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Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 1
Chapter 11
Psychopaths
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 2
Learning Objectives
• Define psychopathy• Outline the different assessment methods
developed to measure psychopathy• Describe the association between
psychopathy and violence• Identify the concerns associated with
labeling a youth as a psychopath• Explain the two main theories of
psychopathy
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 3
Psychopathy
• Psychopathy: A personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioural characteristics, including manipulation, lack of remorse or empathy, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviours
• Descriptions of psychopathy exist in most cultures
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 4
Assessment
• Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1993, 2003) most popular method of assessing psychopathy in adults
• 20-item scale• Semi-structured interview and review of
file information• Assesses interpersonal, affective, and
behavioural features
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 5
Assessment
• Scores range from 0 to 40
• 30 or higher is a psychopath
• Currently psychopathy is a 2 factor model:– Factor 1: interpersonal, affective traits– Factor 2: unstable and socially deviant traits
• Some researchers have argued for 3 or 4 factor models
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 6
Self-Report Measures
• Advantages:– Cost-effective– Measure emotions that cannot be observed– Easy to administer – Do not require inter-rater reliability– Can detect faking (good and bad)
• Challenges:– Psychopaths lie– May not have sufficient insight – Do not experience certain emotions
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 7
Subclinical Psychopaths
• Students who scored higher on the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP) were more likely to defraud the experimenter (Paulhus, Williams, & Nathanson, 2002)
• Students with higher SRP scores were better at identifying vulnerable victims
• Students owning vicious dogs were more likely to report criminal behaviours (Ragatz, Fremouw, Thomas, & McCoy, 2009)
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 8
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD)
• A personality disorder characterized by a history of behaviours in which the rights of others are violated
• Need to display three or more symptoms– Repeatedly engage in criminal activity– Deceitfulness - Irresponsibility– Impulsivity - Lack of remorse– Irritability - Reckless behaviours
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 9
Antisocial Personality Disorder
• Almost all psychopaths can be classified as having APD
• Most offenders diagnosed with APD are not psychopaths
• APD, psychopathy, and sociopathy are used interchangeably– They are related but distinct constructs
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 10
Psychopathy and Criminal Cases
• Court cases with testimony about psychopathy resulted in more severe dispositions (DeMateo & Edens, 2006; Walsh & Walsh, 2006)
• PCL-R scores were used in death-penalty sentencing
• Psychopathy does not meet the insanity defense (psychopaths know the difference between right and wrong)
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 11
Psychopathy and Violence
• Psychopaths make up a small proportion of the population but account for a large proportion of all crime committed
• Psychopaths:– Start their criminal careers younger – Persist longer and commit a greater variety of
crime– Engage in more violent crime – More likely to reoffend
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 12
Psychopathy and Violence
• In cases of murder, psychopaths have multiple victims, stranger victims, male victims, left the scene of the crime, and deny responsibility (Häkkänen-Nyholm, 2009)
• Psychopathic homicide offenders are more likely to engage in instrumental homicide as compared to nonpsychopathic homicide offenders (Woodworth & Porter, 2002)
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 13
Psychopathy and Violence
• Psychopathic violence is more likely to be:– Predatory– Instrumental– Callous– Calculated– Not reactive in nature– Target strangers– Vindictive or opportunistic
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 14
Psychopaths in the Community
• Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Screening Version (PCL-SV; Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995) is used to assess psychopathy in community samples
• Coid, Yang, Ullrich, Roberts, and Hare (2009)– 71% of the sample scored 0– Psychopathy is rare in the community
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 15
Psychopaths in the Community
• Not all psychopaths are violent offenders
• Babiak, Neumann, and Hare (2010) found 5% of their sample of corporate professionals met the criteria for psychopathy
• Psychopathic professionals tend to have:– Poor management and performance appraisals
– Better creativity
– Stronger communication skills
– Less likely to be team players
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 16
Psychopaths and Victims
• Kirkman (2005) identified characteristics of nonincarcerated psychopaths in heterosexual relationships. He found that women:– Were talked into being victims– Were lied to– Were economically abused– Emotionally abuse– The men had multiple infidelities– Were isolated– Their children were mistreated
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 17
Psychopathy and Sexual Violence
• Psychopathy is weakly associated with sexual offenses
• Brown and Forth (1997) report that psychopathy was related to number of previous violent offenses, but not related to previous sexual offenses
• Offenders who commit sexual homicide score higher on psychopathy
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 18
Psychopathy and Sexual Violence
• Mixed sexual offenders (assault both adults and children) are the second most psychopathic offenders
• Compared to other sex offenders, child molesters have the lowest psychopathy scores
• Psychopathic sexual offenders are more likely to be vindictive and opportunistic, whereas, nonpsychopathic rapists are more likely to report feeling anxious (Brown & Forth, 1997)
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 19
Psychopathy and Treatment
• Rice, Harris, and Cormier (1992) examined the effects of treatment with psychopaths. Violent recidivism rates were:– Untreated nonpsychopaths = 39%– Treated nonpsychopaths = 22%– Untreated psychopaths = 55%– Treated psychopaths = 77%
• Caution is required when interpreting such result. It could be that treatment to date just has not worked with psychopaths
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Psychopathy and Treatment
• Olver and Wong (2009) found that psychopathic sex offenders who remained in treatment showed positive gains and were less likely to reoffend
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 21
Psychopathy in Youth
• Two ways to assess psychopathic traits in youth:
1.Antisocial Process Screening Device: Observer rating scale to assess psychopathic traits in children (Frick & Hare, 2003)
2.Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version: Scale designed to measure psychopathic traits in adolescents (Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003)
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 22
Psychopathy in Youth
• Several issues with labeling a youth as a psychopath
• Are psychopathic traits in youth stable?– Study found fairly high stability across a 4
year period (Frick et al., 2003)– Study found moderate stability in traits from
ages 13 to 24 (Lynam et al., 2007)
• Are measures of psychopathy in youth assessing characteristics of adolescence?
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 23
Psychopathy in Youth
• Youth who score high on PCL:YV:– Begin criminal behaviours younger– Engage in more violence– Are at greater risk to reoffend once released
• Psychopathic traits are linked with delinquency and aggression, not anxiety and depression (Campbell, Porter, & Santor, 2004)
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Psychopathy in Youth
• Youth with psychopathic traits may be more responsive to intervention
• Youth with high PCL:YV scores were given treatment in an intensive treatment centre or a correctional centre (Caldwell et al., 2006)– Youth who received treatment from
correctional centre violently reoffended at twice the rate of those in intensive program in treatment centre
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Psychopathy Label
• Students presented with information on a defendant who was either psychopathic, psychotic, or no mental illness– Mock jurors were more likely to support death
penalty for psychopathic offenders (Edens, Colwell, Deforges, & Fernandez, 2005)
– Mock jurors were less likely to support death penalty for juveniles (Edens, Guy, & Fernandez, 2003)
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 26
Youth Psychopathy Label
• Diagnostic labels are not strongly related to probation officers’ recommendations of type of sanction, risk level, or treatment amenability (Murrie, Cornell, & McCoy, 2005)
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Nature vs. Nurture
• Nature: Innate characteristics
• Nurture: Personal experiences and environment
• Evidence to suggest genetic contribution to psychopathy
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Nature vs. Nurture
• Identical twins have more similar scores on Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; Lilienfield & Andrews, 1996) than do fraternal twins (Blonigen, Carlson, Krueger, & Patrick , 2003)
• Genetics account for between 29% and 59% of variance on PPI subscores
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 29
Does Family Matter?
• The Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (40 year prospective study)– 97% of men scoring 10 or more on PCL-R
had been convicted of an offense (Farrington, 2006)
– Children who experienced abuse in childhood had slightly higher PCL-R scores than the control group (Weiler & Widom, 1996)
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 30
Does Family Matter?
• Best family background predictors of developing psychopathy in adulthood are (Weiler & Widom, 1996):– Criminal parent– Having uninvolved father– Low family income– Disrupted family life– Experiencing physical neglect
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 31
Psychopathy and Law Enforcement
• Almost half of police killers had traits consistent with psychopathy (Pinizzotto & Davis, 1992)
• Psychopathic suspects are difficult to interrogate, according to Quayle (2008) they:– Try to outwit – Attempt to control the interrogation – Will not be fooled by bluffs – Enjoy being the focus of investigation– Attempt to shock
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 32
Response Modulation Deficit Theory
• Response Modulation Deficit Theory: Psychopaths fail to use contextual cues that are peripheral to a dominant response set to modulate their behaviour (Newman et al., 2007)– Fail to learn to avoid punishment – Do not pay attention to cues that would inhibit
behaviours
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Affective Theory of Psychopathy
• Affective Theory of Psychopathy: Psychopaths have a deficit in the experience of certain critical emotions that guide prosocial behaviour (Blair, 2006; Hare, 2007; Patrick, 2007)
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc. 11 - 34
Affective Theory of Psychopathy
• Williamson, Harpur, and Hare (1991)– Psychopaths did not identify emotional words
faster than neutral words
• Patrick, Bradley, and Lang (1993)– Psychopaths’ blink startle did not differ in
magnitude across pleasant, unpleasant and neutral slides
• Blair (2006, 2008) has proposed an amygdala dysfunction theory to explain the affective deficits seen in psychopaths