Chapter 7: Psychopathy

Behavioral descriptions of psychopathy

- Charm. - Average to above-average intelligence. - Flat affect. - Selfishness. - Egocentricity. - Impulsive. - Lack of remorse or guilt. - Semantic aphasia. - Instrumental aggression. Mental Disorder: - Usually no symptoms of mental disorder. - Schizophrenia and psychopathy. - Suicidality.

Lifestyle (F2)

A behavioral dimension representing the socially deviant ______ characteristics of psychopaths. Core Features: Irresponsibility; sensation seeking; lack of realistic goals, poor planning; impulsivity. (Summary of the Four Hypothesized Core Factors of Psychopathy)

Interpersonal (FI)

A behavioral dimension, identified through factor analysis, representing the ______ and emotional aspects of psychopathy. Core Features: Lying, conning, and manipulating others; superficial charm; grandiose self-worth. (Summary of the Four Hypothesized Core Factors of Psychopathy)

Affective (F3)

A behavioral pattern representing shallow emotion, callousness, little empathy, and failure to accept responsibility. Core Features: Shallow emotions, callousness, little empathy; failure to accept responsibility for actions. (Summary of the Four Hypothesized Core Factors of Psychopathy)

Semantic aphasia

A characteristic found in psychopaths whereby the words they speak are devoid of emotional sincerity.

Antisocial personality disorder (APD)

A disorder characterized by a history of continuous behavior in which the rights of others are violated.

Skin conductance response (SCR / Galvanic skin response / GSR)

A measure of the resistance of the skin to conducting electrical current.

Four-factor model

A model of psychopathy that includes factors one, two, and three along with a factor that represents antisocial behavior.

Dual-process model

A model of psychopathy that proposes two categories of deficits in temperament, A low fear aspect and impaired cognitive executive functions. The former is associated with factors one and two, and the latter with factors three and four.

Criminal psychopath

A primary psychopath who engages in repetitive antisocial or criminal behavior. - Disproportionate amount of crime in society. Sex offenses and sexual homicide: - More brutal violent and sadistic. Violence as revenge or retribution. Victims are strangers.

Avoidance learning

A process whereby, if a person responds in time to a warning signal, they avoid painful or aversive stimuli.

Recidivism

A return to criminal activity (usually measured by arrest) after being convicted of a criminal offense.

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure by which underlying patterns, factors, or dimensions are identified among a series of scale items.

Suicidality

A term used by clinicians to indicate there is a risk of suicide, usually inferred from their self-reported suicidal thoughts or intentions.

Markers

A term used for the neurological indicators of a particular phenomenon, such a psychopathy.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

A. Brain. B. Spinal Cord. (Major Divisions of the Human Nervous System) - Left-hemisphere activation hypothesis. - Deficiency in internal language. - Emotional paradox. - Defects in frontal lobe processing. - Amygdala dysfunction.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

A. Somatic nervous system (communicates with voluntary muscles). B. Autonomic nervous system. 1. Parasympathetic nervous system (relaxes and deactivates after emergencies). 2. Sympathetic nervous system (activates for emergencies). (Major Divisions of the Human Nervous System) Research: - Low skin conductance.

1. Interpersonal, such as pathological lying and conning. 2. Lifestyle, such as irresponsible behavior, sensation seeking, and impulsiveness. 3. Affective (shallow affect or emotional regulations, lack of remorsefulness for their actions. 4. Antisocial tendencies, such as poor self-regulation, and a wide variety of antisocial behavior including delinquency.

According to the four factor perspective, the factors are what?

Treatment

Adults: - Majority of research on males. - Program evaluation is difficult. - Therapeutic community not effective. Children and Adolescents: - Cognitive-behavioral. - Psychodynamic. - Eclectic interventions.

Reactive aggression

Aggression that is considered spontaneous, unplanned, and done in response to an event or an action by another individual.

Amygdala

An almond-shaped cluster of neurons in the brain responsible for emotions such as fear, anger, and disgust. It is also involved in learning and short-term memory, especially in those learning situations involving high emotions.

Hemisphere asymmetry

An unusual or abnormal balance between the two hemispheres, both in language processing and in emotional states.

Dyssocial psychopath

Antisocial because of social learning.

Secondary psychopath

Commit antisocial acts because of severe emotional problems or inner conflicts.

Somatic division (of PNS)

Comprises the motor nerves that stimulate the muscles involved in body movement.

Autonomic division (of PNS)

Controls heart rate, gland secretion, and a smooth muscle activity. Research: - Autonomically and cortically under-aroused. - Deficient in avoidance learning. - Profoundly affected by alcohol.

Antisocial tendencies (F4)

Core Features: Poor self-regulation; persistent criminal activity; antisocial behavior; early behavior problems. (Summary of the Four Hypothesized Core Factors of Psychopathy)

Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)

Developed by Robert Hare, it is the best-known and most heavily researched instrument for the measurement of criminal psychopathy. Additional versions include the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), the P-Scan: Research Version and the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV). Distinguishing criminal psychopaths from criminal non-psychopaths. - Risk assessment of offenders. Multidimensional nature: - Two-Factor. - Three-Factor. - Four Dimensions. (Psychopathic Behaviors Identified by Hare and Cleckley)

Childhood of the psychopath

Early experiences of family problems, negative school experience, poor parental monitoring. Developmental histories of life-course-persistent offenders. - Resembles criminal psychopaths.

1. They are an extreme, qualitatively distant category. 2. Psychopathy is extremely persistent throughout life. 3. Psychopathy has biological causes which cannot be changed by psychosocial interventions. 4. The lying, conning, and manipulativeness of psychopaths make them treatment resistant.

Farrington (2005a) states that "it seems to be generally believed that psychopaths are difficult to treat because" of what four reasons (pp. 494-495)?

The female psychopath

Gender Differences: - Prevalence less than for males, <1%. - Measures have been developed on males. - High levels of callousness. - Low levels of empathy. - Less violent and aggressive than males. - Social influences. - Neurobiological differences.

Biological factors

Genetic Factors: - Temperament.

Executive functions

Higher order mental abilities involved in goal-directed behavior. They include organizing behavior, memory, inhibition processes, and planning strategies.

1. An arrogant and deceptive interpersonal style, which includes a grandiose sense of self-worth, glibness, superficial charm, lying, conning, manipulation, and deceitfulness (this dimension is also referred to as impression management). 2. An impulsive and irresponsible behavior style, including failure to think before acting, a lack of long-term goals, stimulation seeking, unsatisfactory work habits, and a parasitic lifestyle (living off others, including spouses, intimate partners, friends, and parents). 3. Deficient affective or emotional experience characterized by low remorse, low guilt, a weak conscience, the absence of anxiety, fearlessness, callousness, little empathy, and a failure to accept responsibility for one's actions.

In an influential paper, Cooke and Michie (2001) Challenged the traditional two-factor explanation of psychopathy and recommended that psychopathy be divided into what three core dimensions?

Boldness factor (fearless dominance)

In psychopathy research, it is proposed as an additional feature of the psychopathic personality.

Meanness

In psychopathy research, this is proposed as an additional feature characterizing the psychopathic personality.

1. Psychopaths appear to be both autonomically and cortically under-aroused, both under rest conditions and under some specific stress conditions. They are much more physiologically fearless compared to non-psychopaths. 2. Because they lack the necessary emotional equipment, psychopaths appear to be deficient in avoidance learning, which might account partially for their very high recidivism rates. 3. Some data suggest that if emotional arousal can be induced, such as by adrenaline, psychopaths can learn from past experiences and avoid normally painful or aversive situations, such as prison, embarrassment, or social censure. 4. With adequate incentives, such as monetary awards, psychopaths can learn from past experiences and avoid adverse consequences as well as anyone.

In summary, the research review thus far allows us to make what four tentative conclusions about the autonomic functioning of a psychopath?

Juvenile psychopathy

Is psychopathy found in children? If so, can it be reliably measured in juveniles? - Dynamic nature of developmental patterns. Current Research: - Supports juvenile psychopathy construct. Ethical concerns: - Labeling at young age. - More likely to be transferred to adult court system. - Self-fulfilling prophecy with providers. Importance of early identification: - Treatment. - Avoid societal and individual repercussions.

Racial and ethnic differences

Kosson et al. (1990): - Most measures used white, male inmates. - Minimal differences between African-American and Caucasian (Less impulsive). Diagnosis used against minority inmates: - Sentencing. - Capital punishment.

1. Treatment programs designed specifically for juveniles with psychopathic characteristics. 2. Programs for youthful offenders that included those with psychopathic characteristics.

Logically, it makes sense to hypothesize that children and adolescents with psychopathic features would respond more positively than psychopathic adults to prevention and treatment strategies because of their malleability. Consequently, researchers have began to evaluate the effectiveness of what two programs?

1. The primary. 2. The secondary (neurotic). 3. The dyssocial.

Psychologist Robert Hare (1970) proposed a useful scheme to outline what three categories of psychopaths?

Instrumental aggression

Purposeful and goal-directed aggression used to achieve a specific goal, such as the possessions of another person.

Sympathetic nervous system

Responsible for activating or arousing the individual for fight or flight before (or during) fearful or emergency situations. • Dilates pupils. • Inhibits salivation. • Relaxes bronchi. • Accelerates heart. • Inhibits activity of the small intestine. • Secretion of adrenaline and noradrenaline. • Relaxes bladder.

Primary psychopath

Robert Hare's classification of the "true" psychopath. That is, the individual who demonstrates those physiological and behavioral features that represent psychopathy.

Left-hemisphere activation hypothesis

States that psychopaths exhibit deficits on a variety of tasks that require activation of the left hemisphere (Kosson, 1998).

1. Central Nervous System (CNS). 2. Peripheral Nervous System (PNS).

The human nervous system can be divided into what two major parts, either on the basis of structure or function?

Emotional paradox

The research observation that psychopaths seem to be able to talk about emotional cues but lack the ability to use them effectively in the real world.

Psychopath

Used to describe a person who demonstrates a discernible cluster of psychological, interpersonal, and neurophysiological features that distinguish them from the general population. - Discernible cluster of symptoms. - Psychological, interpersonal, neurobiological.

Parasympathetic nervous system

• Constricts pupil. • Stimulates salivation. • Constricts bronchi. • Decelerates heart. • Stimulates activity of the small intestine. • Contracts bladder.

Hare PCL Checklist

• Glibness/superficial charm. • Grandiose sense of self-worth. • Pathological lying. • Cunning/manipulative. • Lack of remorse or guilt. • Shallow affect. • Callous, lack of empathy. • Failure to accept responsibility for actions. • Promiscuous sexual behavior. • Lack of realistic, long-term goals. • Poor behavioral controls. • High need for stimulation/prone to boredom. • Irresponsibility.

Cleckley's Primary Psychopath Description

• Superficial charm and good intelligence. • Pathological egocentricity. • Untruthfulness and insincerity. • Manipulative. • Lack of remorse or guilt. • General poverty of affective reactions. • Unresponsiveness in interpersonal relationships. • Unreliability. • Impersonal sex life. • Failure to follow any life plan. • Impulsive. • Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior. • Poor judgment. • Absence of delusions. • Absence of anxiety. • Bizarre behavior after drinking alcohol. (Psychopathic Behaviors Identified by Hare and Cleckley)