Psycopathy

Question 1

who first described psycopathy and what did they describe it as?

Answer 1

Prichard (1835)- ‘individuals who are morally insane’

Question 2

what are the subtypes of psychopathy?

Answer 2

Primary psychopathy- born with a predisposition to interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy.
Secondary psychopathy- acquired deficits associated with psychopathy following negative life events.

Question 3

what is needed for an assesment of psychopathy?

Answer 3

, is designed to evaluate the recognized characteristics of psychopathic personality and behavior

Psychopathy Check List Revised (PCL-R)- Assessment- Hare 1991:
A) Interpersonal/ affective:
1. Interpersonal- superficial charm, grandiose self-worth, pathological lying, manipulative.
2. Affective- lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect, lack of empathy, failure to accept responsibility for actions
B) Social Deviance
1. Lifestyle- need for stimulation, parasitic lifestyle, lack of realistic long term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility.
2. Antisocial- poor behavioural controls, early behavioural problems, juvenile delinquency, criminal versatility, revocation of condition.

Question 4

what does DSM-V list psychopathy as

Answer 4

For the very first time, the APA recognized psychopathy as a “specifier” of clinical antisocial personality disorder in the DSM-5, although psychopathy is still not an officially accepted clinical diagnosis.

Question 5

who suggested that those with psychopathic traits had problems with impulse control

Answer 5

Christian et al., 1997

Question 6

what do those with psychopathy lack fear to and study to support this

Answer 6

Lack of fear to threatening stimuli:
• Kimonis et al., 2006:
o Examined aggression psychopathy traits and processing of negative emotion stimuli in children.
o Those with high scores on psychopathy and aggression had a reduced response to distressing images.
o Children with high aggressive traits and low psychopathy scores showed enhanced response to distressing stimuli.

Question 7

developmental trajectory for those with psychopathy in youth compared to adults

Answer 7

Lynam et al., 2007:
• examined the relation between psychopathy assessed at age 13 by using the mother-reported Childhood Psychopathy Scale (D. R. Lynam, 1997) and psychopathy assessed at age 24 by using the interviewer-rated Psychopathy Checklist.
• Data from over 250 participants
• approximately 9% of the sample met criteria for a possible psychopathic diagnosis.
• psychopathy from early adolescence into young adulthood was moderately stable (r=.31)

Question 8

what was added to dsm-v in regard to callous and unemotional traits and what does this claim to do

Answer 8

CU specifier for conduct disorder was added to DSM-5- to classify a specific subgroup of antisocial youth with distinguishing antisocial behaviors and psychopathic traits.
The provision of the CU specifier for CD youth is claimed to improve the diagnostic power, treatment options, and increase the understanding life-course outcomes.

Question 9

what are characteristics of Callous and unemotional traits

Answer 9

Lynam (1998, 1999) suggests that psychopathy widely theorised to be a personality attribute, ought to be recognizable prior to adulthood.

•	Lack of remorse/guilt
	Lack of empathy
	Shallow affect
	Manipulate others
	Sense of grandiosity

Question 10

what are causes/ risk factors of CU traits?

Answer 10

genetic, environmental

Question 11

twin studies on CU traits

Answer 11

Twin studies have found CU traits to be highly heritable, (Frick, 2008) Two twin studies suggested a significant genetic influence for CU, with an estimated average amount of variation (42.5%) in CU traits accounted for by genetic effects.

Question 12

heriability of CU traits stability test

Answer 12

Blonigen et al., 2008- focused on 2 time points 7yrs apart (age 17 and 24)- 58% of stability of CU traits were due to genetic influences

Question 13

parenting and CU traits support for parenting effect

Answer 13

Exposure to harsh and inconsistent parenting predicts increased levels of CU traits over time (Willoughby et al. 2013).

- Decreased levels of CU traits have been predicted by high-levels of positive parenting and warmth (Pardini et al. 2007).

Question 14

parenting and CU traits against parenting effects

Answer 14

Longitudinal monozygotic twin differences study conducted by Viding et al. (2009) found that quality of parenting did not function as a non-shared environmental risk factor for prospective levels of CU traits.

- and not significantly related to environmental factors such as socioeconomic status, school quality, or parent quality (Frick, 2008)

Question 15

what did a longitudinal study of CU traits in young people find?

Answer 15

McMahon et al., 2010
 Longitudinal study examining CU traits in young people.
 Parent reports of psychopathy was gathered in school.
 High scores of CU traits were linked to self-reported general delinquency, juvenile and adult arrests, and both early adult antisocial personality disorder criterion count and diagnosis.
Psychopathic traits remain stable from childhood to adulthood in its severest form (Frick et al. 2013).

Question 16

comorbitdity of ASPD with psychopathy

Answer 16

Nearly all cases of psychopathy (or PCL score higher than 30) meet criteria for ASPD, whereas only a small proportion of those with ASPD meet criteria for psychopathy (Hare, 1996).

Question 17

who argued that the DSM-5 diagnostic approach for ASPD is more convergent with the construct of psychopathy

Answer 17

Few et al., 2015

Question 18

what are differences between ASPD and psychopathy

Answer 18

Psychopathy is theorized as a disorder of personality and affective deficits while antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) diagnosis is primarily behaviourally based.

Question 19

what does DSM-V say ASPD is

Answer 19

is categorized as “a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others, occurring since age 15”.

Question 20

prevalence of ASPD

Answer 20

• 1-4%: Males are 3 to 5 times more likely to be diagnosed with ASPD than females, with 6% of men and 2% of women meeting DSM-IV criteria for ASPD (Compton et al., 2005).

Question 21

CD and psychopathy comorbidity

Answer 21

Frick and Viding 2009
Children with conduct problems are at risk of developing persistent antisocial behaviour and other mental and physical health problems.
Callous-unemotional (CU) traits (lack of empathy and guilt, shallow affect) characterise a particularly problematic group of children with more severe conduct problems.

Question 22

BPD and psychopathy

Answer 22

Borderline Personality Disorder
The interpersonal-affective (F1) and impulsive-antisocial (F2) features of psychopathy may be associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Psychopathy and BPD are strongly correlated particularly in women (Sprague et al., 2012).

Question 23

Narcissistic personality disorder and psychopathy

Answer 23

characterized by a “lack of empathy” as well as a pervasive pattern of grandiosity and need for admiration (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
Individuals with NPD exhibit deficits in emotional empathy – this lack of empathy is similar to psychopathic individuals (Ritter et al. 2010).