
-> Failure to suppress was not explainable on the basis of deficient appreciation of the risks.
-> Difference not present when forced to delay
responding
what are P300s best recorded for?
parietal area
- reflect changes in attention and underlying cortical activity that corresponds to decision making
visual oddball task
- attend and react differentially to common and low probability
- tedious and long and hard to concentrate
- smaller common P300 among pscyhopaths comapred to non
- less lateralized psychopaths but not diff in P300 to common stimuli
-? trouble allocating or reallocating attention and sustaining - ADHD
Gorenstein
similar for FL injured patients
- psychpaths suffer FL impairment
- diff on number of neurpsygoloical tests between 2
- cant assume disinhibition bc diff defintions of psychopahty = diff findings
psychopaths ___ likely to show punishment effect when monetaru penalities than when aversive stimilui applied
more
- punishment in form of response suppression as long as competing reinforcement contingencies not in place
do they integrate info?
done poorly unless forced to delay responding for even brief period
can they be differentiated from controls on tests of intellectual ability or neuropsych impairment
no
- only some diff in cognitive processes
PCL-R
20 item
- 0-2
- 30 cut-off for research purpose
- Hare: polythetic approach
- Factor analysis: interpersonal/affective and antisocial behavior, item pro-rated when info absent, interview and file review contribute info
4 facets in PCL-R
interpersonal
affective
lifestyle
antisocial
