Psychopathy

Psychopathy

A disorder characterized by:

• Shallow emotional responses

• Lack of empathy

• Impulsivity

• Increased likelihood of antisocial behaviour

What is the closest thing to psychopathy in the DSM?

Antisocial personality disorder

Psychopathy checklist-revised (PCL-R)

This checklist is used to determine whether someone meets criteria for psychopathy

Items are scores:

• 0 = not applicable

• 1 = applicable only to a certain extent

• 2 = applicable 

How does recidivism relate to psychopathy (Grann et al., 1999)

Study looked at violent recidivism follow probation, forensic psychiatric discharge, or prison release

• Recidivism = committing another crime after being let out of jail

 

Research Q: Who commits violent crimes again after being let out of jail based on their psychopathy score?

 

Findings:

Low psychopathy scores = not many committed again…

High psychopathy score = more than half committed again

 

These findings can have practical implications (e.g., determining who gets parole)

What is the difference between psychopathy vs. sociopathy?

Sociopaths:

• Can form some deep bonds (e.g., with family)

• Have a less severe lack of empathy and lack of guilt

• May feel guilt and remorse over hurting someone with whom they share a bond

• Anti-social behaviour may lessen over time as they learn to avoid consequences of their actions

• Not able to move through society committing callous crimes as easily

 

The same cannot be said for psychopaths…

• Callous yet charming

• Will manipulate others with charisma and intimidation

• Can effectively mimic feelings to present as "normal to society"

• Displays little emotion in situations that normal people would find threatening or horrifying

• Aware what they are doing is wrong, but do not care

Dark triad

1. Psychopathy

• Traits = Impulsive, emotionally cold, remorseless

• Body language = inappropriate emotional expression (or lack thereof)

2. Machiavellianism

• Traits = manipulative, self-interested, domineering

• Body language = dominant, expansive posture

3. Narcissism

• Traits = Grandiosity, perceived superiority, entitlement

• Body language = 1st person pronouns, self-focused in conversations

Etiological factors

Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) deficits

• Difficulty avoiding/inhibiting responses to previously punished stimuli

• Low electrodermal response in anticipation of an aversive event

• Low eye-blink startle in response to an aversive stimulus

• Impaired aversive conditioning

 

The BIS is a temperamental system that inhibits behaviour out of fear of being punished (but this is impaired in psychopaths)

 

An overall fearlessness and insensitivity to punishment

Psychopaths show deficits in conditioned fear (Birmbauer et al., 2005)

Study included incarcerated psychopathic men + healthy men from the community

 

Conditions:

• Paired conditioned stimulus -> shown mustached man

• Impaired conditioned stimulus -> shown non-mustached man

• Unconditioned stimulus -> painful pressure

• *Seeing the moustache face was paired with painful pressure

 

Research Q: Do psychopathic men vs. healthy men show differential responses?

 

Findings:

Healthy men = seeing moustache man induced higher arousal + greater skin conductance + greater brain activation in anterior cingulate, anterior insula, and amygdala

Psychopathic men = showed no difference in arousal + skin conductance + brain activation between seeing moustache man vs. non-moustache man

• Specifically: lower levels of arousal + no differences in skin conductance

These findings suggest that psychopathic men did not develop a conditioned fear response

What is the association between empathy and psychopathy?

Study included 53 men from the community

 

Participants were shown pictures of people being victimized while in the MRI

• Assumption is that normal people would show an empathetic response to these photos 

 

RQ: How does brain response (anterior insula, inferior frontal gyrus, midcingulate cortex) differ based on psychopathy score?

 

Findings:

There was a significant negative correlation

• Increased psychopathy scores = decreased brain activation in empathy brain regions

Psychopathy in women

Rates of women incarcerated in maximum-security prison who meet diagnostic criteria for psychopathy using the PCL-T (30 score cut-off) are compared to men

• Women = 17%

• Men = 15-25%

 

PCL-R had a similar factor structure in women as in men

 

Depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder are more strongly related to psychopathy in women

Blink startle response in psychopathic women (Verona et al., 2013)

Study included 48 women inmates assessed for psychopathy

 

Study aimed to assess participant's ability to learn from punishment

 

Participants shown pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant/upsetting pictures

• Throughout the picture-viewing trials, blink-eliciting noises would go off randomly

 

Findings:

Low-psychopathy group = showed larger (healthy/normal) blink-startle response in the unpleasant photos

High-psychopathy group = showed lower blink-startle response to unpleasant photos + victim threat-related photos

 

Psychopathic women showed deficits in the response to the distress of others