Lecture 3: Psychopathy Flashcards
What did Freud define “psychopathy” as?
Any mental or behavioral dysfunction (overused the term)
Is psychopathy a diagnosis?
No the DSM- 2 did not list psychopathy but it listed antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) a most similar
What was Cleckley’s definition of a psychopath?
Developed 21 characteristics of psychopathy (reduced to 16)
Describes a person who outwardly appears normal but underneath a “semantic neuropsychiatric defect” - an inability to have genuine emotions
What does the term mans sans delire mean (Phillipe Pinel, 1801?
Mania without delirium
What did James Pritchard (1835) develop as a category for a mental disorder?
Moral insanity
What did Maudsley (19th C) call psychopathy?
Moral imbecile
What are item 1-8 items on Cleckley’s checklist?
- Superficial charm & Intelligence
- Absence of delusions & other signs of irrational thinking
- Absence of nervousness or psychoneurotic manifestations
- Unreliability
- Untruthfulness & insincerity
- Lack of remorse/shame
- Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior
- Poor judgment/ failure to learn by experience
What are items 9-16 of Cleckley’s checklist?
- Pathologic egocentricity/ incapacity for love
- General poverty in major affective reactions
- Specific loss of insight
- Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations
- Fantastic & uninviting behaviour w/ and w/o drink
- Suicide threats are rarely carried out
- Sex life is impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated
- Failure to follow any life plan
What did Robert Hare develop?
The PCL was developed based on Cleckley’s checklist (1986) & renamed the PCL-R in 1991
PCL-R was adopted as the “gold standard” for definitions of criminal psychopathy
Is psychopath a diagnosis in the DSM?
DSM-V (2013) referred to antisocial personality disorder similar to DSM-5 notes psychopathy & sociopathy but it not a diagnosis
In what ways can we assess psychopathy?
Clinical Opinion - interview person & professionals
Personality questionnaires (NEO, MMPI, PAI, TCI)
Structured diagnosis (PCL-R)
Self-report measures (LPSP, PPI-R, TriPM model)
DSM-5 (confuses ASPD & psychopathy)
What is the confusion between ASPD & psychopathy?
Criteria for ASPD: mainly criminal behaviors
In “associated features” it describes some personality traits that are associated with psychopathy
Most clinical/forensic psychologists therefore measure psychopathy separately from ASPD
What % of offenders reach criterion for ASPD & psychopathy?
60-80% of offenders reach the criterion for ASPD
10-20% reach criterion for psychopathy
What professions often have psychopaths?
Lawyers, businessmen, surgeons, professors
Gender & Psychopathy
Females have much lower scores of psychopathy
What is the PCL-R?
Hare (1999, 2003)
Requires extensive file information & specialist training & professional overseeing
Rates 20 items of personality & behavior as 0 (absent), 1 (maybe), or 2 (definitely)
Give a score out of 40 (30 is ‘cut off’)
What are some revised checklists from the PCL-R?
Screening version (PCL:SV)
Youth Version (PCL:YV)
P-Scan: non clinical use; used in correctional facilities, law enforcement, probation, parole, etc
B-Scam: psychopathy in the workplace
What are items 1-10 on the PCL-R?
- Glibness/Superficial Charm
- Grandiose sense of self-worth
- Need for stimulation- proneness to boredom
- Pathological lying
- Conning/ manipulative
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Shallow affect
- Callous/ Lack of empathy
- Parasitic Lifestyle
- Poor Behavioral Controls
What are items 11- 20 of the PCL-R?
- Promiscuous sexual behavior
- Behaviour problems
- Lack of realistic, long-term goals
- Impulsivity
- Irresponsibility
- Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
- Many “short-term” marital relationships
- Juvenile Delinquency
- Revocation of conditional release
- Criminal Versatility
How is psychopathy measured on the PCL-R? (sub-types)
There are numbers refer to the 2 subscales
Factor 1: Affective/Interpersonal style (Pathological lying, grandiosity)
Factor 2: Behavioural Lifestyle (Recklessness, criminal behaviours)
Hare & Neumann, 2008: Identified 4 factors (Interpersonal, Affective, Lifestyle, Antisocial)
What is primary & secondary psychopathy?
Primary (Factor 1): low anxiety, callousness, superficial charm (issue with the limbic system) - INTERPERSONAL + AFFECTIVE
Secondary (Factor 2): Similar to sociopathy, lack of long-term goals, higher impulsivity & anxiety (may be impairment of frontal cortex) - IMPULSIVE-ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
What does the TriPM measure?
Boldness, meanness, disinhibition
Focuses on context, risk-taking
What does the PPI-R measure?
Fearless dominance, self-centered disinhibition (cold-heartedness)
What did Gray’s (2019) study of psychopathy & impulsivity find?
Used the UPPS-P measure of impulsivity & PCL-R to measure impulsivity in psychopaths
Findings showed nearly every aspect of impulsivity is related to factor 2 psychopathy
Most of correlations of factor 1 are negative
