Week 6: Psychopathy

Question 1

What are the three main categories of symptoms of Cleckley’s model?

Answer 1

• Positive adjustment
• Behavioral deviance
• Emotional-interpersonal deficits

Question 2

What are examples for positive adjustment symptoms? (Cleckley’s)

Answer 2

• Superficial charm & “good intelligence”
• Absence of delusions
• Absence of anxiety
• Suicidal ideation rate

Question 3

What are examples for behavioral deviance symptoms? (Cleckley’s)

Answer 3

• Unreliability
• Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior
• Poor judgment/failure to learn
• Acting out (with or without intoxication)

Question 4

What are examples for emotional-interpersonal deficits?

Answer 4

• Untruthfulness
• Lack of remorse/shame
• Egocentricity, incapacity for love
• Reduced emotionality
• Low insight
• Unresponsive in interpersonal relationships

Question 5

What is antisocial personality disorder?

Answer 5

• Disregard for and violation of the rights of others
• Occurring since age 15 years
• At least age 18
• Conduct disorder before age 15
• Behavior not exclusively during schizophrenia or bipolar disorder

Question 6

Factors that indicate antisocial personality disorder:

Answer 6

• Failure to conform to social norms/repeated criminal activity
• Deceitfulness (repeated lying, use of aliases, conning others)
• Impulsivity, failure to plan ahead
• Irritability and aggressiveness (repeated physical fights/assaults)
• Reckless disregard for safety of self or others
• Consistent irresponsibility (can’t hold a job, doesn’t honor financial obligations)

Question 7

What is psychopathy?

Answer 7

McCord & McCord:
- Emphasis on affective impairments (“guiltlessness”)
- Greater emphasis on anger, rage, callousness

Karpamn:
- Low anxiety, predatory, lack of conscience
- Heightened emotional distress, impulsive, reactive aggression

Question 8

What is the history of PCL-R?

Answer 8

• Developed to incorporate aspects of Cleckley’s model and the DSM-based approach.
• Used prototypicality ratings to identify the items most associated with psychopathy.
• Selected items to reflect a unitary construct.

Question 9

What are the two factors observed in PCL-R?

Answer 9

Interpersonal-affective & behavioral deviance.

Question 10

What falls under interpersonal-affective for the PCL-R?

Answer 10

• Glib/superficial charm
• Grandiose sense of self worth
• Pathological lying
• Conning/Manipulation
• Lack of remorse/guilt
• Shallow affect
• Callous/lack of empathy
• Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Question 11

What falls under behavioral deviance for the PCL-R?

Answer 11

• Need for stimulation/boredom proneness
• Parasitic lifestyle
• Poor behavioral controls
• Early behavioral problems
• Lack of realistic, long-term goals
• Impulsivity
• Irresponsibility
• Juvenile delinquency
• Revoc. Conditional Release

Question 12

How is the procedure in the PCL-R?

Answer 12

• Interview (2+ hours)
• Collateral data/file review
• Prototypicality ratings: 0, 1, 2
• Score less than or equal to 30 is a diagnosis of psychopathy

Question 13

US v. Currens (1961)

Answer 13

• ALI definition of insanity (requires presence of mental illness)
• Mental illness cannot comprise only criminal conduct or antisocial behavior

Question 14

Findings of Edens et al. (2013)

Answer 14

• Total psychopathy ratings and F1 ratings significantly associated with support for death sentence.
• Total scores did not predict support for death sentence above and beyond F1 scores.

Question 15

FRE 702

Answer 15

• A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify in the form of an opinion or otherwise if:
• The expert helps the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.
• The testimony is based on sufficient facts or data.
• The testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods.
• The expert has reliably applied the principles and methods to the facts of the case.