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Examining Psychopathic Tendencies in Adolescence From the Perspective of Personality Theory
Abstract
This study sought to clarify the personality correlates of psychopathic tendencies in adolescents using the Antisocial Process Screening Device [APSD; Frick and Hare, 2001] and a youth adapted version of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire [Patrick et al., 2009, unpublished]. A combination of self- and parent-reports on the APSD (n=229) revealed that the three-facet model of psychopathic tendencies in youth was characterized by a similar constellation of personality traits as the psychopathic construct in adulthood [e.g., Hall, Benning and Patrick, 2004]. Specifically, low anxiety and trait aggression characterized the APSD Callous/Unemotional dimension, social dominance and trait aggression characterized the APSD Narcissism dimension, and disinhibition and low harm avoidance characterized the APSD Impulsivity dimension. The results add credence to the hypothesis that personality relationships to psychopathic tendencies emerge from an early age [Lynam, 2002] and dimensions of psychopathy in youth are associated with distinct personality profiles.
... A few studies that have reported correlations between parent-report and self-report version on one measure of psychopathic traits in youth, the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD), have found few significant differences between child and parent ratings, with correlations ranging from 0.30 to 0.58, with an average correlation of 0.46 [16][17][18]. In a study by Muñoz and Frick [16], a large sample of children were initially recruited from schools and screening questionnaires were administered to assess DSM-IV symptoms and callous/unemotional (CU) traits. ...
... In a sample of parents and children recruited from a university setting, Kimonis et al. [17] found the correlation between parent and child ratings on the APSD to be 0.54. Finally, Sadeh et al. [18] found correlations between parent-and youth-reported subscales on the APSD to range from 0.26 for CU traits to .41 for total score. Participants were recruited from both clinical (e.g., mental health centers, juvenile justice agencies) and community (e.g., flyers, newspaper advertisements) settings. ...
... Our findings revealed low levels of parent-child agreement on these measures (ICC values ranging from .02 to 30 for psychopathic traits; ICC values ranging from .09 to 30 for externalizing behaviors), which are consistent with existing literature that revealed little agreement between ratings of childhood psychopathology provided by parents and those reported by children [1,9]. Our findings, however, contradict previous findings [16][17][18], which found correlations between parent and child on the APSD ranging from 0.26 to 0.58. The highest correlation between parent and child ratings in the present study for the total score or any subscale was 0.22. ...
A number of studies have identified discrepancies in informant ratings of externalizing behaviors in youth, but it is unclear whether similar discrepancies exist between informants when rating psychopathic traits. In this study, we examined parent–child agreement on ratings of both psychopathic traits and externalizing behaviors, and examined the factors that influence agreement in both of these domains. A total of 282 children between 7 and 16 years (M = 10.60 years, SD = 1.91) from an outpatient child psychiatric clinic participated in this study. Our findings revealed low levels of parent–child agreement on these measures (ICC values ranging from .02 to .30 for psychopathic traits; ICC values ranging from .09 to .30 for externalizing behaviors). In addition, our findings did not support the moderating effects of child’s age, gender, clinical diagnosis, informant, and parental conflict on the relationship between parent- and child-ratings of psychopathic traits and externalizing behaviors. Further research is needed to better understand how parents and child reports of child’s externalizing behaviors and psychopathic traits are similar and/or different from one another and factors that influence these agreements.
... Patrick et al. (2013) used young-adult undergraduate students for this validation study of the MPQ-SF. Despite implementation of the MPQ-SF with adolescents in recent research (e.g., Sadeh, Verona, Javdani, & Olson, 2009), there has been no investigation of its reliability and validity with youth, who typically exhibit lower reading comprehension than the average adult (Holt, 1993). ...
... The present study advances research using the MPQ-SF, with a focus on personality–psychopathology relationships, in youth with treatment histories. These data include the treatment seeking subset of youth from a previously published study on associations between personality and youth psychopathic tendencies (Sadeh et al., 2009). This study is positioned to contribute data to the current literature given the paucity of research examining the functioning of the MPQ (in any form) with adolescent populations, particularly those with treatment histories. ...
... PAF was selected as the analysis of choice, because we were interested in testing a theoretical model of latent factors, as opposed to reducing observed variables into a smaller number of uncorrelated dimensions (for which principal components analysis may be more appropriate; Kutner, Nachtsheim, Neter, & Li, 2004 ). A promax rotation was used because we expected factors to be correlated as opposed to orthogonal, consistent with previous literature with youth and young adult participants (Church, 1994; Sadeh et al., 2009). Third, we examined relationships between MPQ-SF personality scales and youth, parent, and clinician-rated psychopathology indices. ...
The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) is a widely used personality assessment instrument informing lower- and higher-order personality dimensions. Despite recent developments of brief (MPQ-BF) and simplified wording (MPQ-SF) forms, there is relatively little work on the utility and validity of the MPQ in younger samples with lower reading levels. This study is the first to assess the reliability, factor structure, and criterion validity of the MPQ-SF in a sample of treatment-referred mid-adolescents (N = 105; 12-17 years). Results suggest adequate reliabilities for most of the lower-order primary scales and support a three-factor structure of the MPQ-SF, consistent with previous research with adult and college-aged samples. However, there were also notable cross-loadings for particular scales, which we discuss in relation to the four-factor MPQ model and the Five Factor Model of Personality. Relationships between MPQ personality dimensions and psychopathology using youth, parent, and clinician-rated psychopathology indices supported criterion-related validity. Together, these results confirm the utility of the MPQ in youth with treatment histories.
... This instrument has proven reliable and valid, yielding a three-factor model similar to adult psychopathy: callous– unemotional (affective), narcissism (interpersonal), and impulsivity (behavioral) dimensions (Frick et al., 2000; Vitacco, Rogers, & Neumann, 2003). In support of its construct validity, research indicates the APSD is useful for assessing and predicting violence and conduct problems in youth (Frick et al., 2000) and evidences similar personality correlates as adult psychopathy (Sadeh, Verona, Javdani, & Olson, 2009). Although Cleckley's (1976) monograph on psychopathy suggested that individuals with high levels of psychopathic traits rarely engage in suicide, aggressive and antisocial individuals are at heightened risk for suicidality (Bukstein et al., 1993; Goldston et al., 1998). ...
... This may be particularly relevant to our findings, given that we examined suicidality in adolescence, a period when the prefrontal cortex is still in development and executive functions governing behavior regulation are not fully formed (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006). It is interesting that callous– unemotional traits are often negatively related to negative affective states (e.g., Sadeh et al., 2009); thus, youth with high levels of these traits would be less likely to suffer from depression and therefore less likely to experience deficient executive functions (Sellbom & Verona, 2007), which, in turn, would protect them from suicidal behaviors. The latter is what we found in the girls in our sample. ...
... ulsivity and callous– unemotional traits in the present study closely replicate these findings, providing additional support for the construct of psychopathic tendencies in youth and potential similarities to the disorder in adulthood. The present findings make conceptual sense, given recent reports of personality correlates of youth psy- chopathy. Sadeh et al. (2009) found that whereas low anxiety and aggression characterized the Callous/Unemotional dimension of the APSD, low trait constraint differentially characterized the Impulsivity dimension. Further, the finding that narcissism did not differentially explain suicidality in the present study may be due to the fact that narcissism is mostly rela ...
Suicidality represents one of the most important areas of risk for adolescents, with both internalizing (e.g., depression, anxiety) and externalizing-antisocial (e.g., substance use, conduct) disorders conferring risk for suicidal ideation and attempts (e.g., Bridge, Goldstein, & Brent, 2006). However, no study has attended to gender differences in relationships between suicidality and different facets of psychopathic tendencies in youth. Further, very little research has focused on disentangling the multiple manifestations of suicide risk in the same study, including behaviors (suicide attempts with intent to die, self-injurious behavior) and general suicide risk marked by suicidal ideation and plans. To better understand these relationships, we recruited 184 adolescents from the community and in treatment. As predicted, psychopathic traits and depressive symptoms in youth showed differential associations with components of suicidality. Specifically, impulsive traits uniquely contributed to suicide attempts and self-injurious behaviors, above the influence of depression. Indeed, once psychopathic tendencies were entered in the model, depressive symptoms only explained general suicide risk marked by ideation or plans but not behaviors. Further, callous-unemotional traits conferred protection from suicide attempts selectively in girls. These findings have important implications for developing integrative models that incorporate differential relationships between (a) depressed mood and (b) personality risk factors (i.e., impulsivity and callous-unemotional traits) for suicidality in youth.
... For example, Krueger and colleagues (Krueger et al. 2001;Krueger et al. 1994) have reported that high NEM and, to a lesser degree, low CON serve as longitudinal risk factors for antisocial behavior in youth. Other research has shown that low CON is associated with impulsivity, substance use, and oppositional behaviors, whereas PEM is negatively and NEM is positively associated with a broad range of internalizing and externalizing problems in youth (Javdani et al. 2014;Sadeh et al. 2009). ...
... Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire-Simplified Wording Form (MPQ-SF; Javdani et al. 2014;Patrick et al. 2013;Sadeh et al. 2009). The MPQ-SF was administered to adolescents to assess their personality traits. ...
The aim of the current study was to explore distinct patterns of family aggression and their relationship to youths’ self- and other-directed harm, as well as the moderating role of personality. Participants included 184 adolescents (mean age of 14) from the community and in treatment. Family aggression and self- and other-directed harm were assessed by youth and/or parent reports on various scales. Youth personality was assessed by self-report on the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire—Simplified Wording Form (MPQ-SF). A cluster analysis revealed three distinct patterns of family aggression: 1) Witness + Victim, 2) Youth as Witness, and 3) Low Family Aggression. Youth who reported being both victims of and witnesses to family aggression (Witness + Victim) reported the highest levels of self- and other-directed harm compared to Youth in the other two clusters. There was also a significant interaction between temperamental Negative Emotionality (NEM) and family aggression cluster, in that there was a dose effect of family aggression on other-directed harm at high levels of NEM. In contrast, at low levels of NEM, family aggression was not related to other-directed harm. These results suggest that specific patterns of family aggression have distinct relationships with youths’ self- and other-directed harm. Further, these results highlight the role of individual differences like NEM as risky or protective depending on the family context.
... It was found that steeper cortisol awakening response increases were associated with lifetime stress exposure and callous-unemotional traits. There is also evidence that callous-unemotional traits are negatively associated with stress response [60]. Regarding empathy, a previous study showed a negative correlation between empathy and stress in medical students [61]. ...
Background: Within the spectrum of emotional competencies, callous-unemotional traits are socially discouraged, while empathy is considered a socially much more accepted emotional trait. This holds particularly true for adolescents, who are still building up their social and emotional competencies. The aims of the present study were two-fold: First, longitudinally, to identify traits of behavioral problems and objective sleep dimensions at the age of 5 year to predict callous-unemotional traits and empathy at the age of 14 years. Second, cross-sectionally, to associate callous-unemotional traits and empathy to current insomnia, stress and mental toughness. Methods: Preschoolers at the age of 5 years were contacted nine years later at the age of 14 years. At 5 years, parents rated their children’s behavior (Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire; SDQ); in parallel, children underwent a one-night sleep-EEG assessment. At the age of 14 years, adolescents completed a series of questionnaires covering callous-unemotional traits, insomnia, empathy, stress, and mental toughness. Results: A total of 77 adolescents (38.1% females) took part in the present study. Longitudinally, higher scores for hyperactivity at age 5 significantly predicted higher callous-unemotional traits at age 14. A higher score for negative peer relationships at age 5 significantly predicted lower scores for cognitive empathy at age 14. Further, objective sleep-EEG measures showed that a higher sleep efficiency and a shorter sleep latency was associated with lower scores for callousness. Cross-sectionally, higher scores for callous-unemotional traits were associated with higher insomnia and stress, while lower insomnia was associated with higher empathy. Mental toughness was unrelated to callous-unemotional traits and empathy. Conclusions: It appears that hyperactivity traits and negative peer relationships at 5 years predicted socially discouraged callous-unemotional traits and low empathy during adolescence. Further, cross-sectionally at the age of 14, callous-unemotional traits, subjective poor sleep and higher stress were associated.
... The three scale factors (callous/unemotional traits, impulsivity, narcissism) have acceptable psychometric properties, including test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and concurrent and predictive validity (e.g., Frick et al., 2000;Poythress et al., 2006). The APSD was designed for youths aged six to 13, but prior research has demonstrated acceptability up to age 21 (e.g., Bijttebier & Decoene, 2009;Kruh et al., 2005;Muñoz & Frick, 2007;Sadeh et al., 2009). The internal consistencies for these subscales in our sample were acceptable (α's: callous/unemotional traits = 0.60, impulsivity = 0.68, narcissism = 0.79). ...
This study seeks to extend research evaluating tools to assess the disclosure of sexually abusive behavior. The subjects were 239 male youth (ages 10–20 years) who were court-ordered to participate in a community-based collaborative intervention for sexual offending that includes outpatient and probationary services. All youth participated in an interview to capture referral incident details about admission, responsibility, empathy, and remorse at intake, during intervention, and at discharge. Intake, treatment, discharge, and recidivism measures were also collected from multiple sources. Latent class analysis identified three classes based on the intake interview: Empathetic Admitters (22%), Unempathetic Admitters (38%), and Unempathetic Deniers (40%). Significant class differences were found on intake (e.g., use of physical force, caregiver denial of youth responsibility), treatment (e.g., any sanctions/violations), and discharge measures (e.g., successful treatment, probation officer ratings), but not in recidivism rates. The findings extend efforts to identify and target different disclosure patterns whose clinical monitoring may support a comprehensive intervention.
... reduced fear-potentiated startle to threatening stimuli, an association that was not present for meanness or disinhibition. This finding suggests that high levels of boldness may increase an individual's imperturbability to stressful life events and is consistent with conceptualizations that psychopathic traits can be adaptive in some contexts, including in adolescence (Sadeh, Verona, Javdani, & Olson, 2009). ...
Although psychopathic traits and pubertal timing have garnered a great deal of attention as potent risk factors for antisocial trajectories, very little research has examined how these processes may be related. We investigated whether psychopathic traits were related to deviations in pubertal onset in a clinically-relevant sample of youth detained in juvenile detention facilities. One-hundred and thirty-seven adolescents (ages 12–17) completed surveys of pubertal timing, psychopathic traits, and mental health functioning. As predicted, psychopathic traits were found to be associated with pubertal timing, and the psychopathy facets evidenced differential associations with the onset of puberty. Trait disinhibition was associated with relatively earlier pubertal timing, whereas trait boldness appeared to confer protection against early pubertal onset in this sample. Symptoms of alcohol/substance use and anger/irritability were positively related to psychopathic traits, but only among youth who reported average-/late-pubertal development. These findings implicate psychopathic personality traits as individual difference variables that may influence the onset of pubertal timing and interact with pubertal timing to place justice-involved youth at risk for poor mental health.
... Self-reported APSD CU scores have been moderately correlated with parent reports of CU traits in community and treatment-referred adolescents (Muñoz and Frick 2007;Sadeh et al. 2009) as well as measures of antisocial behavior, including violent and nonviolent delinquency, CD, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (Bijttebier and Decoene 2009;Vaughn et al. 2008). However, other research examining the APSD has called into question the functional utility of the single CU factor. ...
The present study examined the incremental validity of four self-report measures of adolescent psychopathy [i.e., Antisocial Process Screening Device self-report version (APSD), Childhood Psychopathy Scale (CPS), Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI), and the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU)] with particular interest in their assessment of callous-unemotional (CU) traits in a sample of 279 (246 males, 33 females) at-risk adolescents (ages 16-18). Analogous subscales across the four measures were weakly to moderately interrelated with no evidence of a true gold-standard self-report assessment of CU traits. Results indicate that CU traits are a multifaceted construct, with specific CU dimensions predicting differential aspects of antisocial behavior. Most notably, callousness predicted aggression incrementally above other CU domains, but not other forms of antisocial behavior. The implications of a multi-dimensional conceptualization of CU traits are discussed.
... These youth possess a strong need to dominate others, which may be satiated by engaging in acts of bullying that result in feelings of fear and distress in the victim, thus placing the bully in a position of power (Olweus, 1995). Social dominance is a characteristic feature of the interpersonal-narcissistic dimension of psychopathy (Sadeh, Verona, Javdani, & Olson, 2009). Bullies tend to use aggression strategically to achieve a desired goal or to solve problematic situations (Carney & Merrel, 2001;Griffin & Gross, 2004). ...
Objective: Psychopathy is a multidimensional construct comprising traits of narcissism, impulsivity, and callous-unemotionality (CU). Prior cross-sectional research supports an association between the CU dimension of juvenile psychopathy and peer bullying, but not victimization; however the relationship between the other psychopathy dimensions and “bully,” “bully victim,” and “victim” classifications has been largely neglected in research despite compelling empirical and theoretical support. Method: The current study addresses this critical gap in the literature using a longitudinal study design. The sample comprised 1416 (50.1% girls) Greek Cypriot adolescents (M age = 12.89) who completed a battery of self-report measures. Results: CU traits, narcissism, and impulsivity each added incremental variance beyond conduct problems (CP) to predicting bullying, whereas only impulsivity predicted victimization, one year later. Person-centered analyses clarified that CP and all psychopathy dimensions predicted membership into “bully” and “bully victim” groups, although the highest narcissism scores distinguished bullies. Impulsivity predicted membership into “victim” and “bully victim” groups, with the latter group scoring significantly higher. Conclusions: Notwithstanding other important unexamined factors known to contribute to bullying and victimization, our findings suggest that among psychopathy dimensions, narcissism best predicted which youth bullied, whereas impulsivity best distinguished youth susceptible to peer victimization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
... For example, the APSD (Frick and Hare 2001) which assesses psychopathy-linked characteristics in youth includes a seven-item narcissism scale (Frick et al. 2000). Grandiosity, arrogance, and a narcissistic interpersonal style have been widely viewed as core elements of psychopathy in adults (e.g., Cooke and Michie 2001;Hall et al. 2004) as well as youth (e.g., Frick et al. 2000;Sadeh et al. 2009). ...
The present study summarizes research on youth narcissism and examines the relations between different measures of youth narcissism
and various indicators of behavioral, emotional, and social functioning. This area of research has grown dramatically in only
a few years and speaks to the recognized role of self-perception in general and narcissism specifically in youth adjustment.
Data are presented for 117 adolescents ages 16 to 19 attending a residential program. Results showed a moderate level of association
across three measures of youth narcissism. In addition, each of the measures appeared to capture unique variance in different
indicators of behavioral and social functioning. The implications of this area of research for conceptualizations of youth
personality, assessment, and behavioral problems are discussed.
KeywordsNarcissism-Adolescence-Assessment
... These found an inverse association between CU traits with both agreeableness and conscientiousness [55,878889. Furthermore, CU traits were found to be negatively associated with stress reaction (expressing reaction to distress, anxiety) and positively associated to aggression (expressing irritability, aggression) [90], and that CU traits in youth were not specifically related to narcissism [91]. Thus, these studies suggest CU traits to be related to certain personality dimensions/traits that can be apparent before the age of 18 years. ...
Purpose
Callous–unemotional (CU) traits are currently viewed as the defining signs and symptoms of juvenile psychopathy. It is unclear, however, whether CU traits have validity only in the context of conduct disorder (CD) as proposed by Frick and Moffitt (A proposal to the DSM-V childhood disorders and the ADHD and disruptive behavior disorders work groups to include a specifier to the diagnosis of conduct disorder based on the presence of callous–unemotional traits, American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC, 2010), or also outside CD, either in combination with other forms of psychopathology or as a stand-alone construct.
Methods
The current review systematically studied the existent literature on CU traits in juveniles to examine their validity inside and outside CD according to the framework regarding the validity of a psychiatric diagnosis provided by Robins and Guze (Am J Psychiatry 126:983–987, 1970).
Results
Inside youth with conduct problems, and CD specifically, it seems that CU traits meet the Robins and Guze criteria. As many of the reviewed studies included youth with ODD and ADHD as well, there are indications the same might be true for ODD and ADHD, although probably to a lesser extent. In other disorders, CU traits may be present as well, but their role is not firmly established. As stand-alone construct, data are lacking or are scarce on all of the above-mentioned criteria.
Conclusions
CU traits are a useful specifier in CD, and possibly also in disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs) more generally. High CU traits outside DBDs exist but it is as yet unknown if there is a clinical need for defining CU traits as a stand-alone construct.
... This measure has been standardized in a large sample of community youth (Frick et al., 2000). The APSD manual indicates that the instrument is designed for youth aged 6 to 13, but prior research has demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties of the self-and parent-report versions of this measure to assess youth up to age 21 (e.g., Bijttebier & Decoene, 2009;Kruh, Frick, & Clements, 2005;Muñoz & Frick, 2007;Sadeh, Verona, Javdani, & Olson, 2009). ...
Adolescents adjudicated for sexual offenses are a heterogeneous group. The identification of more homogeneous subgroups of offenders may enable improved treatment, as the specific risks and needs presented by each group could be more effectively targeted. The current study examines three subgroups derived based on the age of victim(s), a popular method of subtyping that has mixed empirical support, using a sample of 176 males adjudicated for a sexual offense and court-ordered to participate in a community-based collaborative intervention program that integrates treatment and probationary services. Differences expected between groups based on theories regarding victim-age based subtypes are examined, in addition to differences consistently identified in prior research. Results indicate that these three subgroups are more similar than different, although some expected differences were found. Juveniles with child victims were more likely to have male victims and biologically related victims. Juveniles with peer/adult victims were more likely to have poor monitoring by their parents and more likely to have been arrested again. Juveniles with mixed types of victims appeared similar to juveniles with child victims on some variables and similar to those with peer/adult victims on others. Treatment implications and future directions for research are discussed. Typologies based on clinical characteristics of the youth rather than offense characteristics may have more promise for identifying meaningful subgroups.
... Targeted recruitment efforts allowed for inclusion of youth with a range of suicide risk and psychopathology, including youth with a mental health treatment history recruited from service agencies (e.g., mental health centers, juvenile probation) or through newspapers and fliers (n = 99), as well as youth without a treatment history recruited through flyers posted in community locations (e.g., shopping malls), newspaper advertisements, and a local high school (n = 124). Our primary rationale for the broad sampling was to capture psychopathology and suicide risk along the full spectrum, from low to high, rather than focusing on an attenuated range or considering only high-risk groups (also see Javdani et al., in press; Sadeh et al. 2009 ). A comparison between the present study and other published studies reveals that our full sample was characterized by similar levels of psychopathology and suicidality as those reported in research with community youth (e.g., see Gould et al. 2003; Lewinsohn et al. 1996; Welch 2001). 1 The youth with and without treatment history differed on income and ethnicity, with the youth with a treatment history consisting of proportionally more African-American and biracial youth (v 2 (4) = 15.4, ...
Youth suicide represents an area of important public and mental health concern. Although diagnostic correlates (e.g., depression) of suicidality have been identified, very few studies of youth have analyzed relationships between empirically-derived dimensions of psychopathology, representing broader dimensions of risk, and different suicidality indicators. We recruited 223 adolescents (57% female; 32% ethnic minority) from mental health agencies and the community to assess psychopathology, substance use, and suicidality relying on multiple measures and reporters (youth, parent, and clinician). Using a 3-factor model of psychopathology, we found that the Internalizing factor (including depression and generalized anxiety) was associated with both suicidal thinking and behaviors (threats/attempts), the Externalizing factor (conduct, oppositional, and attention deficit disorders) was negatively related only to suicidal thinking, and the Substance Use factor (alcohol and cannabis use) related to suicidal behaviors of threats/attempts but not suicidal thinking. The results show the utility of a dimensional conceptualization for clarifying distinct vulnerabilities to suicidal thinking versus overt behaviors and have implications for the construct validity of distinct dimensions of psychopathology.
... This measure has been standardized in a large sample of community youth (Frick et al., 2000). The APSD manual indicates that the instrument is designed for youth aged 6 to 13, but prior research has demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties of the self-and parent-report versions of this measure to assess youth up to age 21 (e.g., Bijttebier & Decoene, 2009;Kruh, Frick, & Clements, 2005;Muñoz & Frick, 2007;Sadeh, Verona, Javdani, & Olson, 2009). ...
Identifying and understanding the factors that predict treatment success is central to legal and clinical decision making about juveniles who commit sexual offenses. The current study surveyed 158 treatment providers who work with juvenile sexual offenders to explore empirically the construct of amenability as it relates to juvenile sex offender-specific treatment (SOST). Youths' unwillingness to alter deviant sexual interest/attitudes and unsupportive parenting were rated as strong indicators of poor SOST amenability, whereas the youths' motivation for change and belief in the efficacy of treatment, strong social support and positive attachments, and resilient personality traits were rated as strong indicators of good SOST amenability. Items distinctly rated as indicators of either poor or good treatment amenability (N = 48) were thematically grouped into internally consistent scales (α's ranging from .75-.87) reflecting several possible dimensions of amenability.
Background:
The relationship between callous-unemotional (CU) traits (the affective facet of psychopathy and the psychopathy that occurs during childhood and adolescence) and suicide ideation (SI) remains unclear. The mechanisms underlying this association still have a gap in the literature. The aims of this study were to determine whether and how callous-unemotional traits were associated with suicide ideation, and to evaluate the mediating effect of negative affect (includes irritability, depression, and anxiety) and the moderating effect of future orientation on the association.
Methods:
Data were extracted from a longitudinal study involving middle and high school students, with 1913 students (55.3 % girls) aged 11 to 19 years (14.9 ± 1.6 years) completing a self-reported online survey. The conditional process analysis was examined using Mplus 8.3.
Results:
We found that callous-unemotional traits positively predicted youths' current suicide ideation, with the observed positive relationship partly mediated by negative affect. However, callous-unemotional traits did not predict the worst-point suicide ideation, which indicated the connection fully mediated by negative affect. Furthermore, future orientation moderated these indirect effects.
Limitations:
Use of self-report measures and cross-sectional design.
Conclusions:
These findings provided evidence for current debates and conflicting conclusions, and set the foundation for future research, as well as implied the important intervention goals for reducing suicide ideation in youth.
This meta-analytic review examines the link between narcissism and aggression, and whether the link is stronger under provocation conditions. A total of 437 independent studies were located, which included 123,043 participants. Narcissism was related to both aggression (r = .26, [.24, .28]) and violence (r = .23, [.18, .27]). As expected, the narcissism-aggression link was stronger under provocation conditions (r = .29, [.23, .36]) than under no provocation conditions (r = .12, [.05, .18]), but was even significant in the absence of provocation. Both "normal" and "pathological" narcissism were related to aggression. All three dimensions of narcissism (i.e., entitlement, grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism) were related to aggression. Narcissism was related to all forms of aggression (i.e., indirect, direct, displaced, physical, verbal, bullying), and to both functions of aggression (i.e., reactive, proactive). The relation between narcissism and aggression was significant for males and females, for people of all ages, for students and nonstudents, and for people from individualistic and collectivistic countries. Significant results were obtained in experimental, cross-sectional, and longitudinal studies, in published and unpublished studies, and in studies that assessed aggression using different types of measures (i.e., self-report, other-report, observation). Overall results were robust to publication bias and the presence of outliers. Theoretically, these results indicate that provocation is a key moderator of the link between narcissism and aggression. Individuals high in narcissism have "thin skins" and are prone to aggression when they are provoked. Practically, these results suggest that narcissism is an important risk factor for aggression and violence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
Trait impulsivity has long been proposed to play a role in aggression, but the results across studies have been mixed. One possible explanation for the mixed results is that impulsivity is a multifaceted construct and some, but not all, facets are related to aggression. The goal of the current meta-analysis was to determine the relation between the different facets of impulsivity (i.e., negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking) and aggression. The results from 93 papers with 105 unique samples (N = 36, 215) showed significant and small-to-medium correlations between each facet of impulsivity and aggression across several different forms of aggression, with more impulsivity being associated with more aggression. Moreover, negative urgency (r = 0.24, 95% [0.18, 0.29]), positive urgency (r = 0.34, 95% [0.19, 0.44]), and lack of premeditation (r = 0.23, 95% [0.20, 0.26]) had significantly stronger associations with aggression than the other scales (rs < 0.18). Two-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling showed that these effects were not due to overlap among facets of impulsivity. These results help advance the field of aggression research by clarifying the role of impulsivity and may be of interest to researchers and practitioners in several disciplines.
Trait impulsivity has long been proposed to play a role in aggression, but the results across studies have been mixed. One possible explanation for the mixed results is that impulsivity is a multifaceted construct and some, but not all, facets are related to aggression. The goal of the current meta-analysis was to determine the relation between the different facets of impulsivity (i.e., negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking) and aggression. The results from 93 papers with 105 samples (N = 36, 215) showed significant and small-to-medium correlations between each facet of impulsivity and aggression across several different forms of aggression, with more impulsivity being associated with more aggression. Moreover, negative urgency (r = .24, 95% [.18, .29]), positive urgency (r = .34, 95% [.19, .44]), and lack of premeditation (r = .23, 95% [.20, .26]) had significantly stronger associations with aggression than the other scales (rs < .18). Two-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling showed that these effects were not due to overlap among facets of impulsivity. These results help advance the field of aggression research by clarifying the role of impulsivity and may be of interest to researchers and practitioners in several disciplines.
Three studies describe development of the Psychopathic Processing and Personality Assessment (PAPA). Study one outlines a literature review and Expert Delphi (n = 32) to develop the initial PAPA. Study two validates the PAPA with 431 participants (121 male prisoners and 310 university students: 154 men, 156 women), also using the Levenson Self Report Psychopathy scale and a measure of cognitive schema and affect. Study three refined the PAPA, employing it with 50 male students and 40 male forensic psychiatric patients using clinical (interview) assessments of psychopathy: the Psychopathy Checklist – Screening Version and the Affect, Cognitive and Lifestyle assessment. The PAPA comprised four factors; dissocial tendencies; emotional detachment; disregard for others; and lack of sensitivity to emotion. It positively correlated with existing psychopathy measures. Variations across PAPA subscales were noted across samples when associated with clinical measures of psychopathy. Support for the validity of the PAPA was indicated across samples. Directions for research and application are outlined.
Background:
Research on the topic of child psychopathy has advanced over the past decade increasing what we know.
Method:
This qualitative review examines the research base for child psychopathy and emphasizes its three dimensions: grandiose-manipulative, callous-unemotional, and daring-impulsive. Literature is reviewed addressing the cognitive, emotional, motivational, personality, parenting, and biological correlates.
Results:
Support has emerged for the phenotypic construct of child psychopathy, while questions remain regarding definitional issues and key external correlates (e.g., reward and punishment processing, parenting, molecular genetics, brain imaging).
Conclusions:
While the construct appears to be valid, future work should broaden its focus from callous unemotional traits to all three dimensions of the construct, enhance measurement precision, and examine dimension interactions. Such research could have important implications for CD specification for future versions of the DSM and ICD and speed etiological knowledge and clinical care for youth with conduct problems.
Les chercheurs ont depuis longtemps reconnu l’heterogeneite des individus presentant des comportements antisociaux et violents. Or, l’etude de la personnalite psychopathique (ou psychopathie), par l’examen de ses differentes facettes, peut aider a mieux comprendre cette heterogeneite. Plus particulierement, la distinction entre les correlats des traits interpersonnels et affectifs (Facteur 1) et ceux des traits impulsifs et antisociaux (Facteur 2) de la psychopathie suggere l’existence d’au moins deux trajectoires pouvant mener aux comportements antisociaux. Basee sur diverses etudes en neurosciences cognitives et affectives, nous proposons une revue ciblee, non exhaustive, des travaux identifiant les mecanismes biopsychologiques impliques dans ces deux trajectoires, avec une attention particuliere accordee aux etudes utilisant la methode des potentiels evoques (PE). Plus specifiquement, nous presentons une serie d’etudes portant sur les processus cognitifs et affectifs permettant de distinguer, parmi un groupe de delinquants, ceux ayant des traits psychopathiques eleves, en mettant en evidence les alterations des interactions entre emotion et cognition associees a chaque facteur de la psychopathie. L’ensemble de ces resultats mene aux conclusions suivantes. Le Facteur 1, associe a une reponse emotionnelle diminuee exacerbee par des anomalies attentionnelles, correspond a un profil de delinquance caracterise par des conduites deliberees et une insensibilite emotionnelle. A l’oppose, le Facteur 2 comporte des deregulations emotionnelles et comportementales, de meme que des troubles de controle cognitif, particulierement en contexte emotionnel. Les implications de l’identification de ces processus etiologiques seront ensuite presentees dans la perspective d’une meilleure comprehension des comportements violents et antisociaux.
The present study investigated the relationship between psychopathic traits, risk-taking tendencies and gambling problem severity and if these associations varied by gender in a community sample of Croatian adolescents (N = 282; 148 males). Results of the regression analyses showed that the Impulsive-Irresponsible behavioural style (YPI-II) and the Grandiose-Manipulative interpersonal style (YPI-GM) were the strongest postdictors of gambling-related problems. Surprisingly, independently of the YPI-II dimension, the Callous-Unemotional traits were negatively associated to gambling-related problems. By, contrast, independently of the psychopathic traits, risk-tendencies were not significant postdictors of gambling problem severity. With respect to gender differences, higher levels of the YPI-II and YPI-GM dimensions were related to more severe gambling-related problems only in males, not in females. Furthermore, while the CU traits exhibited protective features against gambling-related problems in both genders, the effect was stronger for males than for females.
The aim of this study was to investigate several
emotional characteristics and their associations with callous–
unemotional (CU) traits in a large non-referred sample of
Italian middle school children in 6th and 8th grades
(n = 540; M = 12 years and 7 months, SD = 1 year and
3 months). These associations were tested controlling for
school behavior problems and testing for the potential
moderating role of sex and grade level. The results indicated
that CU traits, but not school behavior problems, were negatively
associated with problems in both emotional and
cognitive empathy. Further, peer ratings of emotionality
indicated that, contrary to findings from past research using a
child’s self-report of emotions, peers perceive lower levels of
fear in students with higher levels of behavior problems but
not in those with higher levels of CU traits. Peer ratings of
anger were associated with both CU traits and school
behavior problems. Further, students with higher levels of
CU traits self-reported poorer skills in recognizing their own
and others emotions and poorer skills in regulating their
emotions. However, in this sample of middle school students,
CU traits were not strongly related to problems in
accurate identification of facial emotions and the few associations
that were found (i.e., reduced accuracy in identifying
happy and fear faces) were only found for children in the 6th
grade. These findings have important implications for
understanding how children with scholastic behavior problems
may be different in their emotional deficits depending
on the presence of elevated levels of CU traits.
Despite historical conviction that the psychopath is low-anxious, contemporary research remains equivocal. An examination of the literature suggests that the lack of consensus may be due to problems with the conceptualization of “psychopathic low anxiety”. It was hypothesized that ambiguous relations could be clarified by parsing the psychopathic low anxiety construct into more discrete components: Anxiety, fear, and constraint. The current study examined the relations between psychopathy and these three different low anxiety conceptualizations through three meta-analyses. Results indicated that anxiety and fear were negligibly related to psychopathy Total. In contrast, constraint demonstrated a medium negative relation with psychopathy Total. Relations showed divergence across psychopathy factor scores. Anxiety, fear, and constraint were all negatively related to Factor 1 scores, whereas anxiety was positively related, and constraint negatively related, to Factor 2 scores. These meta-analytic findings suggest that although psychopathic individuals have deficits in inhibition/constraint, they do not necessarily exhibit a consistent absence of negative affect. This interpretation is consistent with predictions regarding the personality correlates of the factors of psychopathy, and indicates that while constraint comprises a large part of psychopathy assessments, it is less clear how much anxiety lends to the construct.
This article reviews the current research literature on the development of aggression and callous-unemotional traits. Research suggests there are two functions to aggression, reactive and instrumental, and each has concomitant cognitive and emotional factors associated. Furthermore, callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., an absence of empathy and guilt) have been shown to be associated with the instrumental type of aggression. Research on CU traits suggests that there are distinct developmental mechanisms operating in the development of aggressive and violent behavior for youths with and without these traits. These distinct developmental mechanisms have important implications for the assessment and treatment of aggressive and violent youths.
This article provides a comprehensive review of the research on the use of callous and unemotional (CU) traits for designating an important subgroup of children and adolescents with severe conduct problems. It focuses on the etiological significance of recognizing this subgroup of youths with severe conduct problems, its implications for diagnostic classification, and the treatment implications of this research. The review highlights limitations in existing research and provides directions for future research. The available research suggests that children and adolescents with severe conduct problems and elevated CU traits show distinct genetic, cognitive, emotional, biological, environmental, and personality characteristics that seem to implicate different etiological factors underlying their behavior problems relative to other youths with severe conduct problems. Recognizing these subgroups could be critical for guiding future research on the causes of severe conduct problems in children and adolescents. Further, children and adolescents with both severe conduct problems and elevated CU traits appear to be at risk for more severe and persistent antisocial outcomes, even controlling for the severity of their conduct problems, the age of onset of their conduct problems, and common comorbid problems, which supports the clinical importance of designating this group in diagnostic classification systems. Finally, although children and adolescents with both severe conduct problems and elevated CU traits tend to respond less positively to typical interventions provided in mental health and juvenile justice settings, they show positive responses to certain intensive interventions tailored to their unique emotional and cognitive characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Different patterns of emotional reactivity characterize proactive and reactive functions of aggressive behavior, and theory also suggests a link of both types with narcissism. How people with narcissistic traits respond emotionally to competitive scenarios could influence their aggressiveness. Participants were 85 adolescent boys from a detention center. Several indices of emotional functioning were assessed, including attentional bias to negative emotional stimuli and psychophysiological responding. In addition, we included self-report and laboratory measures of aggression and measures of psychopathy-linked narcissism, callous-unemotional traits, and impulsivity. Psychopathy-linked narcissism was uniquely related to unprovoked aggression (i.e., proactive aggression) and to heightened attention to pictures depicting others' distress. Compared with those scoring low on narcissism, those high on narcissism, who were the least physiologically reactive group, evinced greater proactive aggression, whereas those showing a pattern of coactivation (i.e., sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic reactivity) evinced greater reactive aggression. Results are consistent with descriptions of narcissistic individuals as being hypervigilant to negative cues and exhibiting poor emotion regulation. These characteristics may lead to aggressive and violent behavior aimed at maintaining dominance over others.
The aim of this research was to determine to what extent a psychopath screening device (the APSD) is useful in forensic assessments to predict general and violent offending. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study was done and 238 young people serving a sentence were assessed. The gold standard instrument used to measure psychopathy was the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; Forth, Kosson & Hare, 2003). The results indicate that the association found between the screening device scores and several indicators of risk is low if compared with those obtained with the PCL:YV, suggesting that it is less useful as a tool in order to predict offending or violent offences. However, an Area Under the Curve of .784 and a validity index of 62.5 support its use as a screening device or as a preliminary approach to assess psychopathy in this population. The usefulness of this instrument to make assessments with young people in the forensic setting is discussed.
This study examined the utility of several personality indices for explaining variance in the frequency, variety, and situational correlates of past violence exhibited by imprisoned juveniles after controlling for historical risk factors. One hundred prison inmates ages 16 to 21 who were juveniles at the time of their adjudication completed personality measures assessing overcontrolled hostility and psychopathic traits, and they reported on the number and types of past violence and the situational correlates (e.g., location of violent episodes, victim characteristics, and precipitating events) to their violent behavior. The measure of overcontrolled hostility and the historical risk assessment indices were not significantly associated with the frequency or variety of past violent behavior nor were they significantly associated with the situational correlates to violence. In contrast, a measure of psychopathic traits demonstrated significant incremental validity after controlling for historical data in its association with the frequency, variety, and situational patterns of violent behavior.
The present article reports on an attempt to import the concept of psychopathy at the childhood level. Childhood psychopathy was assessed in 430 boys ages 12 and 13 years by using caretaker reports on a translation of an adult psychopathy assessment instrument. A systematic construct validation approach revealed that childhood psychopathy fits into the nomological network surrounding adult psychopathy. Children with psychopathic personalities, like their adult counterparts, were serious and stable offenders, impulsive, and more prone to externalizing than internalizing disorders. Childhood psychopathy also provided incremental validity in predicting serious stable antisocial behavior in adolescence over and above other known predictors and one other classification approach. These results suggest that psychopathy has a childhood manifestation that can be measured reliably. Implications and future directions are outlined.
This study examined the structure of psychopathic traits in 2 samples of children. The nonreferred community sample included 1,136 children recruited from elementary schools in 2 school districts in the southeastern United States. The clinic sample included 160 children referred to an outpatient mental health clinic serving the same geographic region. In both samples, parent and teacher ratings of psychopathic traits were subjected to a principal-axis factor analysis, and the congruence of the factor structure across samples was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. In both samples, 1 dimension that consisted of the callous and unemotional traits that have been hallmarks of most clinical descriptions of psychopathy was isolated. Two other dimensions consisting of narcissistic traits and impulsivity emerged in the community sample. Both the narcissism and impulsivity dimensions were highly related to symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, the callous and unemotional traits were only weakly associated with these symptoms after controlling for the other dimensions of psychopathy.
Psychopathy is characterized by diverse indicators. Clinical accounts have emphasized 3 distinct facets: interpersonal, affective, and behavioral. Research using the Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R), however, has emphasized a 2-factor model. A review of the literature on the PCL-R and related measures of psychopathy, together with confirmatory factor analysis of PCL-R data from North American participants, indicates that the 2-factor model cannot be sustained. A 3-factor hierarchical model was developed in which a coherent superordinate factor, Psychopathy, is underpinned by 3 factors: Arrogant and Deceitful Interpersonal Style, Deficient Affective Experience, and Impulsive and Irresponsible Behavioral Style. The model was cross-validated on North American and Scottish PCL-R data, Psychopathy Screening Version data, and data derived from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) antisocial personality disorder field trial.
Although the author agrees with Seagrave and Grisso that the research base does not yet support the use of extant measures of juvenile psychopathy in forensic settings, he disagrees with the general pessimism of Seagrave and Grisso regarding the assessment of juvenile psychopathy. The author argues that data drawn from basic research in personality argues against the concern that normative development changes will cloud the assessment of psychopathy. Additionally, the present author argues that fledgling psychopathy holds the key to successful intervention.
The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, 1982, in press) provides for a comprehensive analysis of personality at both the lower order trait and broader structural levels. Its higher order dimensions of Positive Emotionality, Negative Emotionality, and Constraint embody affect and temperament constructs, which have been conceptualized in psychobiological terms. The MPQ thus holds considerable potential as a structural framework for investigating personality across varying levels of analysis, and this potential would be enhanced by the availability of an abbreviated version. This article describes efforts to develop and validate a brief (155-item) form, the MPQ-BF. Success was evidenced by uniformly high correlations between the brief- and full-form trait scales and consistency of higher order structures. The MPQ-BF is recommended as a tool for investigating the genetic, neurobiological, and psychological substrates of personality.
Investigated several possible models to explain the seemingly discrepant relations between self-esteem and conduct problems, as both low self-esteem and exaggerated levels of self-esteem, thought to be captured by narcissism, have been associated with aggressive and antisocial behavior. Our sample consisted of 98 nonreferred children (mean age = 11.9 years; SD = 1.68 years) recruited from public schools to oversample children at risk for severe aggressive and antisocial behavior. Results indicated that certain aspects of narcissism (i.e., those indicating a need to be evaluated well by, and obtain status over, others) were particularly predictive of maladaptive characteristics and outcomes such as low self-esteem, callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and conduct problems. In addition, the relation between narcissism and conduct problems was moderated by self-esteem level, such that children with relatively high levels of narcissism and low self-esteem showed the highest rates of conduct-problem symptoms.
Examined the emotional reactivity of adolescents with antisocial behavior problems using a lexical decision paradigm. Evidence from adult forensic samples indicates that psychopathic traits are associated with abnormalities in the processing of emotional stimuli. In an attempt to extend these findings earlier in development, this association was tested in a sample of adolescents (mean age = 16.01; SD = 1.32) referred to a diversion program for delinquent behavior. Emotional processing was assessed by comparing recognition time for emotional words, both positive and negative, to recognition time for nonemotional words. Consistent with adult findings, the callous-unemotional (CU) dimension of psychopathy was associated with slower reaction times to negative words. In contrast, problems of impulse control were associated with faster recognition times for negative emotional words. These findings suggest that different patterns of emotional reactivity may characterize distinct subgroups of youth with antisocial behavior problems.
The clinical assessment of psychopathy in adulthood is well established via programmatic research. More recently, psychopathy has been extended to children and adolescents with correlates to maladaptive personality traits, violent behavior, and noncompliance with institutional rules. To screen for adolescent psychopathy, the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD) was developed as a 20-item self-report measure of psychopathy. The original validation of the APSD was limited to samples of clinic-referred and community-based children. In extending this research to delinquent populations, the current article uses two separate samples of adolescent offenders incarcerated in a maximum security facility (n = 78) and a local juvenile detention facility (n = 77). As evidence of criterion-related validity, the APSD was compared with two versions of the Psychopathy Checklist that yielded mixed results. Construct validity was examined via a confirmatory factor analysis that provided support for a three-factor model of the APSD.
Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by impulsive antisocial deviance in the context of emotional and interpersonal detachment. A factor analysis of the subscales of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) yielded evidence for 2 factors. One factor showed relations with external criteria mirroring those of the emotional-interpersonal facet of psychopathy, including high dominance, low anxiety, and venturesomeness. The other factor showed relations paralleling those of the social deviance facet of psychopathy, including positive correlations with antisocial behavior and substance abuse, negative correlations with socioeconomic status and verbal ability, and personality characteristics including high negative emotionally and low behavioral constraint. Findings support using the PPI to assess these facets of psychopathy in community samples and to explore their behavioral correlates and genetic-neurobiological underpinnings.
The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) has been conceptualized as indexing two distinct but correlated factors. Previous research has established that these factors demonstrate distinct patterns of relations with external criteria. However, more recent findings suggest that the PCL-R psychopathy construct may encompass three distinguishable factors, reflecting affective, interpersonal, and behavioral symptoms. Here, we evaluated the validity of this newer three-factor model of the PCL-R factors with reference to external criteria from the domains of personality, antisocial behavior; and adaptive functioning in a sample of 310 incarcerated offenders. The interpersonal factor was related to social dominance, low stress reactivity, and higher adaptive functioning; the affective factor was correlated with low social closeness and violent offending; and the behavioral factor was associated with negative emotionality, disinhibition, reactive aggression, and poor adaptive functioning. These findings provide support for the convergent and discriminant validity of these psychopathy facets.
The authors used model-based cluster analysis to identify subtypes of criminal psychopaths on the basis of differences in personality structure. Participants included 96 male prisoners diagnosed as psychopathic, using the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991). Personality was assessed using the brief form of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ-BF; C. J. Patrick, J. J. Curtin, and A. Tellegen, 2002). The best-fitting model yielded two clusters. Emotionally stable psychopaths were characterized by low Stress Reaction and high Agency. Aggressive psychopaths were characterized by high Negative Emotionality, low Constraint, and low Communion. These results suggest that psychopaths as defined by the PCL-R includes distinct subtypes, distinguishable in terms of personality structure, that may reflect different etiologies.
This study compares the relationship between personality disorders and interpersonal problems as obtained by self-report and peer-report measures. Participants (N = 393) were administered self- and peer-report versions of the Peer Inventory for Personality Disorder and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-64. Canonical analyses demonstrated similar relationships between personality disorder features and interpersonal problems as measured by either self or peer. Analyses between self and peer found little shared variance across sources, indicating a large method variance. Results indicate that although similar constructs are identified by self and peers in their understanding of personality pathology and associated interpersonal problems, self-report information overlaps very little with information obtained from peers, underscoring the importance of obtaining multiple sources of information.
Socialization is the important process by which individuals learn and then effectively apply the rules of appropriate societal behavior. Response modulation is a psychobiological process theorized to aid in socialization by allowing individuals to utilize contextual information to modify ongoing behavior appropriately. Using Hare’s (1991) Psychopathy Checklist and the Welsh (1956) anxiety scale, researchers have identified a relatively specific form of a response modulation deficit in low-anxious, Caucasian psychopaths. Preliminary evidence suggests that the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD; Frick & Hare, 2001) may be used to identify children with a similar vulnerability. Using a representative community sample of 308
16-year-olds from the Child Development Project (Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, 1990), we tested and corroborated the hypotheses that participants with relatively low anxiety and high APSD scores would display poorer passive avoidance learning and less interference on a spatially separated, picture-word Stroop task than controls. Consistent with hypotheses, the expected group differences in picture-word Stroop interference were found with male and female participants, whereas predicted differences in passive avoidance were specific to male participants. To the extent that response modulation deficits contributing to poor socialization among psychopathic adult offenders also characterize a subgroup of adolescents with mild conduct problems, clarification of the developmental processes that moderate the expression of this vulnerability could inform early interventions.
The present study examines the relation between psychopathy and the Big Five dimensions of personality in two samples of adolescents. Specifically, the study tests the hypothesis that the aspect of psychopathy representing selfishness, callousness, and interpersonal manipulation (Factor 1) is most strongly associated with low Agreeableness, whereas the aspect of psychopathy representing impulsivity, instability, and social deviance (Factor 2) is associated with low Agreeableness, low Conscientiousness, and high Neuroticism. Data from 13- and 16-year-old boys and their mothers from two samples of the Pittsburgh Youth Study are used to test these hypotheses. Results were consistent across age and rating source in supporting the initial hypotheses, providing support for the construct of juvenile psychopathy and the interpretation of psychopathy as a constellation of traits drawn from a general model of personality functioning.
Although psychopathy is frequently regarded as qualitatively distinct from other conditions, relatively little research has examined whether psychopaths represent a distinct class of individuals. Using a sample of 876 prison inmates and court-ordered substance abuse patients who were administered the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. D. Hare, 2003), the authors examined the latent structure of psychopathy using several taxometric procedures developed by Meehl and colleagues (P. E. Meehl & L. J. Yonce, 1994; N. G. Waller & P. E. Meehl, 1998). The results across these procedures offer no compelling support for the contention that psychopathy is a taxonic construct and contradict previous reports that psychopathy is underpinned by a latent taxon. The authors discuss the theoretical, public policy, and practice-level implications of these findings.
In the present paper, we outline why we believe that factor analyses of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised (Hare, 2003) are unlikely to yield the basic elements of psychopathy. As an alternative approach, we suggest embedding psychopathy within a broad model of general personality functioning, namely the five factor model (McCrae & Costa, 1990). Drawing on our previous work in the area using expert ratings, correlational approaches, and a "translation" of the PCL-R, we provide a consensus description of the core elements of psychopathy: extremely high interpersonal antagonism, pan-impulsivity, the absence of negative self-directed affect, the presence of angry hostility, and interpersonal assertiveness. We end with a discussion of the implications of this analysis for understanding, researching, and measuring psychopathy.
Psychopathy is characterized by diverse indicators. Clinical accounts have emphasized 3 distinct facets: interpersonal, affective, and behavioral, Research using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), however, has emphasized a 2-factor model, A review of the literature on the PCL-R and related measures of psychopathy, together with confirmatory factor analysis of PCL-R data from North American participants, indicates that the 2-factor model cannot be sustained. A 3-factor hierarchical model was developed in which a coherent superordinate factor, Psychopathy, is underpinned by 3 factors: Arrogant and Deceitful Interpersonal Style, Deficient Affective Experience, and Impulsive and Irresponsible Behavioral Style. The model was cross-validated on North American and Scottish PCL-R data, Psychopathy Screening Version data, and data derived from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) antisocial personality disorder field trial.
This article presents findings about continuities in personality development that have been uncovered in the Dunedin study, an investigation of a cohort of children studied from age 3 to 21. At age 3, children were classified into temperament groups on the basis of observations of their behavior. In young adulthood, data were collected from study members themselves, from people who knew them well, and from official records. Undercontrolled 3-year-olds grew up to be impulsive, unreliable, and antisocial, and had more conflict with members of their social networks and in their work. Inhibited 3-year-olds were more likely to be unassertive and depressed and had fewer sources of social support. Early appearing temperamental differences have a pervasive influence on life-course development and offer clues about personality structure, interpersonal relations, psychopathology, and crime in adulthood.
Two correlated factors have been identified in the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL), a valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of psychopathy in male prison populations. Factor 1 measures a selfish, remorseless, and exploitative use of others, and Factor 2 measures a chronically unstable and antisocial life-style. We examined the psychometric properties of the factor solutions and a variety of correlates of the two factors. Although the PCL can be considered a homogeneous scale on statistical grounds, the factors have distinct patterns of intercorrelations with other variables. Factor 1 is most closely correlated with the classic clinical description of the psychopathic personality. It is only marginally related to many self-report personality scales, to quality of family background, to criminal behavior, and to diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder. Factor 2 is strongly correlated with these latter variables and with scales related to socialization. We conclude that both factors measure important elements of psychopathy and that assessments based only on the presence of antisocial behavior or on scales related to socialization are inadequate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Psychopathy is an important construct in adult risk assessment resulting from strong associations to antisocial behavior and criminal recidivism. A recent trend is the downward extension of psychopathic traits to explain juvenile violence. Applying the concept of psychopathy to youthful offenders has great potential; however, its application to adolescence is fraught with uncertainty. This article discusses how the search for causes of violence along with the changing juvenile justice system have encouraged psychopathy to be used for informing policies related to the assessment and treatment of juvenile offenders. Based on established research and clinical practice, we make the case that if applied judiciously, psychopathy can be a critical component in identifying youth most at-risk for short-term violence.
Measures of several personality variables, from both within and beyond the domain of the Big Five personality factors, were used to predict a variety of complex behaviour outcomes of some social and cultural significance (e.g. alcohol consumption and grade point average). Analyses focused on replicated predictions across participants in four countries (Canada, England, Germany, and Finland) and on the relative predictive accuracies of narrow trait predictors versus broad factor predictors. The results indicated substantial consistency in those predictions across cultures for several of the criteria. Furthermore, the narrow traits were able to account for more criterion variance than were the broad factors underlying those traits. Our data contraindicate the increasingly common practice of using only a few personality factor measures to predict complex human behaviours. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Thesis (M.A.)--University of Minnesota, 2004. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-48).
Optimizing methods of combining discrepant diagnostic information from multiple sources is one of the more daunting tasks facing the field of child psychopathology. Several researchers have asserted that complex information-combining schemes, those in which certain information or sources of information are weighted differently from others, are preferable. This study provides theoretical and empirical evidence that simple information-combining schemes, those in which all information from all sources is weighted equally, will as a rule work as well as complex schemes and may even work better. The implications of these findings for diagnostic instrument and algorithm design are discussed. A two-step diagnostic procedure utilizing a simple information-combining scheme is presented.
With 575 college students, the relationship between A. Tellegen's (1985) personality model, assessed with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), and the Big Five model, operationalized by Costa and McCrae's (1985) NEO Personality Inventory, was investigated. Correlations and joint factor analyses indicated that the MPQ constructs could be well-organized under the Big Five model, and the NEO constructs could be well-organized under the Tellegen higher-order dimensions (plus Absorption). Tellegen's higher-order dimensions relate to components of the Big Five hierarchically: Negative Emotionality encompasses Big Five Neuroticism and Agreeableness, Positive Emotionality encompasses Extraversion and the surgent aspect of Conscientiousness, and Constraint encompasses the controlled aspect of Conscientiousness and much of Openness to Experience.
The associations between children's behavior and their performance on a task with a steadily increasing ratio of punished to rewarded responses was investigated in a group of clinic-referred (n = 92) and normal control (n = 40) children between the ages of 6 and 13. Clinic-referred children with an anxiety disorder played significantly fewer trials than clinic-referred children without an anxiety disorder but the response style of the anxious children did not differ from that of a normal control group. Children with severe conduct problems who had no anxiety disorder played more trials than (a) children with severe conduct problems and a comorbid anxiety disorder, (b) nonanxious children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and (c) children in the normal control group. The strongest evidence for the reward dominant response style was for nonanxious subjects with elevations on a measure of psychopathic features, irrespective of whether they also had conduct problems and irrespective of whether they were clinic-referred.
This article presents findings about continuities in personality development that have been uncovered in the Dunedin study, an investigation of a cohort of children studied from age 3 to 21. At age 3, children were classified into temperament groups on the basis of observations of their behavior. In young adulthood, data were collected from study members themselves, from people who knew them well, and from official records. Undercontrolled 3-year-olds grew up to be impulsive, unreliable, and antisocial, and had more conflict with members of their social networks and in their work. Inhibited 3-year-olds were more likely to be unassertive and depressed and had fewer sources of social support. Early appearing temperamental differences have a pervasive influence on life-course development and offer clues about personality structure, interpersonal relations, psychopathology, and crime in adulthood.
The present study examined Widiger and Lynam's (1998) hypothesis that psychopathy can be represented using the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality. Participants in the study consisted of 481 21-22-year-old men and women who are part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Psychopathy was assessed by the degree of similarity between an individual's NEO-PI-R and an expert-generated FFM psychopathy prototype. The expert-based prototype supported the account of Widiger and Lynam (1998), as did the correlations between the NEO-PI-R Psychopathy Resemblance Index (PRI) and the individual personality dimensions. The PRI was also related in predicted ways to measures of antisocial behavior, drug use, and psychopathology. The results support the contention that psychopathy can be understood as an extreme variant of common dimensions of personality, and underscore the utility of a dimensional model of personality disorders.
H. Cleckley (1976) maintained that psychopaths are relatively immune to suicide, but substantial evidence exists for a relationship between antisocial deviance and suicidal acts. This study was the first to explicitly examine suicidal history among psychopathic individuals as defined by R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R). Male prison inmates (N = 313) were assessed using the PCL-R and DSM-III-R and DSM-IV criteria (American Psychiatric Association, 1987, 1994) for antisocial personality disorder (APD), and they completed A. Tellegen's (1982) Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). Presence or absence of prior suicide attempts was coded from structured interview and prison file records. Suicide history was significantly related to PCL-R Factor 2 (which reflects chronic antisocial deviance) and to APD diagnosis but was unrelated to PCL-R Factor 1, which encompasses affective and interpersonal features of psychopathy. Higher order MPQ dimensions of Negative Emotionality and low Constraint were found to account for the relationship between history of suicidal attempts and antisocial deviance, indicating that temperament traits may represent a common vulnerability for both.
How well do brief screening measures correspond with a full-scale assessment of psychopathy among juvenile offenders? This study compared 3 independent screening measures (the Antisocial Process Screening Device [APSD] Self-Report [A. A. Caputo, P. J. Frick, & S. L. Brodsky, 1999], the APSD Staff Rating [P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, 2001], and the Psychopathy Content Scale [D. C. Murrie & D. G. Cornell, 2000] on the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory [T. Millon, 1993]) with the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; A. E. Forth, D. S. Kosson, & R. D. Hare, in press) in a sample of 117 incarcerated male juveniles. Modest correlations (.30-.49) were found between PCL:YV scores and those of the 3 screening measures, and there was moderate accuracy (67%-82%) in identifying youth who scored relatively high (> or = 25) on the PCL:YV. Although these results support the construct of adolescent psychopathy, they indicate substantial limitations in the use of psychopathy screening measures with juvenile offenders.
Psychotic disorders may be concealed behind outer manifestations that give little or no suggestion of anything so serious. The traditional psychiatric criteria for diagnosis and classification are seldom helpful and often misleading in such instances. The seriousness of the masked disorder is often overlooked because peripheral functioning and outer appearance simulate so well all that is demanded by current definitions of sanity.
The construct validity of psychopathy was examined in a sample of 114 male and female young offenders (M(age) = 15.16) at a southeastern detention center. The interpersonal circumplex served as a framework of general personality from which to examine the construct of adolescent psychopathy. A supplementary analysis of the psychopathy measures and the Big 5 factors of personality was also conducted using a matrix approach. Measures included: (a) Antisocial Process Screening Device (P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, 2001); (b) Child Psychopathy Scale (D. R. Lynam, 1996); (c) Psychopathy Checklist--Youth Version (A. E. Forth, D. S. Kosson, & R. D. Hare, 2003); and (d) Interpersonal Adjective Scales Revised--Big 5 Version (P. Trapnell & J. S. Wiggins, 1991; J. S. Wiggins, 1995). Results showed substantial convergence among the three psychopathy measures. In addition, meaningful associations between psychopathy and constructs within the interpersonal circumplex and broader domains of the Big 5 were obtained. Two psychopathy scales correlated to a higher degree than expected with neuroticism. These findings provide evidence linking personality theory to the concept of child and adolescent psychopathy, thereby adding to its construct validity. However, they do so with the caveat that youth may also be displaying some characteristics of neuroticism, suggesting that worry and anxiety may accompany psychopathic features in earlier developmental stages. The implications of the current study are discussed.
Research shows that individuals with psychopathic traits differ in how they process negative emotional stimuli. However, it is unclear whether these differences are specific to certain types of negative emotional stimulus and whether they are more strongly associated with psychopathic traits or aggression. Further, it is not clear whether or not deficits in emotional processing generalize to females and ethnic minority individuals with psychopathic traits. In this study, we examined the emotional processing of visual stimuli using a dot-probe task in 50 non-referred girls and boys (mean age of 9.30; SD = 2.00). Overall, there was a significant association between proactive aggression and reduced responsiveness to distressing stimuli. In addition, the predicted association between psychopathic traits and reduced responsiveness to distressing stimuli was only found for children high on aggression. Also, the associations among aggression, psychopathic traits, and responsiveness to distressing stimuli did not differ for boys and girls.
The psychometric properties of the self-report version of the Antisocial Processes Screening Device (APSD; Frick & Hare, 2001), a rating scale developed to assess traits associated with the construct of psychopathy in youth, was tested in a sample of 91 non-referred young adolescents with an average age of 13.38 (SD = 1.75) at the initial assessment. The sample was recruited from a large community-wide screening, where youth with conduct problems and youth high on psychopathic traits were over-sampled. The sample was reassessed three times at yearly intervals. The self-report scores on the APSD showed moderate correlations with parent ratings of psychopathic traits, were moderately stable across 1-2 years, and showed significant correlations with measures of antisocial behavior both concurrently and predictively. One major weakness of the self-report ratings was the low internal consistency of the subscales, which were much lower than the internal consistency found on the parent report version of the scale.
Criterion-related validity of the three-factor model of psychopathy
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The Mask of Sanity Self and peer perspectives on pathological personality traits and interpersonal problems
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Reward dominance: Associations with anxiety, conduct problems, and psychopathy in children
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The Antisocial Process Screening Device: An examination of its construct and criterion-related validity
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