Dimensions Of Psychopathy Research Articles

Etiology of Triarchic Psychopathy Dimensions in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

The current study undertook analyses of genealogical data from a sample of 178 socially-housed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) with well-documented pedigrees, to clarify the etiologic bases of triarchic psychopathy dimensions and the influence of early social rearing experiences. Whereas biometric analyses for the full sample indicated significant heritability for the boldness dimension of psychopathy only, heritability estimates varied by early rearing, with all three triarchic dimensions showing significant heritabilities among mother-reared but not nursery-reared apes. For mother-reared apes, both genes and environment contributed to covariance between meanness and disinhibition, whereas environment contributed mainly to covariation between these dimensions and boldness. Results indicate contributions of both genes and environment to psychopathic tendencies, with an important role for early-rearing in their relative contributions to distinct phenotypic subdimensions. In conjunction with findings from human studies, results provide valuable insights into core biobehavioral processes relevant to psychological illness and health.

"Parsing the heterogeneity of psychopathy and aggression: Differential associations across dimensions and gender": Correction to Hecht et al. (2016).

Reports an error in "Parsing the heterogeneity of psychopathy and aggression: Differential associations across dimensions and gender" by Lisa K. Hecht, Joanna M. Berg, Scott O. Lilienfeld and Robert D. Latzman (Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 2016[Jan], Vol 7[1], 2-14). In the article, there was an error in Table 3 and in the fifth paragraph of the Results. The correct information has been provided. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2015-29370-001.) Psychopathy is a multidimensional construct that is broadly associated with both reactive (RA) and proactive (PA) aggression. Nevertheless, a consistent pattern of associations between psychopathy and these 2 aggression subtypes has yet to emerge because of methodological differences across studies. Moreover, research has yet to examine gender differences in the relation between dimensions of psychopathy and RA/PA. Accordingly, we examined the associations between psychopathy dimensions, as operationalized by 2 self-report instruments, and subtypes of aggression within a diverse sample of undergraduates (N = 1,158). Results confirmed that psychopathy is broadly associated with PA, as well as RA, with dimensions of psychopathy evidencing common and distinct associations with both raw and residual RA and PA scores. In both models of psychopathy, PA was significantly and positively associated with all dimensions, whereas RA was significantly negatively associated with interpersonal and affective dimensions, and significantly positively associated with dimensions related to an antisocial and impulsive lifestyle. Gender significantly moderated associations among dimensions of psychopathy and RA/PA, such that the antisocial/behavioral dimension of psychopathy was positively associated with PA for males, whereas the antisocial/behavioral dimension was positively associated with RA for females. Results suggest both generality and specificity of psychopathy dimensions as related to subtypes of aggression, as well as possible differential pathways from psychopathy to different subtypes of aggression in men and women. (PsycINFO Database Record

Smith and Lilienfeld's meta-analysis of the response modulation hypothesis: Important theoretical and quantitative clarifications.

In the first meta-analytic review of the response modulation hypothesis (RMH), an attention-based model for understanding the etiology of psychopathy, Smith and Lilienfeld (2015) report that the average effect size for response modulation deficits in psychopathic individuals fell in the small to medium range (r = .20; p < .001, d = .41). Moreover, support for the RMH extended to both psychopathy dimensions, applied across diverse assessments and settings, and spanned child, adult, female, and male samples. The analysis also revealed good empirical support for a central tenet of the RMH, namely that response modulation deficits are not limited to the processing of threat or other emotion stimuli. Unfortunately, the Smith and Lilienfeld meta-analysis contains several theoretical and quantitative problems, including failing to distinguish adequately between the tasks used to evaluate RMH predictions and the theory itself, confusion regarding the evolution of the RMH and its impact on effect sizes, misinterpretations of RMH predictions and evidence regarding dominant response sets, passive avoidance, and primary task performance, and biased statements promoting the low fear model over the RMH. In this response, we endeavor to reduce misunderstanding by addressing the most salient issues, with the hope that increasing clarity will sharpen the focus of future research and result in more valid assessments of the RMH. (PsycINFO Database Record

Emotional dysregulation and trauma predicting psychopathy dimensions in female and male juvenile offenders.

BackgroundPsychopathy is a specific syndrome that predicts future violent and aggressive behavior in adults. Studies in youth and adults have demonstrated a strong association between early traumatic incidents and later dissocial behavior. Moreover, the impact of personality pathology and emotional dysregulation on aggressive and violent behavior is well established. However, few studies have addressed the relationship between early traumatization and psychopathic traits in adolescents.MethodThe present study examined associations between both general dimensions of personality pathology and early traumatic experiences and the dimensions of psychopathy in 170 male and 171 female adolescent detainees.ResultsAnalyses revealed associations between physical abuse, emotional dysregulation and psychopathic traits in delinquent boys but not in delinquent girls.ConclusionHypothesized relationships between trauma, personality pathology could only be confirmed in the lifestyle and antisocial, but not in the core affective and interpersonal facets of psychopathy.

Evaluación psicométrica de la psicopatía: una revisión metaanalítica

Most of the literature on psychopathy is focused on its measurement. There are four reference tools used to assess psychopathy: the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL), the Levenson's Primary and Secondary Psychopathy Scales (LPSP), the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP), and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI). In order to do this, a psychometric correlational meta-analysis was designed to test the convergent validity between these tools on the psychopathy dimension and the two common factors among them: the affective and anti-social deviation factors. The results showed a positive, significant and generalisable convergent validity between tools, in the psychopathy dimension, as well as in the affective and anti-social factors. Moreover, the results also showed that the PCL was the most appropriate tool to measure psychopathy in clinical samples, and the PPI was so in sub-clinical cases.

The Caring-Uncaring Emotional (CUE) Inventory: A Pilot Study of a New Measure of Affective Psychopathy Traits

&lt;p&gt;An affective dimension of psychopathy, e.g., callousness, lack of empathy, unemotional responsiveness, is essential to the study and understanding of psychopathy. It may be advantageous to have available brief measures of the affective dimension that may be utilized with adults and/or youths. The current study aims to provide preliminary validation of a new, brief, self-report measure of the affective dimension of psychopathy that may be suitable in the study of both adults and adolescents. A pilot study of the Caring-Uncaring Emotional (CUE) Inventory was conducted with 155 men and women recruited from a community sample. The 23-item CUE Inventory was found to have high internal consistency reliability (α = .91) and was found to have high correlations with an expanded, 36-item version of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP; Levenson, Kiehl, &amp;amp; Fitzpatrick, 1995), especially with the expanded LSRP Callous subscale (&lt;em&gt;r&lt;/em&gt; = .85), thus supporting preliminary concurrent validity. The CUE was only modestly associated with the Antisocial subscale of the expanded LSRP, further supporting it as a measure of affective rather than behavioral traits. The CUE accounted for an additional 57% of the variance in LSRP total scores after controlling for demographic variables. An Exploratory Factor Analysis suggested a three-factor solution, with the first factor accounting for approximately 37% of the variance in scores and with high to very high loadings on this factor, which appears, tentatively, as a good measure of callousness. In conclusion, the CUE may function as an operational representative of callousness in adults in a community sample. Further study is needed to better clarify the latent structure of this scale and to determine its associations with other similar measures of the affective dimension of psychopathy and with other external correlates. The potential application of this measure in youths remains to be studied.&lt;/p&gt;

Impulsive-Antisocial Dimension of Psychopathy Linked to Enlargement and Abnormal Functional Connectivity of the Striatum

BackgroundPsychopathy is a mental health disorder characterized by callous and impulsive antisocial behavior, and it is associated with a high incidence of violent crime, substance abuse, and recidivism. Recent studies suggest that the striatum may be a key component of the neurobiological basis for the disorder, although structural findings have been mixed, and functional connectivity of the striatum in psychopathy has yet to be fully examined. MethodsWe performed a multimodal neuroimaging study of striatum volume and functional connectivity in psychopathy using a large sample of adult male prison inmates (N = 124). We conducted volumetric analyses in striatal subnuclei and subsequently assessed resting-state functional connectivity in areas where volume was related to psychopathy severity. ResultsTotal Psychopathy Checklist–Revised and factor 2 scores (which index the impulsive-antisocial traits of psychopathy) were associated with larger striatal subnuclei volumes and increased volume in focal areas throughout the striatum, particularly in the nucleus accumbens and putamen bilaterally. Furthermore, at many of the striatal areas where volume was positively associated with factor 2 scores, psychopathy severity was also associated with abnormal functional connectivity with other brain regions, including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, ventral midbrain, and other areas of the striatum. The results were not attributable to age, race, IQ, substance use history, or intracranial volume. ConclusionsThese findings associate the impulsive-antisocial dimension of psychopathy with enlarged striatal subnuclei and aberrant functional connectivity between the striatum and other brain regions. Furthermore, the colocalization of volumetric and functional connectivity findings suggests that these neural abnormalities may be pathophysiologically linked.

Psychopathy: Relations with three conceptions of intelligence.

Psychopathy is often associated with heightened intelligence in the eyes of clinicians and laypersons despite mixed research support for this possibility. We adopted a fine-grained approach to studying the relations among psychopathy and multiple indices of intelligence, including both cognitively based intelligence (CBI) and emotional intelligence (EI), in a large sample of undergraduates (N = 1,257, 70% female, 82% Caucasian). We found no clear support for marked associations between psychopathy and CB I measures, with the magnitudes of these relations being small. With the exception of the dimensions of Fearless Dominance (FD) and Coldheartedness (C), psychopathy dimensions were negatively associated with (EI). In contrast, we found some support for the hypothesis that intelligence served as a protective factor against antisocial behavior among individuals with high levels of psychopathy. On balance, our findings show weak relations between psychopathy and intelligence, suggesting that the link between them may be less robust than theoretical models portray, at least among undergraduates. (PsycINFO Database Record

Psychopathy in childhood: Toward better informing the DSM-5 and ICD-11 conduct disorder specifiers.

Callous unemotional traits have been incorporated into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5) and are being considered for the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11). Despite the centrality of callous-unemotional (CU) traits it is only 1 of 3 dimensions of child psychopathy. It is proposed that the grandiose-manipulative (GM) and daring-impulsive (DI) traits also be considered and potentially incorporated as specifiers for conduct disorder (CD) in future versions of the DSM and ICD. Such an addition would make a larger contribution to our understanding of youth with CD allowing clinicians to better describe and treat individuals with conduct problems (CP). However, before such specifiers are adopted, future research is needed to test the proposed specifiers interaction with CD.

Social and emotional intelligence moderate the relationship between psychopathy traits and social perception

This research explored how psychopathy relates to individuals' ability to discriminate trustworthy and untrustworthy faces and faces displaying Duchenne versus non-Duchenne smiles. Participants (N=150) categorized faces as trustworthy or untrustworthy in Study 1. Participants (N=151) categorized faces as displaying Duchenne or non-Duchenne smiles in Study 2. Participants in both studies then completed measures of psychopathy, emotional intelligence, and social intelligence. In Study 1, higher levels of secondary psychopathy were associated with reduced trustworthiness detection for individuals lower in emotional intelligence. Both primary and secondary psychopathy were associated with reduced trustworthiness detection for individuals lower in social intelligence. In Study 2, higher levels of primary psychopathy were associated with reduced accuracy at discriminating Duchenne from non-Duchenne smiles for individuals lower in emotional and social intelligence. Independent of social and emotional intelligence, higher levels of secondary psychopathy were associated with reduced accuracy in discriminating trustworthy from untrustworthy faces and Duchenne from non-Duchenne smiles; primary psychopathy was unrelated to trustworthiness and smile discrimination accuracy. These studies suggest that the relationship between psychopathy and accurate identification of trustworthiness and affiliation cues in faces is influenced by the dimension of psychopathy and levels of emotional and social intelligence, respectively. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Psychopathic Personality in the General Population: Differences and Similarities Across Gender.

This study aimed to identify distinct subgroups of adults in a general population sample (N = 2,500; 52.6% females) based on their scores on three psychopathy dimensions. Using latent profile analysis, five groups were identified among males and females separately, including a psychopathic personality group. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that this latter group had higher levels of aggression, offending, substance use, attention-deficit/hyperactivity symptoms, internalizing problems, and maltreatment than most of the other groups. Associated features of males and females with a psychopathic personality were very similar; however, salient gender differences did emerge. Specifically, females with a psychopathic personality were more frequently exposed to sexual abuse, expressed more emotional difficulties, and engaged in higher levels of relational aggression. In conclusion, person-oriented analyses identified adults with a personality that looks like psychopathy, and furthered our understanding of gender similarities and differences in these adults.

Parsing the heterogeneity of psychopathy and aggression: Differential associations across dimensions and gender.

Psychopathy is a multidimensional construct that is broadly associated with both reactive (RA) and proactive (PA) aggression. Nevertheless, a consistent pattern of associations between psychopathy and these 2 aggression subtypes has yet to emerge because of methodological differences across studies. Moreover, research has yet to examine gender differences in the relation between dimensions of psychopathy and RA/PA. Accordingly, we examined the associations between psychopathy dimensions, as operationalized by 2 self-report instruments, and subtypes of aggression within a diverse sample of undergraduates (N = 1,158). Results confirmed that psychopathy is broadly associated with PA, as well as RA, with dimensions of psychopathy evidencing common and distinct associations with both raw and residual RA and PA scores. In both models of psychopathy, PA was significantly and positively associated with all dimensions, whereas RA was significantly negatively associated with interpersonal and affective dimensions, and significantly positively associated with dimensions related to an antisocial and impulsive lifestyle. Gender significantly moderated associations among dimensions of psychopathy and RA/PA, such that the antisocial/behavioral dimension of psychopathy was positively associated with PA for males, whereas the antisocial/behavioral dimension was positively associated with RA for females. Results suggest both generality and specificity of psychopathy dimensions as related to subtypes of aggression, as well as possible differential pathways from psychopathy to different subtypes of aggression in men and women.

The response modulation hypothesis of psychopathy: A meta-analytic and narrative analysis.

The causes of psychopathy, a condition characterized by interpersonal (e.g., superficial charm), affective (e.g., lack of empathy), and behavioral (e.g., impulsive actions) features, remain contested. The present review examines 1 of the most influential etiological models of psychopathy, the response modulation hypothesis (RMH), which proposes that psychopathic individuals exhibit difficulties in adjusting their behavior in the presence of a dominant response set. We conduct a meta-analysis and narrative literature review to examine the RMH quantitatively and qualitatively, estimate the statistical effects of response modulation (RM) deficits in psychopathic individuals, and ascertain the boundary conditions of the RMH. Ninety-four samples from published and unpublished studies involving 7,340 participants were identified for inclusion. Overall results provided some support for the RMH, revealing a small to medium relationship between psychopathy and RM deficits (r = .20, p < .001, d = .41) that extended to both psychopathy dimensions. Moreover, as predicted by the RMH, RM deficits were observed for both affectively neutral and affectively laden tasks. A number of moderators, such as anxiety, laboratory task, dependent measure, psychopathy measure, and race, contributed to significant variability in effect sizes; we also found evidence for potential publication bias using 2 methods, raising questions concerning the robustness of RM findings. An ancillary narrative review revealed that the RMH is inconsistent with a number of replicated findings in the psychopathy literature, suggesting that the RMH, at least in its present form, is unlikely to provide a comprehensive etiological account of psychopathy. Nevertheless, more recent attentional versions of the RMH may hold promise with respect to intervention. Further fruitful directions for research on the RMH, including the use of multiple dependent measures of RM and latent variable approaches, are delineated.

Self-reported psychopathy in the Middle East: a cross-national comparison across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

BackgroundThe construct of psychopathy is sparsely researched in the non-Western world, particularly in the Middle East. As such, the extent to which the psychopathy construct can be generalized to other cultures, including Middle Eastern Arab cultures, is largely unknown.MethodsThe present study investigated the cross-cultural/national comparability of self-reported psychopathy in the United States (N = 786), Egypt (N = 296), and Saudi Arabia (N = 341).ResultsA widely used psychopathy questionnaire demonstrated largely similar properties across the American and Middle Eastern samples and associations between Five Factor Model (FFM) personality and psychopathy were broadly consistent. Nevertheless, several notable cross-cultural differences emerged, particularly with regard to the internal consistencies of psychopathy dimensions and the correlates of Coldheartedness. Additionally, in contrast to most findings in Western cultures, associations between psychopathy and FFM personality varied consistently by gender in the Egyptian sample.ConclusionsThese findings lend preliminary support to the construct validity of self-reported psychopathy in Arabic-speaking cultures, providing provisional evidence for the cross-cultural generalizability of certain core characteristics of psychopathy.

Limitations of Extending Juvenile Psychopathy Research Assessment Tools and Methods to Forensic Settings

Psychopathic or psychopathic-like characteristics in youths have been studied extensively over the past two decades across community, clinic-referred and adjudicated samples [1-4]. Frick and White [2] asserted that a review of the literature provides “compelling evidence” of an association between psychopathic traits and severe conduct problems, violence, aggression, and delinquency across samples of youths. In more recent years specific dimensions of psychopathy, especially callous-unemotional (CU) traits, which reflect affective features of psychopathy, have become the focus of numerous studies [5]. An accumulation of empirical evidence strongly suggests that youths with high levels of CU traits represent a subgroup of antisocial youth who display more severe and persistent aggression and violence, especially including both instrumental and reactive aggression, and a general lack of empathy and guilt [1-4,6-7]. A recent comprehensive review of the literature by Frick, et al. [4] on the role of CU traits in understanding severe conduct problems included 269 studies published after 1990, 191 of which were published in 2007 or later. The review concluded that the research seems to indicate that “... children and adolescents with severe conduct problems and elevated CU traits show distinct genetic, cognitive, emotional, biological, environmental, and personality characteristics that seem to implicate different etiological factors underlying their behavior problems relative to other youths with severe conduct problems”. Measures of CU traits have shown stability across childhood and adolescence at levels that are comparable to those reported for other problem areas studied in child and adolescent psychopathology [8]; and see Frick, et al. [3] for a review. Still, despite finding moderate stability of psychopathy from early adolescence into young adulthood, Lynam, et al. [8] also found that “most individuals identified as psychopaths at age 13 will not receive such a diagnosis at age 24”. Additionally, decreases in CU traits for some youths, and decreases associated with family based interventions in particular, suggest that such traits are malleable and may be positively altered in association with certain features of the child’s psychosocial environment [2,9].

Validation of the Greek Cypriot Translation of the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure

ABSTRACTPsychopathy is conceived of as a pathological constellation of personality traits, manifested in aberrant behavioral, interpersonal, and emotional tendencies. This study examined within a Greek-speaking nonclinical sample (N = 419) associations between differing phenotypic dimensions of psychopathy (boldness, meanness, disinhibition) assessed via the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM) and self-report criterion measures of psychopathology, personality, and history of abuse and neglect. Consistent with predictions of the triarchic model of psychopathy, evidence was found for distinct correlates of the 3 phenotypic dimensions. Boldness was associated with both adaptive (immunity to anxiety/distress, fearlessness, low hostility) and maladaptive tendencies (grandiose manipulative traits, Machiavellian features including desire for control/status, and verbal aggression). Meanness was related to callous and unemotional traits, features of Machiavellianism (e.g., amoral manipulation and distrust of others), physical aggression, and absence of positive parenting. Disinhibition, by contrast, was characterized by anxiety and distress, exposure to violence, and retrospective accounts of abuse history, along with impulsive, irresponsible, and hostile tendencies. These findings indicate that the Greek-Cypriot translation of the TriPM effectively assesses the constructs of the triarchic model and extend what we know about their empirical correlates.

Gender differences in the correlates of reactive aggression

Abstract The main aim of the present study was to examine the relationships between four psychopathy dimensions (Interpersonal Manipulation, Callous Affect, Erratic Lifestyle, and Antisocial Behaviour) as well as childhood exposure to violence and reactive aggression in men and women. Participants were a sample of working adults (N = 319) recruited from the University of Security in Poznan. Results indicated that reactive aggression among males formed significant associations with Erratic Lifestyle, Interpersonal Manipulation, and childhood exposure to violence. Only one variable, Erratic Lifestyle, was a significant correlate of reactive aggression in females. These findings are discussed in light of theory and previous research findings.

Psychopathy factor interactions and co-occurring psychopathology: Does measurement approach matter?

The 2 dimensions of psychopathy as operationalized by various measurement tools show differential associations with psychopathology; however, evidence suggests that the statistical interaction of Factor 1 (F1) and Factor 2 (F2) may be important in understanding associations with psychopathology. Findings regarding the interactive effects of F1 and F2 are mixed, as both potentiating and protective effects have emerged. Moreover, approaches to measuring F1 (e.g., clinical interview vs. self-report) are based on different conceptualizations of F1, which may influence the interactive effects. The current study aims to (a) elucidate the influence of F1 and F2 on psychopathology by using both variable-centered and person-centered approaches and (b) determine whether the measurement of F1 influences the interactive effects of F1 and F2 by comparing the strength of interactive effects across F1 measures in a sample of over 1,500 offenders. Across analytic methods, there were very few cases in which F1 statistically influenced the association between F2 and psychopathology, such that F1 failed to evidence either potentiating or protective effects on F2. Furthermore, the conceptualization of F1 across psychopathy measures did not impact the interactive effects of F1 and F2. These findings suggest that F2 is probably driving the relations between psychopathy and other forms of psychopathology and that F1 may play less of a role in interacting with F2 than previously believed.

The Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short Version in Spanish Adolescents—Factor Structure, Reliability, and Relation with Aggression, Bullying, and Cyber Bullying

The main aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Spanish adaptation of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short Version (YPI-S) which assesses the interpersonal, affective and behavioral dimensions of psychopathy. The factor structure, reliability of the scale and subscales and their relationships with proactive and reactive aggression, bullying and cyberbullying were evaluated. A total of 993 adolescents (58.9 % girls) between the ages of 14 and 18 completed the YPI-S along with the aggression measures. The internal consistency of the total and the three subscales was good. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the three factor structure which was invariant for boys and girls. At a correlational level the three factors were related to all aggressive measures, however different patterns emerged in regression analyses. Finally, a triple interaction between the three factors was the best predictor of proactive aggression. In conclusion, the results of this study show that the Spanish YPI-S is a reliable, valid, and time effective instrument to assess psychopathic traits.

Neural responses to others' pain vary with psychopathic traits in healthy adult males.

Disrupted empathic processing is a core feature of psychopathy. Neuroimaging data have suggested that individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits show atypical responses to others’ pain in a network of brain regions typically recruited during empathic processing (anterior insula, inferior frontal gyrus, and mid- and anterior cingulate cortex). Here, we investigated whether neural responses to others’ pain vary with psychopathic traits within the general population in a similar manner to that found in individuals at the extreme end of the continuum. As predicted, variation in psychopathic traits was associated with variation in neural responses to others’ pain in the network of brain regions typically engaged during empathic processing. Consistent with previous research, our findings indicated the presence of suppressor effects in the association of levels of the affective-interpersonal and lifestyle-antisocial dimensions of psychopathy with neural responses to others’ pain. That is, after controlling for the influence of the other dimension, higher affective-interpersonal psychopathic traits were associated with reduced neural responses to others’ pain, whilst higher lifestyle-antisocial psychopathic traits were associated with increased neural responses to others’ pain. Our findings provide further evidence that atypical function in this network might represent neural markers of disrupted emotional and empathic processing; that the two dimensions of psychopathy might tap into distinct underlying vulnerabilities; and, most importantly, that the relationships observed at the extreme end of the psychopathy spectrum apply to the nonclinical distribution of these traits, providing further evidence for continuities in the mechanisms underlying psychopathic traits across the general population.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.3758/s13415-015-0346-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.