Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc Chapter 11 Psychopaths

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc 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 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 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 Assessment Scores range from 0 to 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc 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 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 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 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)

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc 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

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc 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 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)

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc Nature vs. Nurture Nature: Innate characteristics Nurture: Personal experiences and environment Evidence to suggest genetic contribution to psychopathy

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc 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 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 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 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 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

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Canada Inc 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 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