Psychopathy Flashcards
Psychopathy
personality disorder defined by collection of interpersonal, affective and behavioral characteristics
- including manipulation, lack of remorse/empathy, impulsivity and antisocial behaviors
Hare 1993
psychopaths are “intraspecies predators”
- who charm, manipulate, intimidate, and use violence to use others for own needs
- lack conscience and remorse
- cold blooded
Murphy (1976)
descriptions exist across cultures
Inuit in Alaska
- kulangeta
- individual who repeatedly lies and cheats and steal things, takes sexual advantage of women and doesn’t pay attention to reprimands
Hervey Cleckley (1941)
mask of sanity
- 16 features
- positive (superficial charm and good intelligence, absence of delusions and anxiety)
- emotional interpersonal (lack of remorse, untruthfulness, unresponsive in interpersonal relationships)
- behavioral problems (inadequately motivated antisocial behavior, unreliability, failure to follow life plan)
PCL-R
Hare Psychopathy checklist - Revised
- by Robert Hare at UBC
-20 item rating scale that uses semi-structured interview and file review information
- 3 point scale (0,1,2) (2 applies definitely), scores 0-40
- score of 30 is cutoff
factor 1: interpersonal/affective
- grandiosity, manipulative, superficial charm/ glibness, pathological lying, lack of remorse/guilt, lack of empathy, failure to accept responsibility
factor 2: unstable/antisocial life/socially deviant
-impulsive, irresponsible, stimulation need, poor behavioral control, juvenile delinquency and early behavioral problems
other factors: ex criminal versatility, promiscuous sexual behavior, many short term marital relationships
PCL-R factor correlations
factor 1- related to instrumental violence, emotional processing deficits, dropping out of treatment and poor treatment response
factor 2- strongly related to reoffending, substance abuse, lack of education, poor family background
3 factor model of PCL-R
1- arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style
2- deficient affective experience
3- impulsive and irresponsible behavioral style
PCL:SV
screening version focuses less on criminal behavior good for general public 12 items, 2 parts 1- interpersonal/affective 2- unstable/antisocial
self -report on Psychopathy
advantages:
-measure attributes/emotions not easily observed by –others (low self esteem etc.)
-easy to administer and quick to score, inexpensive
-no concern of interrater reliability
limitations:
- lying/manipulating “duping delight”
- lack of insight
- difficulty reporting emotions never experienced
Psychopathic personality inventory revised - PPI-R
self report psychopathy scale - SRP
Psychopathic personality inventory - revised
a self report measure of psychopathic traits
- 154 item
- 8 content scales and 2 validity scales
- 2 factors; fearless dominance and self centered impulsivity
Self report psychopathy scale
a self report measure of psychopathic traits
- 64 items to assess in community samples
- 4 factors: erratic lifestyle, callous affect, interpersonal manipulation and criminal tendencies
short form - 28 items
duping delight
lying just for the fun of it
Patrick, Fowles, Krueger (2009)
triarchic model of psychopathy
- 3 main components: boldness, meanness, disinhibition
Wheeler, Book and costello, 2009
detecting vulnerable victims
- students with higher SRP scores more accurate at detecting victim vulnerability
Book et al., 2015
faking remorse
- higher story tellers scored on factor 1 traits (PPI-R), more genuine their fake stories were rated by others
Paulhus, Williams, Nathanson, 2002
defrauding a lottery
-students scoring higher on SRP were more likely to try and defraud experimenter and claim they were the true winner
Nathanson, Paulhus and Williams, 2006
cheating on exams
- psychopathic traits measured on SRP were strongest predictors of cheating
antisocial personality disorder
personality disorder characterized by a history of behavior in which the rights of others were violated
- starts in childhood and continues into adulthood
- 3-5% adult general population, 1% psych
-90% of psychopaths also have APD but only 15-20% APD have psychopathy
-50-80% of inmates
constructs are related, high correlation
- 7 symptoms including engaging in criminal behavior, risk taker, failure to be truthful, having little guilt for ones actions
sociopathy
label used to describe a person whose psychopathic traits are assumed due to environmental factors
- first coined by Patridge in 1930 for ppl who refused to adapt to society
Lykken (2006)
sociopaths manifest similar traits to psychopaths but develop these traits as result of poor parenting and other environmental factors, whereas psychopaths are predisposed to a temperament
Zinger and Forth (1998)
reviewed cases in which an expert testified about psychopathy, sociopathy or APD
- psychopathy used in Canadian courts sentencing decisions - to support youth transfer to adult court, contribute to dangerous offender hearings, determine parole eligibility and to asses mental state at time of offense hearings
- psychopathy plays a role in diverse range of criminal cases with majority of testimony regarding psychopathy being associated with increased severity of disposition
- along with Dematteo and Edens, Walsh and walsh, and Viljoen and et al.
Dematteo and edens (2006) and Walsh and Walsh 2006
reviewed cases in which PCL-R was used by expert
- PCLR use is on the rise
- introduced more by prosecution
- most often in sexually violent predator (SVP) cases
Viljoen et al, 2010
reviewed 111 American and Canadian youth offender cases of psychopathy
PCL-R and US courts
used in sexual violent predator evaluations
- death penalty sentencing - aggravating factor
- civil cases of child custody
psychopathy and insanity defense
fulfills disease of mind requirement but not the second of not appreciating the nature or quality of act or knowing that it is wrong
Psychopathy and criminal behaviour
significant predictor for future criminal behavior, particularly violence
- critical risk factor for future violence
- frequency of offending
- twice number of offenders reoffend faster, and start younger - versatility of offending
- criminal diversity/ generalist - nature of offending
- more likely to be violent and instrumental violence - stability of criminality
- persist longer
- high recidivism
- more likely to fail release conditions
sub-criminal psychopaths
no criminal behavior or contact with the CJS
- lawyers, corporate business people - high percentage
Salekin et al (1996)
meta analysis, significant relationship between psychopathy and criminal recidivism
larger relationship between psychopathy and violent recidivism
Hemphill et al (1998)
significant but equal relationship with general and violent recidivism (psychopathy)
Adversarial allegiance
tendency for experts to be biased or drift from objective findings to ratings that support the party that hired them
- scores from expert hired by prosecution are higher than those hired by defense
- with workshops on how to complete PCLR scores more accurate
Dematteo et al, 2014
defense experts reported PCL-R scores on average 7 points lower than prosecution experts
Murrie et al., 2013
showed adversarial allegiance in lab like setting
Hare (2016)
adversarial allegiance may be related to lack of training, improper use of PCLR, or “hired gun”
hired gun effect
an expert who adapts their assessment to the side that hired them ( adversarial allegiance possible explanation)
PCL-R and aboriginal offenders
moderately predictive of reoffending in both ethnic groups
- aboriginal offenders score around 3 points higher
Hart (1998)
“The two are so intimately connected that a full understanding of violence is impossible without consideration of the role played by psychopathy”
instrumental violence
perused with a clearly defined goal or is planned
- ex murdering spouse to collect insurance money
- more likely to victimize strangers
Reactive violence
perpetrated out of emotion
- ex in fit of rage
- non-psychopaths use this most
psychopathy and violence
use both instrumental and reactive violence
- more likely to use instrumental than other offenders, but majority of violence is still reactive
Williamson, Hare and Wong (1987)
non-psychopaths likely to target people they know for violence, and is likely to occur in context of strong emotional arousal
Blais et al., 2014
meta analysis of 53 studies examining association between psychopathy and types of violence in youths and adults
- both instrumental and reactive
- interpersonal factors (facet 1) - instrumental violence
- social deviance (factor 2) - reactive violence
Woodworth and Porter 2002
association between psychopathy and nature of homicide of Canadian offenders
- primarly instrumental homicides 28% (non-psychopaths), 67% (medium scores), 93% (psychopaths)
- psychopaths engage in more “cold blooded” homicides
Book, Costello and Camilleri, 2013
offenders with higher PCLR factor 1 scores more accurate at detecting victim vulnerability and reported using gait cues to rationalize their vulnerability ratings
Porter, ten Brinke, and Wilson (2009)
psychopathic offenders both sexual and non sexual were given early release more often than non-psychopathic offenders
- less successful than non-psychopathic offenders
psychopathy and the general public
- around 0.6-1.2% of people have scores of potential psychopaths ( under 13 in one study)
- 71-75% have score of 0-2
- females scored lower than males
Babiak (2000)
employees with many psychopathic features at root of many company problems
Boddy (2014)
online survey
- people with psychopathic manager had more conflict and counterproductive work behaviors and negative emotions
- cause a toxic work environment as evidenced by culture of conflict and bullying
Mathieu et al., 2015
supervisors with higher psychopathic traits more likely to use lassez-faire leadership style (little guidance, not concerned about employees) and less likely to use positive leadership style
Neuman et al., 2012
males scored higher with lifestyle traits being most prevalent and antisocial being least
- cultural factors likely to play a role in how traits are expressed
Kirkman (2005)
characteristics of male psychopaths in heterosexual relationships
- talking victim into victimization
- lying
- economic abuse
- emotional abuse/ psychological torture
- multiple infidelities
- isolation and coercion
- assault
- mistreatment of children
Leistedt and Linkowski (2015)
most films fail to depict the range of psychopathic traits, best is no country for old men
sexual homicide
homicides with a sexual component
psychopathy and sexual violence
not as strong association as general violence
- higher prevalence of psychopathy in rapists than child molesters
- mixed sexual offenders more likely to be psychopaths - highest factor 1 scores
Brown and Forth (1997)
PCLR score associated with number of prior offences but not number of prior sexual offences
motivations
- 80% of psychopathic rapists were opportunistic or vindictive, 56% non-psychopathic rapists
- psychopaths report positive emotions in 24 hours leading up to crime
Porter et al., 2003
level of sadistic violence related to PCLR scores and with interpersonal and affective features
Mokros et al., 2010
psychopathy and sexual sadism
- PCLR, affective deficits facets, antisocial facets related
sexual sadism
people who are sexually aroused by fantasies, urges or acts of inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on another person
R v. Nome (2002)
sexual assault - judge did not agree with suggested sentence and gave a harsher one
- “once a psychopath always a psychopath”
R v. Ferreira
attempted murder- served 16 years then appealed
- sentence was reduced their was a lack of psychopathy and or APD
R v. S. (J.T.)
youth transfer to adult court after scoring high on PCL:YV and adult sentence was imposed
R v. Robinson
dangerous offender hearing and psychopathy
- “no recognized effective treatment for a persons whose PCLR score is as high as appellant’s”
R v. Merrick
dangerous offender hearing and psychopathy
- low PCLR score (13-24) LTSO (long term supervision order) designation
Psychopathy treatment
overall view is pessimistic
Rice, Harris, Cormier (1992)
- treatment fails for psychopaths and can even make recidivism worse
- rates higher in treated psychopaths than non treated, opposite for non psychopaths
- used an unconventional treatment
- Wrong Treatment approaches make psychopaths worse **
Olver and Wong (2006)
psychopathic sex offender who stayed in treatment were less likely to reoffend
Olver et al., 2013
treatment was effective at reducing violent reoffending in a sample of high risk psychiatric patients with relatively high PCLR scores
section 745
faint hope clause
- request early parole for first or second degree murderers
- ex Clifford Olson serial killer, PCLR score of 38/40
- changes made to section - Bill C-48
- protecting Canadians by ending sentence discounts for multiple murders act - allows consecutive life sentences to be given to multiple murderers
Murderous minds on trial
book by Dr. Semrau and Judy Gale
- chapter on evaluation of Clifford Olson
Bill C-48
protecting Canadians by ending sentence discounts for multiple murders act - allows consecutive life sentences to be given to multiple murderers
- multiple murderers now ineligible for section 745 review
antisocial process screening device
observer rating scale to access psychopathic traits in children
- three-dimensional structure consisting of callous-unemotional factor, impulsivity factor, and narcissism factor
PCL:YV
Hare psychopathy checklist youth version
- scale designed to measure psychopathic traits in adolescents (12-18)
Murrie et al (2004)
use of psychopath label in adolescents may influence treatment decisions, social services plans, and juvenile determinations
Edens et al., 2003 and 2005
examine effect of psychopath label on death penalty trial
- adult - 2005
- juvenile defendant - 2003
- more likely to support death penalty for psychopathic traits than psychotic or none
- lack of remorse strongly associated with capital punishment
Blais and Forth (2013)
potential influence of psychopathy label
- general labelling effect not one specific to psychopathy
Psychopathy stability in Youth
APSD -stable
psychopathy
- moderate stability ages 13-24
- moderate stability childhood -48 (Bergstom et al)
- adolescence is period with largest change
PCL:YV research
more psychopathic traits
- start earlier
- engage in more violence
- higher risk of reoffending
Salekin (2002)
belief that psychopaths don’t respond to treatment unfounded and they can benefit
- overinclusion of studies in meta analysis
D’Silva et al., 2004
same conclusion as salekin 2002,
psychopaths can benefit from treatment
Caldwell et al., 2006
youth psychopathy treatment
-intensive treatment 2x less likely to violently reoffend than non-treated
Dadds et al., 2012
children with callous-unemotional traits may fail to attend to eyes of parents- leads to problems with empathy and conscience development
- high CU more likely to reject affection and have low eye contact levels with mother
Psychopathy nature vs nurture
genetic influences account for 29-59% variance between PPI scales
strong genetic influence with youth
- one study genetics explains 69% of variance
- CU traits moderately to highly heritable
Blonigen et al., 2006
identical twins more similar on PPI scores than fraternal twins
- 29-59% variance from genetic influences
Larson et al., 2006
strong genetic influence using youth psychopathic inventory
Tuvblad et al., 2014
genetic influences explain 69% variance in psychopathy scores
Viding et al., 2005
callous unemotional traits moderately to highly heritable
Psychopathy and family
psychopathic individuals report lower levels of parental care
Cambridge study in delinquent development
- age 8-48
- men scoring 10 or more, 97% convicted before, 48% of them chronic offenders (ferrington, 2006)
- best predictors were having a criminal parent, being a son whose father was uninvolved with him, low family income, disrupted family, physical neglect
Weiler and Widom (1996)
children abused or neglected before age 11 slightly higher PCLR scores
Pinizzotto and Davis (1992)
killers of police officers, 1/2 had traits/ behaviors consistent with psychopathy
Quayle (2008)
psychopaths in interrogation - try to outwit interrogator - enjoy being focus of attention - attempt to control interrogation - will not be fooled by bluffs - attempt to shock suggestions: - ensure case familiarity - convey experience and confidence - show liking or admiration - avoid criticism - avoid conveying emotions
Christopher Porco
21, convicted of first degree murder of father and attempted of mother
- showed psychopathic traits
- used wrong interrogation techniques appealed to his remorse and empathy then became confrontational with him
- did not work
Response modulation deficit theory
Newman et al., 2007
suggests psychopaths fail to use contextual cues that are peripheral to dominant response set to modulate their behavior
- why fail to learn to avoid punishment
psychopathy theories
response modulation deficit
deficit in experience of certain critical emotions that guide prosocial behavior and inhibit deviance
amygdala dysfunction
paralimbic model
Williamson, Harpur, Hare 1991
psychopaths failed to show normal faster reaction time to emotional words
Blair, Budhani, Colledge, Scott (2005)
Boys with many psychopathic traits impaired at recognizing fearful vocal affect
Patrick et al., 1993
psychopaths startle response to stimuli did not differ between neutral, positive or negative
Newman et al., 2010
emotional deficits in psychopaths can be explained by attention deficit and not due to amygdala mediated deficit
