Psychopathy Flashcards
1
Q
What is psychopathy?
A
- Interpersonal factors
- Affective factors
- Lifestyle factors
- Antisocial factors
+ Promiscuous sexual behaviour and many short-term marital relationships
Not in the DSM! Falls under antisocial personality disorder - ASPD only has interpersonal traits
2
Q
Interpersonal factors
A
- Glibness, superficial charm
- Grandiose sense of self-worth
- Pathological lying
- Conning, manipulative
3
Q
Affective factors
A
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Shallow effect
- Callous, lack of empathy
- Failure to accept responsibility
4
Q
Lifestyle factors
A
- Need for stimulation
- Parasitic lifestyle
- Lack of realistic long-term goals
- Impulsivity
- Irresponsibility
5
Q
Antisocial factors
A
- Poor behavioural control
- Early behavioural problems
- Juvenile delinquency
- Revocation of conditional release
- Criminal versatility
6
Q
How do you measure psychopathy?
A
PCL-R:
- 20 questions with score from 0 to 2
- Score above 25/29 = Psychopathy
- Helps predict recidivism, chances of treatment and behaviour once incarcerated
7
Q
Neurobiology of psychopathy
A
- PFC
- Amygdala Experiencing emotions Less activation in moral reasoning tasks
- Striatum Reward-seeking, impulsive behaviour Affective and antisocial factors of psychopathy
- When given a moral question, it appears that the psychopath recruits frontal areas to mimic his dysfunctional paralimbic areas
8
Q
PFC
A
- Social, moral, emotional and cognitive processes
- VMPFC and OFC = Decision-making process (especially emotional)
- VMPFC = Moral behaviour
- Anterior cingulate cortex = Error detection, reward anticipation and emotion regulation
9
Q
Treatment
A
- Schema-focused therapy (= decompression therapy)
- Remodel maladaptive schemas into healthy ones
- Intense - Treatment works best if patient is young
- Early environmental enrichment programs
- Group therapy is not a good idea
