PSY328 - Psychopathy - Week 11

Psychopathy definition

A personality disorder is defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioural characteristics

• manipulation, lack of remorse, impulsivity

• “Predators” looking to use other people solely for personal gaim

Self report - Pros and Cons

survey, questionairre asking people to report their own actions and behaviours

• Advantages

  • Meausre attitudes and emotions that cannot be easliy observed

  • easy to administer and score, relatively inexpensive

  • do not require inter-rater reliability

  • can detect faking (good and bad)

• Disadvantages

  • psychopaths often lie, manipulate, and malinger

  • may not have sufficient insight into their own traits

  • difficulty reporting on emotions they don’t experience

Self-report - PPI-R

Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised

• 54 items; offender and community samples

• 8 content and 2 validity scales

• 2 factors (fearless dominance and self-centred impulsivity)

Self-report - SRP

Self-report psychopathy scale

• 64 items; community samples

• 4 factors (erratic lifestyle, callous affect, interpersonal

  manipulation, criminal tendencies)

Assessment methods: PCL-R

Psychopathy Checklist-Revised

• most popular method of assessing psychopathy in adults

• 20 item scale

• semi-structured interview and review of file info

• assesses interpersonal, affective, and behavioural features

Antisocial personality disorder

Characterized by a history of behaviours in which the right of others are violated

APD - Symptoms

7 main adult symptoms

• engaging in criminal activity

• risk taking

• being deceitful

• having little guilt for ones behaviours

Personality disorders

To be classified as a personality disorder, ones way of thinking, feeling, and behaving:

• deviates from the expectations of culture

• causes distress or problems functioning

• lasts over time

Personality disorders - controversy

• Diagnoses of personality disorders can be controversial

• So some suggest a move from “type” (categories) to “severity” (impact)

• Treating traits/behaviours as “risk factors” instead of

  “symptoms”

Community prevalence - PCL-SV

Psychopathy Checklist-Screening Version (PCL-SV)

• 12 items; less emphasis on criminal behaviour

• Psychopathy is generally rare in the community

• Many are not violent

Psychopaths in business

• Not all psychopaths are violent offenders

  • can spread rumors, manipulative, blame others

• Babiak et al (2010) found 5% of corporate professional met psychopathy criteria

• Males tend to score higher

• Most people get info about psychopathy from the media

  • Associate with violent offenders

Psychopathy and law enforcement

Psychopaths engage in high rates of crime

• Often interact with the police

• Pinizzotto & Davis (1992) found that almost half of police killers had traits consistent with psychopathy

• Psychopathic suspects are difficult to interrogate as they try
  to outwit, attempt to control, etc.

Psychopathy and law enforcement -

• One study recruited 1406 police officers

• they compleeted the PPI-R and other measures

• Majority did not exhibit elevated levels of psychopathic traits

• Th eother group some evidence confirming the two primary vs. secondary subtypes

Primary vs Secondary psychopaths

Primary: possess hallmark emotional and anxiety deficits but also overt narcissism

• More positive affect

Secondary: possess core impulsivity, emotional dysfunction, antisocial behvaiour, high trait anxiety, covert narcissism

• More negative affect - more anxious than self-assured

Court use of psychopathy

• Expert testimony used in range of cases

  • Parole eligibility, death penalty hearings, etc.

  • Associated with increased severity of disposition

• Psychopathy (or APD) does not meet the insanity defense

  • there are not out of touch with reality and know the difference between right and wrong

Bipolar personality disorder

Internalizing symptoms

• sucidal ideation, self-harming behvaiours, feelings of emptiness, identity disturbance, and comorbid eating disorders

Externalizing symptoms

• Impulsivity, substance use, comorbid antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders

Comorbid between APD and BPD

APD/BPD - Incarcerated people

• Incarcerated men with APD/BPD more likely to have early and
  extensive criminal justice history (compared to women)

• Incarcerated women and White people with APD/BPD more
  likely to have extensive mental health treatment (compared to
  men and POC)

• Incarcerated women with APD/BPD more likely to endorse
  internalizing symptoms (compared to men)

• Non-Hispanic White people more likely to have history of
  reckless behaviour (compared to Hispanic people)

Psychopathy and violence

• Account for a large proportion of all crime committed

  • they lack characteristics that inhibit aggression and violence

• Psychopathic violence is more likely to be:

  • Predatory

  • Instrumental

  • Callous

  • Calculated

  • Not reactive in nature

  • Targeted at strangers

• Much more likely to commit instrumental homicides

• Less strongly associated with sexual offending

Psychopathy and violence - compared to non-psychopaths

• Start ”criminal careers” younger

• Persist longer and commit a greater variety of crime

• Engage in more violent crime

• More likely to reoffend

• Do not commit homicide at higher rates than non-psychopaths

Psychopathy and treatment - Study

• Rice et al (1992) used intensive therapeutic program over two years

• Followed matched groups of forensic patients (treated vs. untreated group)

• Violent recidivism rates were:

  • Untreated nonpsychopaths = 39%

  • Treated nonpsychopaths = 22%

  • Untreated psychopaths = 55%

  • Treated psychopaths = 77%

Psychopathy and treatment - effectiveness

The most effective treatment programs for offenders with psychopathic traits are those that target the criminogenic needs of the offender (and CBT)

Psychopathy and youth - ASPD

Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD)

• The observer (parents or teachers) rating scale to assess psychopathic traits in children

Psychopathy and youth - PCL:YV

Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV)S

• cale designed to measure psychopathic traits in adolescents

Psychopathy and youth - Boys vs. Girls

• Boys who score higher on APSD

  • More contact with police

  • More conduct problems

• Youth who score high on PCL:YV

  • Begin criminal behaviours younger

  • Engage in more violence

  • Are at a greater risk to reoffend once released