Variants Of Psychopathy Research Articles

Associations among early abuse, dissociation, and psychopathy in an offender sample.

Theorists have postulated that some variants of psychopathy result from childhood abuse and neglect. Dissociative symptoms are also thought to arise from abuse. To date, the conjoint associations among abuse, dissociation, and psychopathy have not been examined systematically. Some have hypothesized that abuse relates primarily to the affective symptoms of psychopathy, with dissociative experiences mediating this relationship. Others have suggested that abuse more directly affects the impulsive lifestyle features of psychopathy. The authors used structural equation modeling to examine these hypotheses in a sample of 615 male offenders who had completed a retrospective self-report measure of childhood abuse, the Dissociative Experiences Scale, and R. D. Hare's (2003) Psychopathy Checklist--Revised. Abuse exerted no direct or indirect effect on the core interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy but was directly related to the facet of psychopathy associated with an impulsive and irresponsible lifestyle. Implications for psychopathy subtypes are discussed.

Two Approaches to Parsing the Heterogeneity of Psychopathy.

High crime rates, growing jail populations, and the escalating costs of incarceration have placed pressure on researchers and clinicians to better understand persistent criminal offenders (Beck & Gilliard, 1995). One such group of particular interest to forensic psychologists is psychopathic individuals. To date, there exists a significant body of literature suggesting that this group engages in a wide variety of antisocial acts and demonstrates limited change following rehabilitative interventions (Hart & Hare, 1997; Hart, 1998). As a result, psychopathic individuals represent a large cost to society, and psychologists are interested in finding effective interventions to manage their problematic behaviors. In this paper, we suggest that psychologists focus on more specific manifestations and etiologies of psychopathy in order to develop effective interventions. We believe that such a focus would involve (a) questioning the assumption that psychopathy (as measured by Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised; PCL-R; 1991) is an etiologically homogeneous entity, (b) identifying etiologically distinct variants of PCL-R psychopathy for study, and (c) specifying etiological mechanisms that may suggest tangible treatment targets. We also discuss two different, but compatible, methods we believe may be helpful in identifying etiological variants of PCL-R psychopathy: (a) using general personality theory to identify maladaptive traits that may produce psychopathic behavior and (b) identifying specific bio-psychological deficits capable of accounting for psychopathic behavior.

Psychopathic personality or personalities? Exploring potential variants of psychopathy and their implications for risk assessment

Although psychopathy typically has been construed as a relatively uniform construct, seminal theories and contemporary research suggest that it may be heterogeneous. In this article, the most promising literature is distilled to distinguish among potential variants of antisocial personality disorder (APD) that can be derived from, and informed by, modern conceptions of psychopathy. This analysis suggests that there are primary and secondary variants of psychopathy, which may be distinguished based on the extent to which they are heritable and are characterized by affective deficits, impulsivity, trait anxiety, and characteristics of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders (NPD). These variants also may differ in their patterns of violence and responsivity to treatment. If variants of psychopathy can be identified reliably and supported empirically, psychopathy may be transformed from a global label to a set of more specific constructs that improve our ability to understand, manage, and treat individuals who have largely been regarded as dangerous and untreatable.