Adult Psychopathy Research Articles

The Peer Relationships of Youths With Psychopathic Personality Traits

Because a callous use of others in many short-term relationships is one criterion for diagnosing psychopathy in adults, one would expect adolescents who are high on psychopathic personality traits to have unstable, conflict-ridden peer relationships. Little is known about this, however, or about the peer activities of youths who are high in psychopathic traits. The authors examined relationship quality and delinquency with peers in a community sample of 12- to 15-year-old adolescents who were stably high or stably low on psychopathic traits during 4 years. Peers also provided data on relationship quality. Youths high on psychopathic traits often engaged in antisocial activities with their peers. Although they reported conflict in their peer relationships, their peers did not report low support or high conflict in those relationships. The authors conclude that youths with psychopathic traits have biased perspectives on interactions with close peers, and this might underlie future problems.

The content validity of juvenile psychopathy: An empirical examination.

This study examined the content validity of a juvenile psychopathy measure, the Childhood Psychopathy Scale (CPS; D. R. Lynam, 1997), based on a downward translation of an adult instrument, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991). The CPS was compared with two other indices of juvenile psychopathy: (a) an index derived from expert ratings and (b) an empirical index based on correlations with adult psychopathy. The 100 items of the Common Language Q-Sort (CLQ; A. Caspi et al., 1992) provided a common metric for the comparison. Psychopathy and personality were assessed at age 13 years with the mother-reported CPS and the CLQ. Psychopathy was assessed at age 24 years with the interviewer-rated Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; S. D. Hart, D. N. Cox, & R. D. Hare, 1995). Data from over 250 participants of the middle sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were used to examine these relations. Item content analyses demonstrated considerable overlap among the three indices, indicating that the downward translation utilizes criteria similar to those of experts and the empirically-derived measure. In addition, these indices, even after removing overlapping items, demonstrated considerable convergence, also supporting the content validity of the downward translation. These results suggest that the downward translation method is adequate for understanding the juvenile psychopathy construct.

Adolescent Conduct Disorder and Interpersonal Callousness as Predictors of Psychopathy in Young Adults

Unfortunately, very little research has examined the link between antisocial personality traits in childhood and adult psychopathy. This study used data from a clinic-referred sample of 177 boys, assessed annually from recruitment (ages 7 to 12) through age 19. Parent and teacher ratings of interpersonal callousness (IC) were tested at predictors of psychopathy ratings at 18 and 19. In regression models, conduct disorder (CD) and teacher-rated IC both predicted both Factor 1 (interpersonal and affective items) and Factor 2 (impulsivity and antisocial behavior items) of the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised, as did child IQ. Prenatal tobacco exposure and cortisol measured in adolescence predicted only Factor 1. When each factor was included in the prediction of the other, CD and IC no longer predicted Factor 1 but remained significant predictors of Factor 2.

Interpersonal and Affective Features of Psychopathy in Children and Adolescents: Advancing a Developmental Perspective Introduction to Special Section

The interpersonal (e.g., manipulative, deceitful) and affective (e.g., callous, unemotional) features associated with adult psychopathy have been identified in children and adolescents. Although early research suggests that these features have clinical utility in identifying a particularly severe and recalcitrant form of antisocial behavior with unique developmental origins, several issues regarding these features need to be addressed. This special section is designed to address developmental questions regarding the interpersonal/affective features of psychopathy that have been posed by researchers in the field. Articles included in this special section focus on the structure and stability of the interpersonal/affective features of psychopathy from childhood to adolescence as well as the relation between these features and measures of psychopathy in adulthood. Articles also address the relation between the affective components of psychopathy and ADHD symptoms, emotional problems, and parenting practices in young girls, as well as the interactive role of temperamental fearfulness/anxiety and parenting practices in predicting the development of the affective features of psychopathy. Finally, the influence of a parenting intervention on the affective features of psychopathy in boys diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder is examined.

Adolescent psychopathy features: 6‐Year temporal stability and the prediction of externalizing symptoms during the transition to adulthood

This study investigated the 6-year stability and predictive validity of adolescent psychopathy features during the transition to young adulthood. It represents one of the longest outcome studies of youth psychopathy to date, and therefore addresses a primary criticism of the research area (i.e., lack of demonstrated associations between child and adult psychopathy features). Recruited participants were 475 males enrolled in the Minnesota Twin and Family Study who had completed a research-based measure of psychopathy features consisting of separate emotional detachment (or affective) and antisocial tendencies (or behavioral) subscales. These psychopathy features and various externalizing symptoms (i.e., conduct problems, impulsivity, and substance use disorder) were assessed through rating scales and structured diagnostic interview at an intake assessment (ages 16-18) and 6-year follow-up. Consistent with prediction, adolescent psychopathy features displayed moderate stability across the transition from adolescence to adulthood [intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) = 0.40-0.41]. The antisocial tendencies subscale was uniquely related to most externalizing symptoms both in adolescence and in adulthood, whereas the emotional detachment subscale showed appropriate discriminant validity in its lack of association with externalizing symptoms. These findings suggest that psychopathy features are relatively stable from adolescence to adulthood and provide possible insights into the development and maintenance of externalizing difficulties during the adult transition.

Instrumentally Violent Youths

Psychopathy in adults has been well documented as a robust predictor of violence. Explanations for this relation have focused on the affective deficit that characterizes psychopathy. This study examined the relations among psychopathic traits, empathy, attachment, and motivations for violence in 51 incarcerated adolescent offenders. Psychopathy scores were related to both instrumental and reactive violence. Youths who were classified as instrumentally violent scored higher on psychopathy than those who were not, which could be attributed to the interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy. These findings provide support for the construct of psychopathy existing in youths. Implications of the current study for potential interventions and prevention of persistent violent offending are discussed.

Longitudinal evidence that psychopathy scores in early adolescence predict adult psychopathy.

This study examined the relation between psychopathy assessed at age 13 by using the mother-reported Childhood Psychopathy Scale (D. R. Lynam, 1997) and psychopathy assessed at age 24 by using the interviewer-rated Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; S. D. Hart, D. N. Cox, & R. D. Hare, 1995). Data from over 250 participants of the middle sample of the Pittsburgh Youth Study were used to examine this relation; approximately 9% of the sample met criteria for a possible PCL:SV diagnosis. Despite the long time lag, different sources, and different methods, psychopathy from early adolescence into young adulthood was moderately stable (r=.31). The relation was present for the PCL:SV total and facet scores, was not moderated by initial risk status or initial psychopathy level, and held even after controlling for other age 13 variables. Diagnostic stability was somewhat lower. Both specificity and negative predictive power were good, and sensitivity was adequate, but positive predictive power was poor. This constitutes the first demonstration of the relative stability of psychopathy from adolescence into adulthood and provides evidence for the incremental utility of the adolescent psychopathy construct. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Exploring Adult Personality and Psychopathy Tendencies in Former Childhood Hyperactive Delinquent Males

The focus of this article is on (1) the possible influence of childhood hyperactive behavior on adult psychopathy, and (2) how adult, clinically rated, psychopathy tendencies are related to self-reported personality. The sample comprised 152 male subjects, including young lawbreakers (n = 98) and controls (n = 54), prospectively studied over their lifetime. Ratings of childhood behavior were obtained from a psychiatrist and data on adult personality (using the Karolinska Scales of Personality and a shortened form of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire) and psychopathy were obtained using the Psychopathy Check List (PCL). Subjects with high PCL as adults (n = 36) scored higher than low PCL subjects (n = 116) on the majority of the personality dimensions studied, even when controlling for criminality. Former childhood hyperactive subjects (n = 26) displayed higher impulsivity and hostility than nonhyperactive subjects (n = 126) when criminality was controlled for. Among the high PCL group subjects there was an overrepresentation of childhood hyperactive males. They displayed significantly higher impulsivity and verbal aggression than their respective nonhyperactive counterparts and were characterized by extreme scores on several psychopathy-related personality scales. Further, there was a significant interaction effect between hyperactivity and PCL on the narrow/noninclusive form of impulsivity. The findings of the present personality-based approach were in favor of childhood hyperactivity being crucial as a risk indicator in the development of psychopathic tendencies.

The Eyes Have It: How Callous Children See Fear

The amygdala has a major role in fear recognition, and impaired amygdala functioning can lead to adult psychopathy. These investigators examined the

Attention to the eyes and fear-recognition deficits in child psychopathy

The ability to recognise fear is impaired in people with damage to the amygdala and, interestingly, in adult psychopathy. Here we confirm that deficits in recognising fear exist in children with psychopathic traits. We show for the first time that, as with patients with amygdala damage, this deficit can be temporarily corrected by simply asking them to focus on the eyes of other people. These data support models of psychopathy that emphasise specific dysfunction of the amygdala and suggest an innovative approach for intervening early in the development of psychopathy.

Factor structure of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV) in incarcerated adolescents.

Two studies are reported on the underlying dimensions of the psychopathy construct in adolescents as measured by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL: YV; Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003). In Study 1, the PCL: YV item ratings for 505 male adolescents incarcerated in 5 different settings in North America were used to test the fit of 3 models that have been hypothesized to represent the structure of psychopathy in adults. A 4th model based on parceling PCL: YV items was also tested. In Study 2, these models were tested with a sample of 233 male adolescents incarcerated in 2 facilities in the United Kingdom. Model fit results indicated that the 18-item 4-factor model developed by Hare (2003) and a modified version of a 13-item 3-factor model developed by Cooke and Michie (2001) were associated with generally good fit. Because the 4-factor model is a less saturated model than the 3-factor model (better parameter to data point ratio), it survived a riskier test of disconfirmation. Implications for the nature of psychopathy in youth are discussed.

S.22.01 Early onset of bipolar disorders

S.22.01 Early onset of bipolar disorders

Reduced Electrodermal Activity in Psychopathy-Prone Adolescents.

This study tests the hypothesis that psychopathy-prone adolescents show reduced anticipatory skin conductance responding. Electrodermal activity was recorded while participants anticipated and responded to a 105 dB signaled or unsignaled white-noise burst. Using an extreme groups design, the authors used Child Psychopathy Scale (D. R. Lynam, 1997) scores from a community sample of 335 male adolescents (age 16) to form control (n = 65) and psychopathy-prone (n = 65) groups. Significantly more psychopathy-prone participants were nonresponders in the signaled anticipatory (p = .014), signaled responsivity (p = .037), and unsignaled responsivity (p = .003) conditions compared with controls. Anticipatory hyporesponsivity of psychopathy-prone adolescents similar to the electrodermal hyporesponsivity found in psychopathic adults suggests that this autonomic impairment is present by adolescence and may predispose individuals to adult psychopathy.

The Development of Psychopathy

In this review, we explore two aspects of the development of psychopathy. First, we examine what psychopathy looks like across time. Second, we ask where psychopathy comes from. Much recent empirical work supports the idea that psychopathy in childhood and adolescence looks much like psychopathy in adulthood. Research utilizing recently created juvenile psychopathy indices demonstrates that juvenile psychopathy can be assessed reliably and that the nomological network surrounding the construct is quite similar to the one around adult psychopathy. Juvenile psychopathy is robustly related to offending, other externalizing problems, low levels of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and deficits in emotional processing and inhibition. Juvenile psychopathy is also relatively stable across adolescence. Much less research has examined from whence psychopathy comes, although several theories are reviewed. We close with a discussion of recent objections to the downward developmental extension of psychopathy to juveniles and some suggestions for additional research.

Linking Adult Psychopathy with Childhood Hyperactivity-Impulsivity-Attention Problems and Conduct Problems Through Retrospective Self-Reports

The purpose of the present study was to test whether adult criminals with psychopathy diagnoses, more than those without, have histories of hyperactivity-impulsivity-attention problems (HIA) and conduct problems (CP). We compared psychopathic and nonpsychopathic violent criminal offenders on retrospective reports of conduct problems before the age of 15 and hyperactivity-impulsivity-attention problems before the age of 10. We used a sample of 186 adult men sentenced to prison in Sweden for 4 years or more for violent, nonsexual crimes. The mean age was 30.7( SD = 9.4). The results showed that a combination of childhood HIA problems and CP was typical for adult psychopathic offenders. They were four times more likely than chance to have had a combination of HIA problems and CP during childhood and only one-fifth as likely than chance to have had neither problem. Nonpsychopathic offenders, on the other hand, were five times more likely than chance to have had neither problem and only one-quarter as likely than chance to have had both problems.

Psychopathic personality in young people

This article is an overview of developments in psychopathy and their application to children and adolescents. A key question is whether or not psychopathy is stable throughout the lifespan. Some characteristics indicate phenotypic similarities with adult psychopathy, and current instruments appear to be measuring similar constructs across the age ranges. Although the literature on developmental aspects of psychopathy in young people is limited, a number of instruments have been designed to measure the construct. These tools appear to have reasonable construct, concurrent and predictive validity, but we cannot yet recommend their routine use in clinical practice or in the criminal justice system, given the limited evidence base on their predictive validity. At best, they should be viewed as a means of subtyping potentially high-risk groups with a view to treatment planning.

Évaluation des traits caractéristiques de la psychopathie chez les adolescents délinquants

Resume L’objectif est ici d’evaluer dans quelle mesure des traits reconnus comme caracteristiques de la psychopathie se retrouvent chez des adolescents delinquants multirecidivistes, et de comparer les traits de personnalite de ces adolescents avec une population controle. Un groupe d’adolescents places en Institution publique de protection de la jeunesse repondant aux criteres diagnostiques du trouble des conduites (n = 47) a complete le Temperament and Character Inventory-TCI, outil dimensionnel evaluant 7 dimensions de personnalite. Les analyses statistiques montrent des differences significatives (p

The relationship between childhood Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and conduct problems and adult psychopathy in male inmates

Two categories of childhood problems frequently implicated in the development of adult psychopathy are conduct problems (CP) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Three perspectives regarding the relationship between childhood symptomatology and adult antisocial outcomes were examined: the conduct-problem mediation, the independent prediction, and the comorbid subtype positions. Relationships between self-report measures of childhood CP and ADHD and interviewer-rated psychopathy scores (PCL-R) were examined for 275 Caucasian and African-American male inmates. Although both childhood CP and ADHD were associated with PCL-R Total and Antisocial Lifestyle (Factor 2) ratings, the influence of ADHD was largely mediated by CP. Although there was evidence for a slight independent contribution of ADHD to the antisocial lifestyle aspects of psychopathy, there was little evidence congruent with the comorbid subtype position: The higher psychopathy ratings of individuals in the comorbid group relative to those of other groups appeared attributable to additive rather than interactive influences of childhood CP and ADHD. Finally, neither set of childhood symptoms was helpful in understanding core emotional/interpersonal aspects of psychopathy (Factor 1).

Adolescents with psychopathic characteristics in a substance abusing cohort: treatment process and outcomes.

Psychopathy is a condition with important consequences both for individuals who experience it and for the communities in which they live. Although the assessment of psychopathy among adolescents remains controversial, some evidence suggests that the affective and behavioral traits of adult psychopathy begin to emerge in childhood (B. B. Lahey & A. Kazdin, 1990) and continue across the lifespan (A. E. Forth, S. D. Hart, & R. D. Hare, 1990). The present study used the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; A. E. Forth, S. D. Kosson, & R. D. Hare, in press) to retrospectively assess psychopathic characteristics, treatment process, and outcomes of 64 individuals referred for treatment to a substance abuse program for adjudicated adolescents. This study focused on the relationship between psychopathic characteristics and treatment process and outcome variables, including attrition rates, quality of participation, substance use throughout treatment, clinical improvement, and 12-month recidivism rates. Psychopathic characteristics were negatively related to treatment process and outcome variables, including attrition, participation, substance use, and clinical improvement. Psychopathic characteristics were positively related to the number of arrests in the 12 months following treatment completion. Implications for treatment and future research with adolescents displaying psychopathic characteristics are discussed.

Adult psychopathy and violent behavior in males with early neglect and abuse

Within a Swedish longitudinal project, possible implications of childhood neglect and/or abuse on adult psychopathy checklist (PCL) scores and violent offending were studied. The subjects were males (n=199), recruited from a socially high-risk neighborhood and grouped on an index variable of victimization, yielding high (n=110) and low victimization (n=89) groups. To highlight a possible comorbidity of all three problems in the same persons, a combined dimensional and categorical (configural frequency analysis, CFA) approach was applied. The high victimization subjects exerted significantly more violence, as did subjects with high PCL scores. Furthermore, in the CFA two significant 'types' were found: one type indicating that 'high' victimization in childhood is closely linked to later 'extensive' violence and 'high' PCL scores at adult age in the same individuals; the other supporting a frequent co-occurring of 'low' victimization in childhood, 'none or minor' later indications of violence and 'low' adult PCL scores. The results point to possible underlying mechanisms linked to all three problems characterizing the affected subjects.