1 / 35

Psychopathy

Psychopathy. William P. Wattles, Ph.D. Francis Marion University. Psychopathy. Psychopathy  is a personality disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deception. Construct.

lalasa
Download Presentation

Psychopathy

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Psychopathy William P. Wattles, Ph.D. Francis Marion University

  2. Psychopathy • Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deception.

  3. Construct • Construct-An idea or theory containing various conceptual elements, typically one considered to be subjective and not based on empirical evidence. • Measure Individual differences to: • Predict • Understand • Change

  4. Construct Validity • The quality of measures and manipulations. • Important for all three claims • How well have you measured each of the variables in the study? • convergent validity, • predictive validity, • Types of reliability

  5. Cleckley

  6. PCL-R

  7. PPI-R • The PPI-R is a 154-item self-report measure of both global psychopathy and the component traits of psychopathy.

  8. Triarchic model • Disinhibition • Boldness • Meanness

  9. Factor Analysis PCL-R • Factor 1 • Low fear temperament /feckless disregard toward others. • Lack of remorse • lack of empathy • conning\manipulative • Factor 2 • disinhibition/impulsivity • negative affect/anti-social behavior • need for stimulation • parasitic lifestyle

  10. Nature/Nurture • Old view, born psychopath. • Newer view, risk factors interact with environment (developmental view)

  11. Factor Analysis • Factor 1 • Low fear temperament /feckless disregard toward others. • Lack of remorse • lack of empathy • conning\manipulative • narcissistic • Factor 2 • disinhibition/impulsivity • negative affect/anti-social behavior • need for stimulation • parasitic lifestyle

  12. Operationalization • The process of defining something in a way that can be measured. • Psychopathy is currently operationalized by the PCL-R

  13. Construct Validity of PCL-R • High overall scores on the PCL-R show positive associations with measures of • impulsivity • aggression • Machiavellianism (a trait marked by ruthlessly pragmatic and cynical attitudes) • persistent criminal behavior • negative relations with measures of • empathy and • affiliation

  14. PCL-R cutoff score 30 out of 40 • No consensus definition of symptom criteria for diagnosis of Psychopathy.

  15. Taxonomy • the science of identifying and naming things, and arranging them into a classification • The term  dimension refers to any scaled continuum

  16. “…Data indicate that psychopathic individuals differ from other people in degree rather than in kind.”

  17. Psychopathy is synonymous with violence. • Yes • No

  18. MMPI-2 • Scale 4 Psychopathic Deviate • a measure of rebelliousness. High scorers are often in conflict with authorities.

  19. Psychopathy is synonymous with psychosis. • Yes • No • psychopathic individuals are generally rational, free of delusions, and well oriented to their surroundings

  20. Psychopathy is synonymous with antisocial personality disorder • Yes • No • anti-social, criminal, violent

  21. Psychopathic individuals are born, not made. • Yes • No • multicausality • constitution interacts with environment

  22. Psychopathy is inalterable • Yes • No • Not supported by research.

  23. Disinhibition • Impulse-control problems • lack of planfulness • impaired regulation of affect and urges • need for immediate gratification • deficient behavioral restraint • Externalizing behavior • Nexus of impulsivity and negative emotionality.

  24. Boldness • Ability to remain clam and focused • Rapid recovery from stressful events • high self-assurance • tolearnce for unfamiliarity and danger • Nexus of social dominance, low stress reactivity and thrill seeking.

  25. Meanness • deficient empathy • disdain for close attachments • rebelliousness • excitement seeking • exploitativeness • empowerment through cruelty • nexus of high dominance and low affiliation

  26. Nexus • A connected group or series: "a nexus of ideas". • as the nexus for three great religions, Jerusalem has had a troubled as well as illustrious history

  27. Causes of Psychopathy • Research with twins suggests around 50% heritability

  28. Operationalize • Review refers to • PCL-R psychopathic offenders • Cleckleyan psychopaths • PPI-R

  29. Low fear IQ • Lack of fear inhibits learning. • aversive buzzer conditioning • passive-avoidance learning-withold wrong response • weaker responses in anticipation of shock • some neuroimaging support

  30. Cognitive-processing deviation • Response Modulation- • difficulty switching from an ongoing action in response to cues. • fear reactivity deficits occur during concurrent distraction

  31. Successful Psychopathy? • Little is know because the primary measure PCL-R assume violent and criminal behavior.

  32. Predictabilty • Facet 4 provided most value

  33. The End

  34. Sampling Error • True Population Mean • 74.4 • Sample means for n=3

More Related