Startle modulation in non-incarcerated men and women with psychopathic traits

Past research has demonstrated that individuals with psychopathic characteristics are under-responsive to aversive stimuli, however, much of this work has failed to include non-incarcerated samples, or to examine gender differences in this relationship. Additionally, few studies have examined the role of specific personality characteristics, as they relate to both psychopathic behavior and emotional responsiveness. The current study assessed emotional modulation of the startle response in a community sample of 108 men and women (99 with usable startle data) during perception of emotion-laden photographs. Consistent with previous work, men reporting high levels of psychopathy failed to show the typical increase in the startle response when exposed to aversive photographs, but only when responses were elicited relatively early in picture viewing (i.e., 2.0 s as compared to 4.5 s post-photograph onset). Additionally, both genders showed a significant effect of harm avoidance and anxiety on modulation of the startle response, such that individuals reporting low levels of each trait failed to show significant responses to aversive photographs. These results suggest that while deficits in emotional processing extend to non-incarcerated samples, the relationship may be influenced by additional factors including gender, personality, and attributes related to incarceration.     

Examining the relationship between self-reported compliance and psychopathic personality traits

The relationship between antisocial traits and forensically-relevant compliance is equivocal, perhaps due to the heterogeneity of antisocial traits. In an effort to better understand this relationship, the current study used the construct of psychopathy as a means of parsing this heterogeneity. Specifically, the relationship between psychopathy as captured by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R; Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005) and compliance measured by the Gudjonsson Compliance Scale (GCS; [Gudjonsson, 1989] and [Gudjonsson, 1997]) among a sample of university students (n = 131) was explored. Results revealed that total scores on the PPI-R were unrelated to compliance. However, specific facets of the PPI-R were related to the GCS, but in opposite directions. This might explain inconsistent findings in the extant literature. The findings stemming from the study provide insights into the relationship between antisocial traits and forensically-relevant compliance and offer direction to future efforts aimed at understanding this relationship. Implications for these distinct relationships in the context of false confessions are discussed.     

Facial affect recognition in college students with psychopathic traits: A comparison using tests matched in discriminating power

Research has provided inconsistent evidence for the relationship between psychopathy and facial affect recognition. We examined whether some of the previous findings could reflect a psychometric artifact in which deficits are more easily detected with very discriminating measures than with less discriminating measures, an issue not addressed in prior psychopathy studies. We developed measures of facial affect recognition matched in discriminating power and administered these measures to 194 college students who had also completed the Psychopathic Personality Inventory. Results indicate that high levels of Coldheartedness were associated with poorer recognition of the specific emotion of disgust. These findings demonstrate that some affective processing deficits associated with psychopathic traits cannot be attributed to psychometric artifacts.     

Personality and psychopathology in an impulsive aggressive college sample

Certain personality traits have been associated with impulsive aggression in both college and community samples, primarily irritability, anger/hostility, and impulsivity. The literature regarding the psychopathology associated with impulsive aggression is relatively sparse and strongly emphasizes DSM‐IV‐TR [APA, 2000] Axis II personality disorders, although some comorbidity with Axis I clinical disorders has been reported. The current study compares impulsive aggressive (IA) college students with their non‐aggressive peers on several self‐report measures of personality and psychopathology. Personality results were as predicted, with IAs scoring higher than controls on measures of impulsivity and aggression. Additionally, the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), which was given for exploratory purposes, revealed a unique pattern of psychopathic traits in impulsive aggression that contained key differences from the callous‐unemotional profile seen in premeditated aggression. Contrary to our hypothesis that a specific pattern of psychopathology (personality disorders, bipolar disorder, and adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) would emerge for impulsive aggression, IAs scored significantly higher than controls on nearly every clinical scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Somatic Complaints, Anxiety, Anxiety‐Related Disorders, Depression, Mania, Schizophrenia, Borderline Features, Antisocial Features, Alcohol Problems, and Drug Problems), indicating a global elevation of psychopathology. In conclusion, while the personality traits and behaviors that characterize impulsive aggression are relatively consistent across individuals, its associated psychopathology is unexpectedly variable. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–10, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Distraction from cognitive processing by emotional pictures: Preliminary evidence for an association with interactions between psychopathy-related traits in a non-clinical sample

In individuals with psychopathy, the presence of emotional stimuli implicates a relatively weak distraction from performing cognitive tasks. This study assessed whether there is also a relationship between specific combinations of psychopathy-related traits present in the general population and sensitivity of cognitive processing to distraction by emotional stimuli. The participants (N = 80) were screened for these traits using the Psychopathic Personality Inventory and performed a classification task in the presence of pictures with a low or high arousal value. Emotional distraction (ED) was operationalized in terms of the response time on trials with high- versus low-arousal pictures. The interaction between affective-interpersonal and impulsive-antisocial traits was significantly associated with ED. This interaction reflected the fact that the association between affective-interpersonal traits (specifically fearlessness) and magnitude of ED was negative for individuals with relatively weak impulsive-antisocial traits (specifically carefree nonplanfulness) but positive for those with relatively strong impulsive-antisocial traits. These results suggest significant differences in vulnerability to ED as a function of the strength of specific combinations of psychopathy-related traits in non-clinical samples.     

The criminal and personality profile of patients with schizophrenia and comorbid psychopathic traits

Sixty-one male forensic patients who met the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia were categorised into high and low psychopathic trait groups using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version. The groups were compared on their criminal history, symptom profile, personality style, risk scores and subsequent institutional violence. Patients with high scores on the PCL:SV had a greater number of previous convictions and were more likely to have a family history of criminality. The high psychopathy-scoring group had higher levels of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale grandiose and hostile symptomatology, and higher scores on trait impulsivity and aggression. They also had a more coercive, less compliant interpersonal style than the low-psychopathy scoring group. The high-psychopathy scoring group were more likely to be involved in institutional aggression and had higher levels of risk for violence. Patients with schizophrenia and high levels of comorbid psychopathy have a distinctive interpersonal style that may contribute to their greater risk of disruptive institutional behaviour.     

Relations between self-serving cognitive distortions, psychopathic traits, and antisocial behavior in a non-clinical sample of adolescents

The aim of the present study was to assess the relative contributions self-serving cognitive distortions and psychopathic traits to adolescent antisocial behavior. Participants were 972 high-school students who completed self-report questionnaires. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that self-serving cognitive distortions, psychopathic traits, as well as their interaction term were significant predictors of antisocial behavior in both genders after adjustment for the main other cognitive, psychopathological and sociofamilial variables. High levels of self-serving cognitive distortions were associated with more extensive antisocial behavior among participants with higher scores on psychopathic traits. This result may have implications for prevention and treatment.     

The relationship between psychopathic traits and attachment behavior in a non-clinical population

Attachment processes have been proposed to play a key role in the development of the core features of psychopathy (Fowles & Dindo, 2006). The findings reported in the literature regarding the associations between attachment and psychopathic traits are far from conclusive, especially in non-clinical populations. The present study investigated the relationship between self-reported attachment behavior and psychopathic traits in a college sample. Two-hundred nine participants completed the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised scale and the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy scale. Controlling for gender and race, hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that individuals high in both attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety had higher primary psychopathy scores. Both individuals high in attachment avoidance and individuals high in attachment anxiety had higher secondary psychopathy scores. Implications of these findings for future research and clinical practice are discussed.     

Prediction of performance facets using specific personality traits in the Chinese context

Recent research has shown that the contextual domain of job performance could be divided into an interpersonal and a personal facet. This study examined how personality variables relate differentially to these two distinct facets. Supervisory-level employees (N=187) completed the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI, Cheung et al., 1996) and provided their recent performance appraisal records. Results indicated that personality traits that relate to interpersonal orientation (e.g., Harmony and Leadership in the CPAI) better predict interpersonal versus personal contextual behaviors, whereas a trait associated with personal virtues such as moral obligation and loyalty to group (e.g., CPAI’s Veraciousness) predicts the personal but not the interpersonal domain. These results extend previous research findings that personality variables are valid predictors of the contextual domain of job performance, and demonstrate that the same personality variable differs in levels of predictive validity depending on the foci of the contextual behaviors.     

Response inhibition in the parametric go/no-go task and its relation to impulsivity and subclinical psychopathy

The current study utilizes the parametric go/no-go task (PGNG), a task that examines changes in inhibitory performance as executive function load increases, to examine the link between psychopathic traits, impulsivity, and response inhibition in a cohort of healthy participants. The results show that as executive function load increased, inhibitory ability decreased. High scores on the Cognitive Complexity subscale of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS–11) predict poor inhibitory ability in the PGNG. Similarly, high scores on the Psychopathy Personality Inventory–Revised (PPI–R) Blame Externalization subscale predict response inhibition deficits in the PGNG, which loads more on the executive functions than the standard go/no-go task. The remaining BIS–11 as well as PPI–R subscales did not interact with inhibitory performance in the PGNG highlighting the specificity of associations between aspects of personality and impulsivity with inhibitory performance as cognitive load is increased. These data point towards the sensitivity of the PGNG in studying response inhibition in the context of highly impulsive populations and its utility as a measure of impulsivity.     

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.     

Empathy,morality and psychopathic traits in women

Empathic and moral processing correlates of psychopathic personality have seldom been studied in women. In this study, we experimentally tested associations between psychopathic personality traits and empathic and moral processing in a female sample, and further directly compared them to results from a male sample. We found that high levels of affective-interpersonal traits were associated with diminished affective response to sad and fearful emotions in others; lower propensity to feel moral emotions; higher endorsement of utilitarian solutions to moral dilemmas involving direct harm; and less self-reported difficulty when performing moral decision making. Overall, our findings strengthen the view that the two dimensions of psychopathy make distinct contributions to emotional and moral processing; and demonstrate that, in women, psychopathic personality traits are associated with a similar pattern of empathic and moral processing biases as the one that has been previously reported in men.     

Would a neuroscience of violence aid in understanding legal culpability?

Defense attorneys in criminal cases are beginning to argue that their clients were biologically predisposed to committing their crimes and therefore were less responsible for their behavior. Indeed, if our brains cause our behavior, and our brains are the way they are because of genetic composition, insults, disease, and life experiences, it becomes difficult to argue that any punishment as justified retribution for behavior is cogent. In this essay, I address the question of whether understanding the neuroscience behind human behavior should alter our legal notion of responsibility. We will examine this query in greater detail, using violence as a case study, asking whether understanding the neuroscience underlying violent behavior impacts our notion of personal or legal culpability. I shall argue that it does not. I proceed by first briefly sketching what we know about human violence and the biology behind it. Then I turn to a quick discussion of psychopaths, their connections to violence, and what we think we know about the biology of their brains. Finally, I come to the question of whether we should consider violent people with specific brain abnormalities as mad or bad, which will feed into the question of whether such people are responsible for their criminal behavior. I conclude with some very general and very brief speculations on what this discussion has to tell us about nature of being human.     

Stability and predictors of psychopathic traits from mid‐adolescence through early adulthood

High levels of psychopathic traits in youth are associated with multiple negative outcomes including substance misuse, aggressive behavior, and criminality. Evidence regarding stability of psychopathic traits is contradictory. No previous study has examined long‐term stability of psychopathic traits assessed with validated clinical measures. The present study examined the stability of psychopathic traits from mid‐adolescence to early adulthood and explored adolescent factors that predicted psychopathic traits five years later. The sample included 99 women and 81 men who had consulted a clinic for substance misuse in adolescence. At an average age of 16.8 years, the adolescents were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV) and five years later using the PCL‐Revised (PCL‐R). Additionally, extensive clinical assessments of the adolescents and their parents were completed in mid‐adolescence. Among both females and males, moderate to high rank‐order stability was observed for total PCL and facet scores. Among both females and males, there was a decrease in the mean total PCL score, interpersonal facet score, affective facet score, and lifestyle facet score. However, the great majority of females and males showed no change in psychopathy scores over the five‐year period as indicated by the Reliable Change Index. Despite the measures of multiple family and individual factors in adolescence, only aggressive behavior and male sex predicted PCL‐R total scores in early adulthood after taking account of PCL:YV scores. Taken together, these results from a sample who engaged in antisocial behavior in adolescence suggest that factors promoting high psychopathy scores act early in life.     

Factorial and convergent validity of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory‐Short Version in Ghana

Studies have shown the existence of psychopathy construct in Western cultures. However, there is a general lack of research on this topical issue in non‐Western countries, specifically sub‐Saharan Africa. Consequently, this study investigated the factorial and convergent validity of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory‐Short Version (YPI‐S) in 327 adolescents in Ghana. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a three‐factor structure (interpersonal, behavioural and affective) of psychopathy that was invariant across gender. These results were replicated in a cross‐validation sample comprising 363 adolescents. The YPI‐S factors correlated significantly and positively with reactive and proactive aggression, thus bolstering its construct validity. The YPI‐S and Big‐Five domains were related differently, and where significant correlations were observed, their directions generally confirmed and extended previous studies. All in all, the result generally suggested the existence of psychopathy construct among Ghanaian youth which can be described along interpersonal, affective and behavioural domains. However, the alterations made to the YPI‐S, coupled with its relatively low factor loadings and internal consistency largely, indicate cultural influences on the assessment of cross‐cultural traits. This study illuminated the problem of exporting Western‐based measures and their findings to non‐Western contexts.     

Contributions of psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian, and sadistic personality traits to juvenile delinquency

The aim of this study was to assess the relative contributions of psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian, and sadistic traits to delinquent behaviors in adolescents. Participants were 615 high-school students who completed self-report questionnaires. Psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian, and sadistic traits were moderately correlated suggesting they may be overlapping but distinct constructs. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to control for other socio-familial or psychopathological risk factors. Psychopathic and sadistic traits were independent predictors of delinquent behaviors in boys only. These findings suggest the importance of studying the role of sadistic traits in juvenile delinquency.     

Investigating associations between empathy, morality and psychopathic personality traits in the general population

Although atypical moral and empathy processing are considered core features of psychopathic personality, little is known about how these constructs are associated with psychopathic traits in the general population. One-hundred and twenty-four adult males from the community were administered the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale 4 Short Form, as well as a wide battery of affect, empathy and morality tasks and questionnaires. Our findings indicate that both core affective-interpersonal, as well as lifestyle-antisocial features of psychopathy are associated with weaker empathic responses to fearful faces. However, only the unique variance of the affective-interpersonal features is associated with weaker empathic response to happy stories, lower propensity to feel empathic concern and less difficulty in making decisions on moral dilemmas. In contrast, the unique variance of the lifestyle-antisocial features is associated with greater propensity to feel empathic concern. These preliminary findings extend previous research and suggest that, while the joint variance between affective-interpersonal and lifestyle-antisocial features might drive some ‘deficits’ associated with psychopathy, there also appears also to be unique ‘deficits’ associated with the core affective-interpersonal features, particularly in relation to affective aspects of moral processing.     

Neuropsychological correlates of self-reported impulsive aggression in a college sample

The present study examined the neuropsychological correlates of impulsive aggression/violence using a population which is considered to be functioning ‘normally’ by societal standards, college students. Subjects were 12 college students classified as impulsive aggressive by self-report and 12 nonaggressive matched controls. All impulsive aggressive subjects reported a lifetime history of physical aggressive outbursts. The neuropsychological findings suggest that impulsive aggressives share a pathological focus involving specific executive control processes: impulse control and verbal strategic processing. These findings are consistent with the neuropsychological and psychophysiological findings in impulsive aggressive incarcerated criminals and support the notion of a specific behavioral syndrome associated with spontaneous aggressive outbursts.     

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.