PSYC2400- Chapter 11: Psychopathy

Intraspecies predators

Lacking a conscience and feelings for others, psychopaths satisfy their own selfish needs by preying on others.

Psychopathy

A personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioural characteristics. Use charm or violence, show no remorse or shame, seen across cultures.

Kunlangeta

The Inuit term in Alaska for an psychopaths.

No Country for Old Men

A movie about a psychopath hitman deemed by psychiatrists to be the most realistic depiction of psychopathy.

The Mask of Sanity

A book that outlines one of the most comprehensive clinical descriptions of psychopathy (describes 16 features of psychopathy). The first real description of psychopaths.

Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)

A 20-item rating scale that uses a semi-structured interview and a review of file information to assess interpersonal, affective, and behavioural features of psychopathy (supported by a considerable amount of research, most popular).

PCL-R rating

• Scored 0-2

• 2 = item definitely applies

• 1 = it applies to some extent

• 0 = definitely does not apply

• The items are summed to obtain a total score ranging from 0 to 40

• 30 > = a psychopath

• 20-30 = mixed group (sub-clinical psychopath)

• 20 < = not a psychopath

PCL-R factors

1. Factor 1

2. Factor 2

Factor 1

Reflects the combination of interpersonal and affective traits (more strongly related to instrumental violence, emotional-processing deficits, dropping out of treatment, and poor treatment response).

Factor 2

A combination of unstable and socially deviant traits (strongly related to reoffending, substance abuse, lack of education and poor family background).

Three-factor model of psychopathy

(1) Arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style

(2) Deficient affective experience

(3) Impulsive and irresponsible behavioural style

Splits the original factor 1 into two factors and removes some of the antisocial items from factor 2.

Most recent factor analysis

Includes these three factors plus a fourth factor called antisocial that includes the antisocial items.

Advantages of self-report questionnaires

1. They are able to measure attitudes and emotions that are not easily observed by others, ex. feelings of low self-esteem

2. They are easy to administer, quick to score, and relatively inexpensive

3. It is not necessary to worry about interrater reliability since only the individual is completing the score

4. Although there are concerns about psychopaths lying on self-report measures, some questionnaires include measures of response styles to detect faking good or faking bad

Challenges to using self-report questionnaires

1. Psychopaths often lie

2. Psychopaths may not have sufficient insight to accurately assess their traits,

3. It will likely be difficult for psychopaths to report on specific emotions if they have not experienced these emotions

Widely used self-report scales

1. Psychotic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R)

2. Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP)

PPI-R

A 154-item inventory designed to measure psychopathic traits in offender and community samples (consists of eight content scales and two validity scales (to check for carelessness and positive/negative response styles) and it measures two factors (fearless dominance and self-centred impulsivity). Includes the Coldheartedness scale, which assesses emotional deficits.

SRP

A 64-item self-report measure designed to assess psychopathic traits in community samples. Consists of four factors:

1. Erratic lifestyle

2. Callous affect

3. Interpersonal manipulation

4. Criminal tendencies

There is also a short form of the SRP that consists of 29 items that is often used when conducting online surveys.

TriPM

Developed to measure the triarchic model of psychopathy (consists of 58 items that assess three main components):

1. Boldness

2. Meanness

3. Disinhibition

Critiques of the TriPM

Some researchers have questioned whether boldness is related to psychopathy and research on the predictive validity of the TriPM is lacking.

APD

Pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others.

Sociopath

Label for someone whose psychopathic traits are assumed to be due to environmental factors.

Sociopaths vs psychopaths

It is proposed that sociopaths manifest similar traits as psychopaths but develop these traits as a result of environmental factors, whereas psychopaths are genetically predisposed to a temperament that makes them difficult to socialize.

Psychopathy vs APD

Although psychopathy and APD share some features, APD places more emphasis on antisocial behaviours than the PCL-R. Nearly all psychopathic offenders meet the diagnostic criteria for APD, but most offenders diagnosed with APD are not psychopaths. APD symptoms are most strongly related to the behavioural features of psychopathy and not to the interpersonal or affective features.

Psychopaths in the community

• A very small portion of the population

• Not all psychopaths are violent

• Snakes in suits (business world)

• Cause problems in the workplace (spread rumours, blame others, etc.)

Characteristics of male psychopaths in heterosexual relationships

(1) Talking the victim into victimization

(2) Lying

(3) Economic abuse

(4) Emotional abuse or psychological torture

(5) Multiple infidelities

(6) Isolation

(7) Coercion

(8) Assault

(9) Mistreatment of children

Killers of police officers

More than half displayed behaviour consistent with psychopathy.

Psychopaths in an interrogation

• Try to outwit the interrogator

• Enjoy being the focus of attention

• Attempt to control the interrogation

• Will not be fooled by bluffs

• Attempt to shock

Suggestions for interviewing psychopaths

• Ensure case familiarity

• Convey experience and confidence

• Show liking or admiration

• Avoid criticism

• Avoid conveying emotions

Christopher Porco case

A 21-year-old convicted of first-degree murder for the axe murder of his father and of attempted murder of his mother. Had many psychopathic traits that the investigators failed to take into account during their interrogation. Continues to deny being responsible but the police believe he wanted to kill his parents to stop them from disclosing to authorities the numerous frauds he had been involved in.

Psychopathy and forensics in Canada

Make up a substantial portion of the prison population.

Psychopathy and forensics in the US

The PCL-R was also used in sexual violent predator evaluations and death penalty sentencing and in civil cases for child custody decisions.

Psychopathy and NCRMD

A diagnosis of psychopathy does fulfill the disease of the mind requirement because it does not fulfill the requirement of not appreciating the nature or quality of the act.

Adversarial allegiance

Describes the tendency for forensic experts to be biased toward those who hire them.

Expert testimony on psychopathy

Researchers have found that PCL-R scores provided by prosecution experts are higher compared to those provided by defence experts. Indigenous offenders are scored higher on the PCL-R on average. There is some evidence that those raters who have attended a workshop on how to administer and score the PCL-R are more reliable than those who have not.

Hired gun

An expert who adapts their assessment to the side who hires them.

Psychopathy and violence

• Psychopaths are violent and versatile

• Start at a younger age and persist longer

• More violent crimes and a greater variety

• More likely to reoffend

• Instrumental violence (target strangers for revenge or personal gain)

Psychopathy and crime

• Highly correlated with criminal behaviour

• Psychopaths start offending at an earlier age

• Offending behaviour persists longer

• Engage in more violent offences

• Engage in more types of offences

• Responsible for more than half of societal crime

• Fraud is most closely linked to psychopathy

Bundy’s claim of vulnerability detection

Offenders scoring higher on PCL-R factor 1 scores are more accurate at detecting victim vulnerability and reported using gait cues to rationalize their vulnerability ratings.

Psychopathy and early release

Psychopathic offenders are given early release from prison more often than non-psychopathic offenders.

Psychopathy and sexual violence

Positive emotions prior to rape and tendency for sexual sadism.

Mixed sexual offenders

Those who sexually assault both children and adults are the most psychopathic (opportunistic).

Sexual sadists

People who are sexually aroused by fantasies, urges, or acts of inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on another human. PCL-R scores, affective deficits facets, and antisocial facets are all related.

Psychopathy and treatment

• Most are pessimistic

• Violent recidivism

• Treatment resulted in reoffending (one study)

• More positive results in another study

• Treatment is more effective when used on youth

Psychopathy and dropping out of treatment

Most strongly related to affective deficits.

Psychopathy in youth

The assumption is that psychopathy gradually develops from various environmental and biological antecedents.

Assessing psychopathy in youth

1. The Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD)

2. The Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV)

APSD

Designed for assessing the precursors of psychopathic traits in children (the child is assigned a rating on various questions by parents or teachers). A self-report version of this scale also has been developed for use with adolescents. Has a three-dimensional structure consisting of a callous-unemotional factor, an impulsivity factor, and a narcissism factor.

PCL:YV

A rating scale designed to measure psychopathic traits and behaviours in adolescents between the ages of 12 -18.

Critiques of labelling children psychopaths

he use of the label has many negative connotations for the public and for mental health and criminal justice professionals.

Research on the stigma surrounding psychopathy

Mock jurors are more likely to support the death penalty for psychopathic defendants (lack of remorse). Another study pointed to a general labelling effect, not one specific to psychopathy.

Stability of psychopathic traits in adults

Violence in psychopathic adults is assumed to be a stable trait, resistant to intervention attempts (moderately supported by research).

Stability of psychopathic traits in youth

The developmental period that demonstrated the largest change was during adolescence. Youth with psychopathic traits may be more responsive to interventions.

Parent-child interaction therapy

Focuses on increasing the parent–child relationships using positive reinforcement.

Research on parent-child interaction therapy

Parents were satisfied with the program. Future research will need to determine the long-term effectiveness.

Nature vs nurture

• Some evidence for heritability (twin studies)

• Environmental factors may express traits

• Cognitive or emotional deficits

Longitudinal studies

Allows researchers to avoid retrospective bias (the tendency to reconstruct past events so that they are consistent with an individual’s current beliefs) and to establish causal order. The best predictors of adult psychopathy are having a criminal parent, being a son whose father was uninvolved with him, low family income, a disrupted family, and experiencing physical neglect or abuse. Likely no single variable is responsible for the development of psychopathy.

Psychopathic development theory

1. Response modulation deficit

2. Critical emotion deficit

Response modulation deficit

If psychopaths are engaging in specific rewarded behaviour, they will not pay attention to other information that might inhibit their behaviour (explains ineffectiveness of punishment).

Critical emotion deficit

Psychopaths have a deficit in certain critical emotions that guide prosocial behaviour and inhibit deviance.

Lexical-decision task

Emotional and neutral words and non-words were presented briefly on a screen and participants indicated as quickly as possible whether what was on the screen was a word. Psychopaths failed to show the normal, faster reaction time to emotional words (brain activity did not differ).

Amygdala

A small almond-shaped structure located in the medial temporal lobes (part of the limbic centre, which regulates the expression of emotion and emotional memory). Linked to many other brain regions responsible for memory, control of the autonomic nervous system, aggression, decision making, approach and avoidance behaviour and defence reactions.

Other explanations for emotional deficits

1. Paralimbic model

2. Attention deficit

Characteristics of psychopathy

• Difficulty in avoiding punishment

• Low anticipatory response, ex. sweating

• Low pain sensitivity

• Low concern for other’s pain

• Low startle reflex

Ted Bundy

• American serial killer and rapist

• Tortured and murdered between 30-100 women across the US

• Netflix documentary: Conversations with a Killer

• Executed

• Censored himself in interviews, blamed his murders on porn and the media, claimed to be a normal person possessed by evil (essentially a victim)

Myths about psychopathy

• Psychopaths are born and not made

• All psychopaths are violent

• People are either psychopaths or not psychopaths

• There are no female psychopaths

• Psychopaths are intelligent

• Psychopaths are untreatable

Naked LSD sessions

• Psychopathic and schizophrenic patients in Oak Ridge were stripped down and given LSD

• Intended to bring humility and a sense of openness

• Ultimately left participants with PTSD and other mental health issues