Lecture 10: Psychopathy

Question 1

affective (or reactive) violence

Answer 1

Violence that is emotionally driven (e.g., violence in the heat of passion). Has a high arousal component. Victim injury is often more excessive than instrumental violence

Question 2

PCL-R

Answer 2

The PCL-R refers to the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised, which is a method for determining whether someone is a psychopath (developed by Robert Hare). The measure consists of 20 items that tap into 4 features that are thought to define psychopathy: (1) interpersonal features (e.g., manipulative), (2) affective features (e.g., shallow emotion), and (3) lifestyle features (e.g., poor anger control). Each question is measured on a 3-point scale and a score of 30 out of 40 is typically taken as an indication of psychopathy.

Question 3

instrumental violence

Answer 3

Violence that is not emotionally driven but goal driven (e.g., to get revenge, to maintain power, to gain financially, etc.).

Question 4

startle blink reflex

Answer 4

A reflex that occurs when something unexpected happens (e.g., a loud noise). Typically, the startle blink reflex is magnified if you are in a negative emotional state and reduced if you are in a positive emotional state. However, this does not appear to be the case with psychopaths, indicating that they can be characterized by some hard-wired and generalized emotional deficit.