Chapter 11: Psychopathy

How do you assess PPD?

• glibness/superficial charm

• grandiose sense of self-worth

• need for stimulation/proneness to boredom

• pathological lying

• conning/manipulative

• lack of remorse/guilt

• shallow affect

• callous/lack of empathy

• parasitic lifestyle

• poor behavioral controls

• promiscuous sexual behavior

• early behavioral problems

• lack of realistic, long-term goals

• impulsivity

• irresponsibility

• failure to accept responsibility for own actions

• many short-term relationships

• juvenile delinquency

• revocation of conditional release

• criminal versatility

glibness/superficial charm

charm, flattery, smooth talk

grandiose sense of self-worth

inflated sense of self-importance, superior

need for stimulation/proneness to boredom

crave excitement, bored with routine

pathological lying

lie frequently and consistently

conning/manipulative

exploit others for personal gain, deceive and manipulate

lack of remorse/guilt

lack of concern of impact on others

shallow affect

normal range and depth of emotion

callous/lack of empathy

lacking empathy or concern for others

parasitic lifestyle

exploit others for their resrouces

poor behavioral controls

lack impulse control, short-tempered, hot headed

promiscuous sexual behavior

causal and short-term sexual relationships

early behavioral problems

serious behavioral problems in early life

lack of realistic, long-term goals

lack clear goals or aspirations in the future

impulsivity

act on impulse without thinking things through

irresponsibility

fail to meet obligations and commitments

failure to accept responsibility for own actions

lack of responsibility; blames others

revocation of conditional release

breaches, escapes

violence risk assessment

process of speculating about violence risk posed by a perpetrator

violence risk management

process of mitigating the violence risk posed by a perpetrator

examples of motivators

• defense distance

• justice honor

• gain profit

• control change

• status esteem

• release expression

• arousal activity

• proximity affiliation

examples of disinhibitors

• negative attitudes

• negative self-concept

• alienation

• nihilism

• lack of emotion

• lack of empathy

• lack of insight

examples of destabilizers

• disturbed attention

• disturbed perception

• impaired memory

• impaired reasoning

• obsessive thoughts

• racing thoughts

why are psychopaths called intraspecies predators?

they seek vulnerable victims to use for their own benefit

psychopathy

a personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioral characteristics

hare psychopathy checklist-revised (PCL-R)

most popular rater-based method of assessing psychopathy in adults

• semi-structured interview

• review of file information to assess interpersonal and behavioral features of psychopathy

three-factor model of psychopathy

• arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style

• deficient affective experience

• impulsive and irresponsible style

• antisocial items (including in PCL-R)

advantages of self-report questionnaires

• able to measure those attitudes and emotions that are not easily observed by others

• easy to administered, quick to score, and relatively inexpensive

• not necessary to worry about interrater reliability since only the individual is completing the score

• some include measures of response styles to detect faking good or faking bad

psychopathic personality inventory-revised and self-report psychopathy scale

a self-report measure of psychopathic traits

what are the 4 factors the self-report psychopathy scale measures?

• erratic lifestyle

• callous affect

• interpersonal manipulation

• criminal tendencies

antisocial personality disorder

• a personality disorder characterized by a history of behavior in which the right of others are violated

• pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood

sociopathy

label used to describe a person whose psychopathic traits are assumed to be due to environmental factors

• examples: poor parenting and other environmental factors

adversarial allegiance

• tendency for forensic experts to be biased toward the side that hired them

when do psychopathic offenders start their criminal career?

• younger age and persist longer

• engage in more violent offences

sexual sadism

people who are sexually aroused by fantasies, urges, or acts of inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on another person

antisocial process screening device (APSD)

observer rating scale to assess psychopathic traits in children

hare psychopathy checklist: youth version

rating scale designed to measure psychopathic traits in adolescents

parent-child interaction therapy

an intervention that focuses on increasing the parent-child relationship using positive reinforcements and teaching positive parenting strategies