Psychopathy Psychopaths usually are (choose items that apply): –Dishonest –Self-centered –Personable –Engaging –Manipulative –Callous –Charming –Physically aggressive –History of conduct disorder (lying, cheating, stealing in childhood & adoloscence) –Risk takers –Men (rather than women) Watch clip from ‘the corporation’

Psychopathy Psychopaths: –are not psychotic (i.e., they retain a sense of reality) –know right from wrong (they just don’t care) –Men (rather than women) –make up 25% of prison population –Have no fear Some psychopathy features are conducive to success in reaching leadership position in the business world –Superficial likeability –Ruthlessness –Risk taking

Psychopathy Psychopaths: –Respond to unconditioned aversive stimulus (electric shock), but –do not develop conditioned fear to signals of punishment. (a tone that predicts a mild electric shock fails to increase their fear) –Thus, they do not learn from punishing feedback Emotion in psychopathy. Psychopaths have –difficulty recognizing distress cues in others (fear & sadness) –Absent ‘gut feeling’ response (unlike healthy adults, for whom seeing someone in distress is aversive) –Lack of empathy => failure to inhibit hurtful acts –Difficulty experiencing ‘guilt’

Psychopathy Mechanism: –inability learning from punishment (conditioned fear) –Are bored and seek out excitement (underarousal) –Unable to ‘feel’ others’ pain (Blair)

Callous-unemotional traits (psychopathic traits): –lack of guilt, –absence of empathy, –callous use of others –a strong genetic influence (twin studies in kids) Antisocial behavior: lying, stealing, trouble with law –With callous-unemotional traits: strong GENETIC influence –Without callous-unemotional traits: moderate genetic and shared environment influence