Theories Of Mental Illness Research Articles

Tracking depressive and anxious symptoms during the first year of COVID‐19: The search for moderators

AbstractA growing body of research suggests that the COVID‐19 pandemic did not cause the severe and extensive mental health crisis predicted by some experts. However, this does not mean that everyone was resilient. The purpose of this study was to try to identify subgroups of people that may have experienced more severe and negative trajectories of symptoms during this time. To this end, we examined a host of individual difference factors (e.g., age, gender, race, country, parental status, medical conditions, lost wages, perceived support, initial symptom levels, and cognitive vulnerability) using a 1‐year longitudinal design with 8 time points and participants (n = 233) from over 20 countries. We were unable to identify a single moderator associated with a robust and increasingly negative trajectory of depressive and anxious symptoms throughout the COVID interval. These results underscore the need for better theories of mental illness, stronger research designs that do not rely on simple cross‐sectional between‐group comparisons, and more caution when predicting mental health crises.

Esther’s Psychopath Behavior In The Orphan Movie

A psychopathic condition is a psychological behavior that has long been regarded as destructive and bad for society. The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of Ester's psychopathic problem, as well as the reasons that cause Ester, the main character in the film The Orphan, to become a psychopath. The analysis data are derived from the film The Orphan, the script, and the cinematography. Using psychopathy theory, the evidence is interpreted. To answer the research problem, the writer employs psychological theory from Wellek and Warren (1956), which is combined with psychoanalysis theory from Sigmund Freud and James D. Page. The qualitative descriptive approach is used in this study. The research findings reveal two issues: Esther's psychopathic disorders and the factors that cause Esther to become a psychopath. According to the research findings, Esther's character is a psychopath. First, there are five psychopath behaviors: liar, lack of feeling guilty, lack of empathy, manipulative, and aggressive. Second, Esther becomes a psychopath due to two factors: biological and environmental.Keywords: Psychopath, Behaviour, Movie

Associations Between Psychopathic Traits and Laboratory-Based Aggression: Moderating Effects of Provocation and Distraction.

There are two distinct combinations of psychopathic traits (primary and secondary) that have been proposed to be a function of unique cognitive-affective deficits. This study sought to use theories of psychopathy to understand the factors that exacerbate (i.e., provocation) and attenuate (i.e., distraction) aggression in individuals high in psychopathic traits in a controlled laboratory task. Male undergraduates, who scored across the range of primary and secondary psychopathic traits, completed the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP; Taylor, 1967) under conditions of low and high provocation. Participants were also randomly assigned to either a distraction condition, in which they completed a distracting concurrent task, or a control condition, in which no such task was completed. Inconsistent with our prediction, results showed that regardless of condition, primary psychopathic traits were positively related to laboratory aggression. Consistent with our hypothesis, a positive association between secondary psychopathic traits and laboratory physical aggression was observed following high provocation among nondistracted participants; this association was significantly reduced among distracted participants. These results clarify the factors that contribute to aggression for individuals high in psychopathic traits and may provide directions for future intervention development.

Psychopathy as moral blindness: a qualifying exploration of the blindness-analogy in psychopathy theory and research

The term psychopathy refers to a personality disorder associated with callous personality traits and antisocial behaviors. Throughout its research history, psychopathy has frequently been described as a peculiar form of moral blindness, engendering a narrative about a patient stereotype incapable of taking a genuine moral perspective, similar to a blind person who is deprived of proper visual perceptions. However, recent empirical research has shown that clinically diagnosed psychopaths are morally more fit than initially thought, and the blindness-analogy now comes across as largely misleading. In this contribution, the moral-blindness analogy is explored in an attempt to qualify anew its relevance in psychopathy theory and research. It is demonstrated that there are indeed theoretically relevant parallels to be drawn between blindness and psychopathy, parallels that are especially illuminating when accounting for the potential symptomatology, dimensionality, and etiological nature of the disorder.

Anomalous moral intuitions in juvenile offenders with psychopathic traits

Since the historical conception of psychopathy, researchers have been interested in understanding moral functioning among psychopathic individuals. The present study investigated the association between psychopathic traits and moral intuitions among incarcerated juvenile offenders (N = 178). Participants were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist:Youth Version (Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003) and the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (Graham et al., 2011), which defines five core moral foundations: Harm/care, Fairness/reciprocity, Ingroup/loyalty, Authority/respect, and Purity/sanctity. As expected, psychopathy in juvenile offenders negatively predicted endorsement of all five foundations. This study is the first to demonstrate broad abnormalities in Haidt et al.’s moral foundations in a juvenile sample and can help explain delinquent behavior in juveniles with psychopathic traits. Implications for theories of psychopathy are discussed.

A Motivational Framework for Psychopathy: Toward a Reconceptualization of the Disorder

Abstract. The link between psychopathy and violence has been well documented. Estimates suggest psychopathic offenders are responsible for as much as 40% of violence-related crime, and that they show rates of violent recidivism up to five times higher than non-psychopathic offenders. Existing theories of the disorder argue that this violence stems from a core insensitivity to emotional/aversive information, or from a core inability to optimally allocate processing resources in complex environments. However, some newer findings have been difficult for existing theories to assimilate; moreover, successful treatment programs based off current conceptualizations have been slow to develop. With this in mind, the current paper proposes a new motivational framework for psychopathy, within which the disorder is conceptualized as stemming from more strategic, motivated processes. The paper begins by reviewing traditional theories of psychopathy and highlighting their explanatory strengths and limitations. The proposed motivational framework is then outlined, and a supportive rationale for the framework provided. Next, the paper undertakes a selective review of some of the most empirically supported features of the disorder, to highlight how these features may be productively reformulated within a motivational framework. Finally, the paper suggests several methods through which an empirical evaluation of the proposed ideas may be undertaken, and explores potential implications of a motivational framework for next-generation rehabilitation and treatment opportunities.

Get mad: Chronic anger expression and psychopathic traits in three independent samples

Purpose: Few prior studies address relationships between anger expression and psychopathic traits. Emotion deficit perspectives suggest that anger expression is negatively related or unrelated to psychopathic traits or positively associated only with lifestyle-antisocial components of psychopathy. The affect regulation theory of psychopathy suggests: 1) chronic anger expression is positively associated with psychopathy; 2) this relationship is not solely attributable to negative emotionality or trait anger; and 3) anger expression can partly account for some important correlates of psychopathy. Methods: We pitted the anger expression predictions of the affect regulation theory against those of the emotion deficit perspective in three independent samples: community adults (N = 122), incarcerated adults (N = 161), and adolescent detainees (N = 150). Results: In all three samples, there were positive relationships between indices of psychopathic traits and poor anger regulation that were specific to chronic anger expression and were not attributable to shared variance with trait anger (Samples One and Two) or negative affectivity (all samples). In addition, all three samples provide evidence that indirect effects of anger expression partly accounted for relationships between psychopathy and violence. Conclusions: These findings suggest the value of further attention to anger expression in individuals with psychopathic traits.

The Brain of Dexter Morgan: the Science of Psychopathy in Showtime's Season 8 of Dexter.

This article identifies and discusses on the ways in which biological influences to psychopathy are thematically portrayed in the eighth season of Dexter to describe Dexter's psychopathy, particularly focusing on fatalism and the inevitability of succumbing to one's "biological self." This paper, utilizing traditional content analysis, focuses on seven qualitative themes surrounding "biological fatalism" and psychopathy in this final season of Dexter. As lay theories of psychopathy are thought to originate from the media's conceptualization of the disorder, such thematic portrayals serve to potential affect lay understandings of psychopathy and correspondingly, how the disorder is treated and perceived in the criminal justice process as a modern psychopathy-related "CSI Effect." The conclusion focuses on the messages that this final season of Dexter sends to the lay public about the biological influences to psychopathy and how this may create implications for the criminal justice system.

Ancient philosophers on mental illness.

This article explores how the ancient philosophers from Plato to late antiquity understood mental illness. It outlines when, how and in what kind of contexts the phenomenon of mental illness was recognized in the ancient philosophical texts, how mental illness was understood in terms of the body-mind interaction, and how mental disorders of the medical kind were distinguished from non-medical psychic disturbances. It establishes that, while the philosophers mostly understood mental illness along the lines of ancient medical thinking, their ideas, for example on the nature and location of the soul, informed their theories of mental illness.

The mediating role of emotional intelligence on the autonomic functioning – Psychopathy relationship

Reduced autonomic activity is a risk factor for psychopathy, but the mechanisms underlying this association are under-researched. We hypothesize that emotional intelligence mediates this relationship. Emotional intelligence, cognitive intelligence, scores on the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R), skin conductance, and heart rate were assessed in 156 men from communities in Los Angeles. Emotional intelligence fully mediated the relationship between autonomic functioning and total psychopathy after controlling for cognitive intelligence for both autonomic measures. Full mediation was also found when using PCL-R factors and facets as outcome variables, with the exception of a partial mediation of the heart rate – Antisocial facet relationship. These findings are the first to document emotional intelligence as a mediator of the blunted physiological stress activity – psychopathy relationship, and are interpreted within the framework of the somatic marker and somatic aphasia theories of psychopathy. Possible implications for treatment interventions are also discussed.

Attributions and private theories of mental illness among young adults seeking psychiatric treatment in Nairobi: an interpretive phenomenological analysis

BackgroundMental illness affects every segment of population including young adults. The beliefs held by young patients regarding the causes of mental illness impact their treatment-seeking behaviour. It is pertinent to know the commonly held attributions around mental illness so as to effectively provide psychological care, especially in a resource constrained context such as Kenya. This helps in targeting services around issues such as stigma and extending youth-friendly services.MethodsGuided by the private theories interview (PTI-P) and attributional framework, individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with ten young adults of ages 18–25 years about their mental health condition for which they were undergoing treatment. Each interview took 30–45 min. We mapped four attributions (locus of control, stability, controllability and stigma) on PTI-P questions. Data was transcribed verbatim to produce transcripts coded using interpretive phenomenological analysis. These codes were then broken down into categories that could be used to understand various attributions.ResultsWe found PTI-P to be a useful tool and it elicited three key themes: (a) psychosocial triggers of distress (with themes of negative thoughts, emotions around mental health stigma and negative childhood experiences, parents’ separation or divorce, death of a loved one etc.), (b) biological conditions and psychopathologies limiting intervention, and (c) preferences and views on treatment. Mapping these themes on our attributional framework, PTI-P themes presented as causal attributions explaining stigma, locus of control dimensions and stability. External factors were mainly ascribed to be the cause of unstable and uncontrollable attributions including persistent negative emotions and thoughts further exacerbating psychological distress. Nine out of the ten participants expressed the need for more intense and supportive therapy.ConclusionOur study has provided some experiential evidence in understanding how stigma, internal vs external locus of control, stability vs instability attributions play a role in shaping attitudes young people have towards their mental health. Our study points to psychosocial challenges such as stigma, poverty and lack of social support that continue to undermine mental well-being of Kenyan youth. These factors need to be considered when addressing mental health needs of young people in Kenya.

Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs on an Affective Lexical Decision Task: Implications for the Affect Regulation Theory of Psychopathy

Evidence for performance deficits in psychopathic offenders on emotional processing tasks have been documented. However, studies that show performance improvements or elimination of anomalies under certain conditions are not consistent with a general insensitivity to emotion stimuli. The current study tests the hypothesis set forth by the Affect Regulation Theory (Penney and Kosson, manuscript submitted to Clinical Psychological Science) that psychopathic participants’ performance on an affective lexical decision task will reflect a speed-accuracy trade-off wherein accuracy on emotion-word trials correlates with response latency among psychopathic participants but not controls. Participants were 86 incarcerated male offenders divided into three groups using scores on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and DSM-IV criteria for ASPD (non-ASPD/non-psychopathic, ASPD/non-psychopathic; and ASPD + psychopathic). There was a significant Group x Response latency interaction for negative word trials, with greater accuracy associated with slower response times on negative word trials for ASPD + psychopathic individuals but not for the other groups. The implications of these results for hypotheses about emotional functioning in psychopathic offenders and for the recently proposed ART are discussed.

Political hegemony: a Marxist theory of mental illness

Political hegemony: a Marxist theory of mental illness

A comprehensive neuroimaging review of PCL-R defined psychopathy

Abstract Neurobiological theories of psychopathy typically include abnormalities in paralimbic circuits, and a neurobiological profile of paralimbic dysfunction in increasingly invoked in applied legal settings. The current study systematically evaluated whether sMRI and fMRI findings in PCL-R defined psychopaths suggest paralimbic dysfunction. Our review indicates diffuse and variable neural correlates of psychopathy, with numerous issues complicating the interpretation of these heterogeneous data. Our review also extends previous discussions concerning how this heterogeneity may be related to sample characteristics, methodological variations, and statistical analyses. To elucidate the neural correlates of psychopathy, researchers may need to clarify the relationship between psychopathy and co-occurring conditions (such as substance use disorders) both conceptually and methodologically. Our review also indicates that caution is warranted when introducing these data in applied contexts.

Disordered existentiality: Mental illness and Heidegger’s philosophy of Dasein

In this paper, I propose an existentialist-phenomenological model that conceives of mental illness through the terminology of Heidegger’s Being and Time. In particular, the concepts of (i) existentiality, (ii) disturbance and (iii) the relation between ‘being-with’ and ‘the one’, will be implemented in order to reconstruct the experience of mental illness. The proposed model understands mental illness as a disturbance of a person’s existentiality. More precisely, mental illness is conceptualized as the disturbance of a person’s existential structure, the process of which leads to a becoming explicit of the otherwise implicit dynamical structure that constitutes a person’s experience. In particular, the existential component of ‘being-with’ comes to play a central role in the disturbance of existentiality, thus, I will claim, that it enables a person’s structure of experience to be ‘open for normativity’. By adopting a pragmatist stance on Heideggerian phenomenology, the suggested model proves compatible with naturalist and normativist theories of mental illness while still offering a phenomenological description of the phenomenon.

Communicating the Neuroscience of Psychopathy and Its Influence on Moral Behavior: Protocol of Two Experimental Studies.

Neuroscience has identified brain structures and functions that correlate with psychopathic tendencies. Since psychopathic traits can be traced back to physical neural attributes, it has been argued that psychopaths are not truly responsible for their actions and therefore should not be blamed for their psychopathic behaviors. This experimental research aims to evaluate what effect communicating this theory of psychopathy has on the moral behavior of lay people. If psychopathy is blamed on the brain, people may feel less morally responsible for their own psychopathic tendencies and therefore may be more likely to display those tendencies. An online study will provide participants with false feedback about their psychopathic traits supposedly based on their digital footprint (i.e., Facebook likes), thus classifying them as having either above-average or below-average psychopathic traits and describing psychopathy in cognitive or neurobiological terms. This particular study will assess the extent to which lay people are influenced by feedback regarding their psychopathic traits, and how this might affect their moral behavior in online tasks. Public recognition of these potential negative consequences of neuroscience communication will also be assessed. A field study using the lost letter technique will be conducted to examine lay people’s endorsement of neurobiological, as compared to cognitive, explanations of criminal behavior. This field and online experimental research could inform the future communication of neuroscience to the public in a way that is sensitive to the potential negative consequences of communicating such science. In particular, this research may have implications for the future means by which neurobiological predictors of offending can be safely communicated to offenders.

Adaptive Psychopathy: The Quarantine Vector and Psychopathy Induction

Defined within evolutionary psychology, the tenets of the State Psychopathy and Directional Vector hypotheses of psychopathy theory (Bates et al.), were tested in an experimental induction designed to rouse survival threat. Territorial incursion, eliciting survival threat, within the Directional Vector hypothesis posits that psychopathic affect is roused, directionally, bounded by a quarantined zone. Theory also posits that processing of normal-range affect, occurring outside the quarantined zone, is relatively unaffected by psychopathic cognition. Hypotheses that i) increases in Symbolic Division would heighten splits on socio-cultural, sexual, affective, and spiritual dimensions between members of one’s own community and invading others, that ii) Objectification would occur so that invading others would be imbued with affect from the psychopathic range; and iii) that Mutual Exclusivity would prevail so that co-existence would seem impossible but instead invading others would be deposed, dominated and destroyed, were all strongly supported. Consistent with predictions of the State-Psychopathy Hypothesis, experimental induction resulted in elevations in state psychopathy levels as measured by Triarchic Psychopathy total scores. The subscales of disinhibition and Meanness but not the Boldness evidenced significant rises in levels post induction. The implication of results is that empathy and psychopathy are not mutually exclusive. Developmental and treatment perspectives are discussed in light of findings, summarized as twin ignition and quell signature genocide autopoietics.

Adaptive Psychopathy: The Quarantine Vector and Attachment

This work extends the directional vector hypothesis of psychopathy theory into attachment theory. According to the adaptive psychopathy hypothesis, territorial incursion by invading morally deviant outsiders, elicits a survival threat, activating the psychopathic mind, resulting in elevations in state psychopathy. Extended to an attachment framework, territoriality over children implicates directional, quarantined psychopathy with protective care of offspring and significant others. Five directional hypotheses were developed, one for each factor of the Feeney and Noller attachment measure. Participants’ confidence in their close loved ones did not change under the psychopathy induction, but attachment confidence decreased for moral deviants.

Book review: The Logic of Madness: A New Theory of Mental Illness

Book review: The Logic of Madness: A New Theory of Mental Illness

Examining the relationships between sub-clinical psychopathic traits with shame, guilt and externalisation response tendencies to everyday transgressions

Although many theories of psychopathy include reference to some form of emotional deficit, surprisingly little research has examined the relationships between psychopathic traits and important self-conscious moral emotions such as shame and guilt. The present study sought to examine these relationships in a sub-clinical sample, taking into account the important theoretical differences between the two emotions. Participants (N = 739) completed a measure of psychopathic traits and a measure of self-conscious affect style. Both primary and secondary psychopathic traits were found to be inversely related to guilt-proneness; however, the effect size was greater for primary psychopathic traits. Primary psychopathic traits were unrelated to shame-proneness, while secondary psychopathic traits were positively related to shame-proneness. Both primary and secondary traits were positively related to externalisation; however the effect size was greater for primary over secondary traits. The findings provide support for affective differences between psychopathy variants.