サイコパシー特性と多次元的共感性

Abstract

One of the features in psychopathy is a deficit of empathy. Without empathy, psychopathy can not inhibit to harm others. However, previous studies revealed that offenders had more empathic traits than non-offenders. Empathy is defined as multidimensional components (e.g.; cognitive empathy and emotional empathy), but not as a unitary. Generally, psychopathy is consisted of two subcomponents: Primary Psychopathy (PP; features of callousness and lack of empathy) and Secondary Psychopathy (SP; features of impulsiveness and uncontrollability to own behaviours). Here, we hypothesized that psychopaths, particularly who are dominant in PP, have less empathic traits both in cognitive and emotional domains, on the other hand, SP is more linked with emotional empathic trait, but less linked with cognitive one. Furthermore, we investigated not only to relate psychopathic traits and multidimensional empathy, but also to validate a Japanese version of the Primary and Secondary Psychopathy Scales (PSPS), using both Machiavellianism (MACH) scale and Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BAQ). Results indicated that correlations between PP and MACH and between PP and BAQ subscales of physical aggression and verbal aggression were higher than correlations between SP and MACH and BAQ, while correlations between SP and BAQ subscales of anger and hostility were higher than correlations between PP and the BAQ subscales. About empathy, consistent with our hypothesis, PP was linked with less empathy both in cognitive and emotional domains, whereas SP was linked with more emotional empathy, but was linked with less cognitive empathy. This reveals that PSPS dissociated PP and SP well. Although there remain some problems, PSPS is a useful scale for measurement of psychopathic traits.