Facets of psychopathy, Axis II traits, and behavioral dysregulation among jail detainees

Forensic evaluations of offender populations often consider psychopathy as an integral component of these consultations. Vexing issues remain of whether psychopathic traits should be evaluated consistently irrespective of demographic characteristics (e.g. gender), comorbidity (e.g. other Axis II pathology), or setting (e.g. jail or community). The current study examined gender differences for psychopathy and Axis II traits in a nonreferred jail sample of predominantly nonviolent offenders. Participants with moderate to high levels of psychopathy evidenced substantial comorbidity, especially with Cluster B personality disorders. Facets of psychopathy and Axis II traits varied substantially across both genders. In addition, the research evaluated Lynam's Hyperactivity, Impulsivity, and Attention difficulties (HIA) model of psychopathy. These initial data found little support for the HIA model in this jail sample. In testing competing hypotheses, the HIA model was substantially better at predicting Cluster B traits than psychopathy per se.     

Capturing the psychopathic female: a prototypicality analysis of the comprehensive assessment of psychopathic personality (CAPP) across gender

Psychopathy in women has been subject to little systematic investigation; no coherent conceptualization of the disorder in women exists. Previous research is constrained by the reliance both on a male conceptualization of psychopathy and on assessment instruments developed, and primarily validated, with men. This study utilized a newly developed, broad, personality-based, and gender-sensitive lexical model of psychopathy, the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP). Prototypical analysis was used to explore gender differences in the construct and the content validity of the CAPP model across gender. Symptoms were rated by international mental health professionals (N = 132). The findings support the content validity of the CAPP across gender and suggest that – at symptom and domain levels – psychopathic men and women have key similarities, but also that important gender differences exists. This has implications for the assessment of psychopathy in women, and has relevance for the proposed revision of diagnostic criteria for personality disorders. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ASD in Females: Are We Overstating the Gender Difference in Diagnosis?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is predominantly diagnosed in males. In explaining the differential rate of occurrence in males and females, biogenetic models have been proposed and studied, often to the exclusion of potential social or cultural factors that may influence different rates of diagnosis across the genders. In this theoretical paper, we consider sociocultural influences that may contribute to the differential expression of ASD in females and partially explain potential underidentification of ASD in females. Based on our synthesis of the extant literature, we propose that ASD may be underidentified in affected females without co-occurring intellectual impairment, owing to a pattern of subtle yet potentially meaningful gender differences in symptom manifestation (e.g., less unusual stereotyped and repetitive behaviors in females, increased prevalence of internalizing problems in females) and gender inequities in research on the ASD phenotype that potentially contributes to biases in assessment tools and diagnostic practices. We offer recommendations for future research directions on gender differences in ASD, and we suggest implications to inform best practice and policy for the assessment of females with ASD.     

Validity of factors of the Psychopathy Checklist--Revised in female prisoners: discriminant relations with antisocial behavior, substance abuse, and personality

The validity of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) has been examined extensively in men, but its validity for women remains understudied. Specifically, the correlates of the general construct of psychopathy and its components as assessed by PCL-R total, factor, and facet scores have yet to be examined in depth. Based on previous research conducted with male offenders, a large female inmate sample was used to examine the patterns of relations between total, factor, and facet scores on the PCL-R and various criterion variables. These variables include ratings of psychopathy based on Cleckley's criteria, symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, and measures of substance use and abuse, criminal behavior, institutional misconduct, interpersonal aggression, normal range personality, intellectual functioning, and social background variables. Results were highly consistent with past findings in male samples and provide further evidence for the construct validity of the PCL-R two-factor and four-facet models across genders.     

Detection and recognition of emotional expressions: Effects of traits of personality disorder and gender

A problem in the processing of emotions has long been thought to be strongly associated with the aetiology and maintenance of personality disorders. Previous research has demonstrated a hyposensitivity to the faces expressing fear in those high on the traits of psychopathy, while patients with BPD have been shown to be hypersensitive to expressions in general. However, many previous studies could be explained by a bias in reporting particular expressions rather than a change in sensitivity to these expressions. Using two tasks, the present study examined both the detection and the recognition of four emotional expressions (anger, happy, sad, and fear) in a community sample of males and females. Measures of self-reported psychopathy and Borderline Personality traits were administered. The results showed marked gender differences. Psychopathy was negatively related to performance in both the detection and recognition of fear, but only for males. Borderline Personality traits were positively related to overall performance in the recognitions task, but only for females. The results suggest strong differences in the role that emotional processing might play between the genders.     

Examining the impact of gender on the factor structure of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised

Research on the factor structure of psychopathy has yielded mixed results, supporting anywhere from one to three factors. Additionally, most of this research has used all-male samples, and the possibility of structural invariance across gender has not been examined. Using a mixed-gender sample of 360 undergraduates, the factor structure of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised was examined using confirmatory factor analysis and multiple group analysis. One-, two-, and three-factor models were tested and compared with each other. When males and females were combined, none of the three models provided adequate fit to the data. Multiple group analyses revealed partial invariance across gender for all three models. Model comparison criteria supported use of both the one- and two-factor models, taking into account variable factor structure across gender. The importance of considering structural differences based on biological sex when assessing psychopathic traits is discussed.     

Gender and psychopathy: an overview of important issues and introduction to the special issue

One of the most important concepts to ever emerge in forensic psychology and law is psychopathy. It would be difficult to exaggerate the profound effect the construct has had on research and practice in correctional psychology, psychiatry, and criminology. Much less pronounced has been an interest in understanding the potential relevance and practical implications that this personality disorder might have for providing insights into antisocial behaviors and crimes committed by girls and women. In this paper we provide an overview of some of the pressing issues confronting clinicians and researchers and provide an introduction to this special issue dedicated to gender and psychopathy.     

Gender differences in attitudes toward psychopathic sexual offenders

Although a considerable amount of research has been conducted examining the validity of psychopathy as a psychological construct, relatively few studies have focused on the effects of using this disorder in "real-world" settings to influence the attitudes of laypersons who are making life-altering decisions about offenders. This study attempted to replicate and extend earlier findings (Guy & Edens, 2003) suggesting that there are gender differences in the impact of expert testimony regarding psychopathy. A sample of 599 undergraduates reviewed case facts regarding a hypothetical Sexually Violent Predator trial in which the type of risk assessment testimony provided (clinical opinion, actuarial scale, psychopathy evaluation) and the age of the victims (adult versus child) were manipulated. Consistent with prior research, despite overall high rates of support for commitment in the adult victim condition, men were less prone than women to support civil commitment when the defendant was described as "a psychopath" (62.5 versus 86.5%). No such gender differences were noted in the clinical opinion or actuarial conditions. When the victims were identified as children, type of testimony had no impact because support for commitment was almost unilateral. Finally, ratings of how psychopathic the defendant was perceived to be (regardless of the testimony provided) were significantly associated with support for commitment across most conditions.     

Treatment and psychopathy in forensic settings

People commonly question whether highly psychopathic offenders are treatable. Little scientific research has addressed this question despite key developments in the last 20 years in two relevant areas: reliable measurement of psychopathy, and effective treatments for reducing criminal and antisocial behavior in offenders. One obstacle to progress is confusion about defining psychopathy; a necessary preliminary step to advancing intervention. After outlining the principal definitional issues, we review past and recent research on psychopathy and treatment, concluding that a handful of newer, well-designed studies suggest grounds for optimism about psychopathy and treatability. Although psychopathy characteristics—along with other indices of criminal risk—signal responsivity challenges, well-conceived programs for higher risk offenders can reduce recidivism in highly psychopathic offenders and appear to do so by reducing dynamic risk factors. There are no clear indications yet of whether PCL-psychopathic offenders differ from other high-risk offenders in their ability to respond to such treatments. The questions of whether psychopathy itself responds to treatment, and if so, what forms such treatment might take have not yet been addressed. We conclude by suggesting that advances will come from the use of more divergent measures of psychopathy, and in particular, dynamic measures of psychopathy traits that will allow us to document whether change is occurring.     

Demystification of the Relationship Between Psychopathy and Happiness

Recent findings have provided evidence for a negative correlation between psychopathy and happiness. In order to determine if this correlation is generalizable to all subtypes of psychopathy, participants from the community (N = 572) were recruited to examine happiness-related features among males and females by psychopathic subtypes. Examination of the Fearless-Dominance (PPI-I) and Impulsive-Antisociality (PPI-II) subscales of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Short Form provided evidence for two distinct patterns when comparing psychopathic personality traits to happiness-related features. PPI-I was positively correlated with higher durable happiness, presence of a meaning in life, personal growth and hope, and correlated negatively with fluctuating happiness. PPI-II was negatively correlated with durable happiness, presence of a meaning in life, personal growth and hope, and correlated positively with fluctuating happiness and searching for a meaning in life. Despite a few differences, both genders displayed an overall similar pattern between measures of well-being and psychopathic subtypes. Implications for psychopathy regarding the importance of performing analyses by gender and subtypes are discussed.     

Early life predictors of callous-unemotional and psychopathic traits

Psychopathy is a disorder that occurs primarily in males. Offenders with psychopathic traits are responsible for a disproportionate amount of crime in society, particularly violent crime. Early childhood is a time when individual differences in empathy and guilt—key indicators of the construct of psychopathy—are first evident. A growing number of longitudinal studies have begun to investigate how factors in infancy and early childhood predict psychopathic-like traits in later childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. These studies have suggested that parenting styles during infancy (parental sensitivity, maternal harsh intrusion, commenting on the emotional state of the child) as well as attachment styles are predictive of later psychopathic-like traits. In addition, child characteristics such as temperament and the functioning of biological systems such as the autonomic nervous system and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis are predictive. Overall, studies have suggested that at least some of the origins of psychopathic traits are present in infancy and early childhood, which is consistent with the perspective of psychopathy as a neurodevelopmental disorder. A recent evolutionary-developmental model provides hypotheses regarding how psychopathy may develop and why it is more common in males than females. This model, and its implications for intervention, is discussed in the context of the longitudinal studies that have been conducted on psychopathy.     

Personality disorder and antisocial deviance: comments on the debate on the structure of the psychopathy checklist-revised

The recent debate on the structure of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R: Hare, 1991; 2003) has been presented primarily as a statistical issue, but underlying it are longstanding conceptual issues about the relationship of personality concepts to deviant behavior and of psychopathy to criminality and personality disorder. I discuss these issues in this paper. The antisocial items of the PCL-R seem to reflect a propensity to commit crimes that has long been of interest to criminology. This disposition overlaps with, but differs conceptually from personality dispositions, but these surface dispositions do not provide a causal account of criminality. I present data that indicate that the core personality characteristics of psychopathy are more closely related to narcissistic and histrionic personality disorders than to antisocial personality disorder. Overemphasis on involvement in crime has obscured the nature of psychopathy as a disorder of personality characterised by interpersonally harmful behavior that need not necessarily take criminal form.     

精神病态的家庭风险因素

精神病态(psychopathy)是一种个体表现在人际关系、情感、生活方式和反社会特征等方面的人格障碍, 其特征为自我中心、欺骗、冲动、缺乏共情、缺乏罪恶感等。以往研究偏向于精神病态的生理机制, 认为精神病态具有高度的遗传性, 近期越来越多的研究发现家庭因素对精神病态的重要影响。这些因素包括：产前风险因素、破碎家庭、不良的教养方式、不安全的亲子依恋关系和童年期虐待等。未来的研究应探讨家庭因素对各个精神病态亚型的作用机制, 探索抑制精神病态表达的保护性环境因子, 并构建精神病态的生物心理社会模型等。     

Investigating the Components of Psychopathic Traits in Youth Offenders

Despite widespread acceptance of the importance of psychopathic traits in youth, the relative importance of different components of psychopathy remains controversial. This study was conducted to examine whether the interpersonal and lifestyle facets of psychopathy as measured with a valid clinical measure of psychopathic traits contribute to predicting relevant external criteria on top of the contributions of the affective facet. To address this issue, we conducted multiple regressions predicting antisocial behavior, exposure to violence, and psychopathology in a sample of 225 incarcerated adolescents. Results indicated that ratings on the affective component of psychopathy were important in helping to explain variance in many of the external criterion variables but that ratings on the interpersonal and lifestyle facets also helped to explain unique variance in a range of criteria including violent and non-violent crime, exposure to violence, impulsivity, and anger expression. These studies suggest that multiple components of psychopathy are likely to be important both in predicting real world outcomes and in understanding mechanisms involved in the development and manifestation of these traits.     

Remember me? Psychopathic traits and emotional memory in an undergraduate sample

We investigated the effects of psychopathy on emotional memory among a predominantly female undergraduate sample. Undergraduates (N = 153, mean age = 20.1; 80.1% female; 57.1% Caucasian) completed a facial memory task. Participants were presented with a series of faces (sad, scared, angry, happy, neutral), completed a self-report measure of psychopathy, and were presented with another series of faces (with some from the first phase, and some new). Participants were asked whether they recognized each face from the first set, and reaction time (RT) was measured. Although memory for emotional faces did not differ from neutral faces, there were main effects of emotion, gender and psychopathy on RT. A significant 3-way interaction revealed that males who were higher in psychopathy had slower RTs; they were slow to remember sad, angry and neutral faces. In conclusion, psychopathy may affect emotional memory differently across gender. Specifically, undergraduate men, but not women, with higher psychopathy levels may show impaired memory for emotional faces. Implications for future studies of emotional memory and psychopathy are discussed.     

Gender Differences in Experimental Disclosure: Evidence, Theoretical Explanations, and Avenues for Future Research

Interest in emotional expression is long-standing. Given well-established gender differences in expressivity, it is surprising that researchers have not consistently examined gender as a potential moderator of outcome in the context of experimental disclosure studies. This article comments on Range and Jenkins’ (2010) research recommendations in light of the suggestion that males evidence greater benefit of disclosure than females and three gender theories: gender schema theory, social role theory, and gender socialization theory. Further avenues for research are also presented, including the examination of gender differences in subjective, expressive and physiologic indicators of emotion during disclosure. Such data could elucidate mechanisms by which persons of different genders or persons with different schemata/ social roles/ socialization histories differ on pre/ post disclosure outcomes.     

Personality disorders and psychopathy in men convicted for severe intimate partner violence

In this paper, a study of personality disorders and psychopathy in imprisoned male batterers is carried out. A sample of 76 batterers sentenced for a severe offence of violence against their intimate partner was selected. All the participants were assessed with the MCMI-II before beginning a treatment program in prison for gender violence. Likewise, all participants were assessed with the PCL-R in order to identify psychopathic symptoms. According to the results, 86.8% of the sample showed at least one personality disorder. The most prevalent one was the Obsessive-compulsive Personality Disorder (57.8% of cases), followed by the Dependent Personality Disorder (34.2% of cases) and Paranoid Personality Disorder (25%). Regarding psychopathy, the results of PCL-R showed that there were 11 people (14.4% of the sample) who met the criteria for psychopathy or probable psychopathy. Finally, implications of this study for clinical practice and future research in this field are commented upon.     

‘Biologizing’ Psychopathy: Ethical,Legal, and Research Implications at the Interface of Epigenetics and Chronic Antisocial Conduct

Epigenetics, a field that links genetics and environmental influences on the expression of phenotypic traits, offers to increase our understanding of the development and trajectory of disease and psychological disorders beyond that thought of traditional genetic research and behavioural measures. By extension, this new perspective has implications for risk and risk management of antisocial behaviour where there is a biological component, such as psychopathy. Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with repeat displays of antisocial behaviour, and is associated with the disproportionate imposition of harm on communities. Despite advances in our knowledge of psychopathic individuals, the construct remains complex and is hampered by a lack of integration across a range of fundamental domains. The clinical and forensic research on psychopathy is brought into conversation with the emerging field of epigenetics to highlight critical issues of (1) clinical definition and diagnosis, (2) assessment, (3) aetiology of psychopathic phenotypes, and (4) treatment and rehabilitation approaches. Broader ethical and legal questions of the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the management of psychopathy beyond the criminal justice arena are also outlined. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Histrionic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder: sex-differentiated manifestations of psychopathy?

Little is known about the etiology of histrionic personality disorder (HPD) or its relation to other personality disorders. In this study, we examined whether HPD is etiologically related to psychopathy and more specifically whether HPD and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are sex-typed alternative manifestations of psychopathy. In addition, based on Newman's (1987) response modulation hypothesis of psychopathy, we examined the associations between psychopathic, HPD, and ASPD features and performance on laboratory measures of passive avoidance errors and interference effects. Seventy-five live theater actors completed self-report questionnaires and two laboratory measures of response modulation, and peers completed questionnaires concerning the participants' personality disorder features. The results provided weak and inconsistent support for the hypotheses that HPD is a female-typed variant of psychopathy and that ASPD is a male-typed variant of psychopathy. Contrary to previous findings, scores on response modulation tasks were not significantly related to psychopathy, or to either HPD or ASPD. The limitations of this study and possibilities for future research in this area are outlined.