Behavioral evidence of prolonged interhemispheric transfer time among psychopathic offenders.

Several lines of evidence suggest the possibility of abnormal interhemispheric communication in psychopathy, but there have been few direct empirical studies. To address this gap in the literature, the authors examined one important aspect of interhemispheric communication, the efficiency with which information is transferred across the corpus callosum. Using A. T. Poffenberger's (1912) paradigm for estimating interhemispheric transfer time (IHTT) from simple motor responses to lateralized stimuli, the authors found a substantially prolonged IHTT among psychopathic criminals relative to nonpsychopathic criminals. This prolonged IHTT was somewhat more pronounced when participants were using their right hand to respond. This study provides initial behavioral evidence of slowed interhemispheric transfer in psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interhemispheric stroop-like interference in number comparison: Evidence for strong interhemispheric integration of semantic number information.

Three experiments investigated interhemispheric interactions in number comparison using the interhemispheric Stroop-like paradigm (E. Ratinckx, M. Brysbaert, & B. Reynvoet, 2001). In all experiments, a target was presented in 1 visual field simultaneously with a distractor in the other visual field. In Experiment 1, both target and distractor were of the same modality (Arabic digits), whereas in Experiment 2, target and distractor were of different modalities (Arabic digits and word numerals). In Experiment 3, the interhemispheric Stroop-like task of Experiment 1 was combined with intrahemispheric conditions to evaluate the strength of the interhemispheric interactions. Overall, the results point to strong interhemispheric integration during semantic access and response preparation with very weak lateralization of the semantic number system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating the generalizability of a fear deficit in psychopathic African American offenders.

Laboratory studies of psychopathy have yielded an impressive array of etiologically relevant findings. To date, however, attempts to demonstrate the generalizability of these findings to African American psychopathic offenders have been largely unsuccessful. The fear deficit has long been regarded as the hallmark of psychopathy, yet the generalizability of this association to African American offenders has not been systematically evaluated. In this study, we used an instructed fear paradigm and fear-potentiated startle to assess this deficit and the factors that moderate its expression in African American offenders. Furthermore, we conceptualized psychopathy using both a unitary and a two-factor model, and we assessed the constructs with both interview-based and self-report measures. Regardless of assessment strategy, results provided no evidence that psychopathy relates to fear deficits in African American offenders. Further research is needed to clarify whether the emotion deficits associated with psychopathy in European American offenders are applicable to African American offenders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two subtypes of psychopathic violent offenders that parallel primary and secondary variants.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 116(4) of Journal of Abnormal Psychology (see record 2007-17062-019). The headings "Primary (n = 74)" and "Secondary (n = 49)" should be reversed in Table 1 on p. 401. In addition, the means for the Psychic Anxiety scale of the Karolinska Scales of Personality should be 0.52 (rather than -0.52) and -0.34 (rather than 0.34).] Although psychopathy usually is treated as a unitary construct, a seminal theory posits that there are 2 variants: Primary psychopathy is underpinned by an inherited affective deficit, whereas secondary psychopathy reflects an acquired affective disturbance. The authors investigated whether psychopathy phenotypically may be disaggregated into such types in a sample of 367 prison inmates convicted of violent crimes. Model-based cluster analysis of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) and trait anxiety scores in the psychopathic subgroup (n = 123; PCL-R ≥ 29) revealed 2 clusters. Relative to primary psychopaths, secondary psychopaths had greater trait anxiety, fewer psychopathic traits, and comparable levels of antisocial behavior. Across validation variables, secondary psychopaths manifested more borderline personality features, poorer interpersonal functioning (e.g., irritability, withdrawal, poor assertiveness), and more symptoms of major mental disorder than primary psychopaths. When compared with the nonpsychopathic subgroup (n = 243), the 2 psychopathic variants manifested a theoretically coherent pattern of differences. Implications for etiological research and violence prevention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response perseveration in psychopathic women.

Recent attempts to validate the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991) as a measure of psychopathy in female offenders have been limited by a failure to examine laboratory correlates of the syndrome. We assessed 112 incarcerated women by using the PCL-R and examined their performance on a card perseveration task that has been used to demonstrate response perseveration in psychopathic men. Contrary to prediction, psychopathic women did not perseverate responding when the PCL-R was used either dimensionally or categorically. The authors discuss the implications of the results for the PCL-R and for female psychopathy more generally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stroop Tasks Reveal Abnormal Selective Attention Among Psychopathic Offenders.

Selective attention among offenders with psychopathy was investigated using 3 Stroop paradigms: a standard color-word (CW) Stroop, a picture-word (PW) Stroop, and a color-word Stroop in which the word and color were spatially separated (separated CW). Consistent with "overselective" attention, offenders with psychopathy displayed reduced Stroop interference on the separated CW and PW tasks relative to offenders who were not psychopathic. However, offenders with psychopathy displayed normal Stroop interference on the standard CW Stroop. Further, the reduced interference of offenders with psychopathy on the separated CW Stroop was accompanied by normal facilitation. These findings suggest a circumscribed attentional deficit in psychopathy that hinders the use of unattended information that is (a) not integrated with deliberately attended information and (b) not compatible with current goal-directed behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognition of facial affect in psychopathic offenders.

The authors examined the reliability of facial affect processing deficits found in psychopathic individuals (R. Blair et al., 2004) and whether they could be modified by attentional set. One hundred eleven offenders, classified using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. Hare, 2003) and Welsh Anxiety Scale (G. Welsh, 1956), performed a facial affect recognition task under 2 conditions. On the basis of research linking psychopathy, amygdala dysfunction, and deficits in facial affect recognition, the authors predicted that psychopathic offenders would display performance deficits when required to identify the emotional expression of particular faces. In addition, given evidence linking the affective processing deficits in psychopathy to focus of attention, the authors predicted that any deficits in facial affect processing would disappear when participants could anticipate which affective cues would be relevant on a given trial. Contrary to expectation, psychopathic offenders performed as well as controls in both conditions. The authors conclude that the conditions that reveal affective deficits in psychopathic individuals require further specification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abnormal selective attention in psychopathic female offenders.

Research on psychopathy in women has generated equivocal laboratory findings. This study examined the performance of psychopathic women in 2 laboratory tasks designed to assess abnormal selective attention associated with response modulation deficits: a computerized picture-word (PW) task, and a picture-word Stroop (PW Stroop) task. Consistent with data from psychopathic men, women receiving high scores on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (Hare, 1991) displayed reduced Stroop interference on the PW and PW Stroop tasks. Results suggest that despite some differences in the expression of psychopathy across gender, psychopathic women are characterized by selective attention abnormalities predicted by the response modulation hypothesis and similar to those exhibited by psychopathic men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Passive avoidance learning in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders.

Research on passive avoidance learning has demonstrated reliable differences between psychopaths and controls when avoidance errors result in electric shock but not in loss of money. Using monetary punishments, J. P. Newman et al (see record 1985-22847-001) found that psychopathic delinquents performed more poorly than controls in an experimental paradigm employing monetary reward as well as the avoidance contingency. The present study was conducted to replicate and extend these findings using adult psychopaths and a computer controlled task. 60 White male prisoners (mean age approximately 25 yrs) were assigned to psychopathic or nonpsychopathic groups using R. D. Hare's psychopathy checklist and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). Ss were administered a "go/no-go" discrimination task involving monetary incentives. One condition entailed competing reward and punishment contingencies; the other, 2 punishment contingencies. As predicted, psychopaths made significantly more passive avoidance errors than nonpsychopaths when the task contained competing goals but performed as well as controls when the Ss' only goal was avoiding punishment. Results corroborate earlier findings that psychopaths are relatively poor at learning to inhibit reward-seeking behavior that results in monetary punishment. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delay of gratification in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders.

Delay of gratification is a prototypical measure of self-control that merits systematic investigation in psychopaths. White male prisoners were provided with repeated opportunities to select an immediate response with uncertain reward or a delayed response with a higher rate of reward under 1 of 3 incentive conditions. Psychopaths' performance depended on their level of trait anxiety and incentive condition: Whereas low-anxious psychopaths were relatively unwilling to delay when omission of expected rewards also incurred monetary punishments, they displayed relative superior performance when the task involved rewards only. Findings complement those for passive avoidance learning in psychopaths and suggest that inhibitory self-control in low-anxious psychopaths is somewhat impaired under conditions involving a combination of monetary rewards and punishments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In cold blood: Characteristics of criminal homicides as a function of psychopathy.

This study investigated the relationship between psychopathy and the characteristics of criminal homicides committed by a sample of 125 Canadian offenders. It was hypothesized that the homicides committed by psychopathic offenders would be more likely to be primarily instrumental (i.e., associated with premeditation, motivated by an external goal, and not preceded by a potent affective reaction) or "cold-blooded" in nature, whereas homicides committed by nonpsychopaths often would be "crimes of passion" associated with a high level of impulsivity/reactivity and emotionality. The results confirmed these predictions; homicides committed by psychopathic offenders were significantly more instrumental than homicides by nonpsychopaths. Nearly all (93.3%) of the homicides by psychopaths were primarily instrumental in nature compared with 48.4% of the homicides by nonpsychopaths. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simulation of normal and psychopathic MMPI personality patterns.

Previous work with the simulation of normalcy on personality tests has suggested that good adjustment involves an adequate understanding of socially approved behavior. 27 well-adjusted and 42 maladjusted college males took the MMPI under instructions to simulate very good adjustment, and again under instructions to simulate psychopathic personality. Both groups simulated very good adjustment satisfactorily; however, well-adjusted Ss were superior to maladjusted Ss in the simulation of psychopathic personality. The findings were consistent with the literature on role-taking and empathy, supporting the view that good adjustment involves an ability to understand and predict socially adequate and inadequate behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Two subtypes of psychopathic violent offenders that parallel primary and secondary variants." Correction to Skeem et al. (2007).

Reports an error in "Two subtypes of psychopathic violent offenders that parallel primary and secondary variants" by Jennifer Skeem, Peter Johansson, Henrik Andershed, Margaret Kerr and Jennifer Eno Louden (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2007[May], Vol 116[2], 395-409). The headings "Primary (n = 74)" and "Secondary (n = 49)" should be reversed in Table 1 on p. 401. In addition, the means for the Psychic Anxiety scale of the Karolinska Scales of Personality should be 0.52 (rather than -0.52) and -0.34 (rather than 0.34). (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2007-06673-015.) Although psychopathy usually is treated as a unitary construct, a seminal theory posits that there are 2 variants: Primary psychopathy is underpinned by an inherited affective deficit, whereas secondary psychopathy reflects an acquired affective disturbance. The authors investigated whether psychopathy phenotypically may be disaggregated into such types in a sample of 367 prison inmates convicted of violent crimes. Model-based cluster analysis of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) and trait anxiety scores in the psychopathic subgroup (n = 123; PCL-R ≥ 29) revealed 2 clusters. Relative to primary psychopaths, secondary psychopaths had greater trait anxiety, fewer psychopathic traits, and comparable levels of antisocial behavior. Across validation variables, secondary psychopaths manifested more borderline personality features, poorer interpersonal functioning (e.g., irritability, withdrawal, poor assertiveness), and more symptoms of major mental disorder than primary psychopaths. When compared with the nonpsychopathic subgroup (n = 243), the 2 psychopathic variants manifested a theoretically coherent pattern of differences. Implications for etiological research and violence prevention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Turning a deaf ear to fear: Impaired recognition of vocal affect in psychopathic individuals.

The processing of emotional expressions is fundamental for normal socialization and interaction. Reduced responsiveness to the expressions of sadness and fear has been implicated in the development of psychopathy (R. J. R. Blair, 1995). The current study investigates the ability of adult psychopathic individuals to process vocal affect. Psychopathic and nonpsychopathic adults, defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991), were presented with neutral words spoken with intonations conveying happiness, disgust, anger, sadness, and fear and were asked to identify the emotion of the speaker on the basis of prosody. The results indicated that psychopathic inmates were particularly impaired in the recognition of fearful vocal affect. These results are interpreted with reference to the low-fear and violence inhibition mechanism models of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unique roles of antisocial personality disorder and psychopathic traits in distress tolerance.

Previous research indicates that individuals with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) evidence low distress tolerance, which signifies impaired ability to persist in goal-directed behavior during an aversive situation, and is associated with a variety of poor interpersonal and drug use outcomes. Based on theory and research indicating that psychopathic traits are associated with hypo-reactivity in emotional responding, a unique hypothesis emerges where psychopathic traits should have the opposite effect of ASPD and be related to high levels of distress tolerance. In a sample of 107 substance-dependent patients in an inner-city substance use residential treatment facility, this hypothesis was supported. ASPD was related to lower distress tolerance, while psychopathic traits were related to higher distress tolerance, with each contributing unique variance. Findings are discussed in relation to different presentations of distress tolerance as a function of psychopathic traits among those with an ASPD diagnosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological implications of selective attentional functioning in psychopathic offenders.

Several core characteristics of the psychopathic personality disorder (i.e., impulsivity, failure to attend to interpersonal cues) suggest that psychopaths suffer from disordered attention. However, there is mixed evidence from the cognitive literature as to whether they exhibit superior or deficient selective attention, which has led to the formation of several distinct theories of attentional functioning in psychopathy. The present experiment investigated participants' abilities to purposely allocate attentional resources on the basis of auditory or visual linguistic information and directly tested both theories of deficient or superior selective attention in psychopathy. Specifically, 91 male inmates at a county jail were presented with either auditory or visual linguistic cues (with and without distractors) that correctly indicated the position of an upcoming visual target in 75% of the trials. The results indicated that psychopaths did not exhibit evidence of superior selective attention in any of the conditions but were generally less efficient in shifting attention on the basis of linguistic cues, especially in regard to auditory information. Implications for understanding psychopaths' cognitive functioning and possible neuropsychological deficits are addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A genetic factor explains most of the variation in the psychopathic personality.

The psychopathic personality can be conceptualized as three interrelated dimensions, (a) an interpersonal style of glibness, grandiosity, and manipulation; (b) an affective disposition of callousness, lack of empathy, and unemotionality; and (c) a behavioral/lifestyle dimension of impulsivity, need for stimulation, and irresponsibility, underpinning a higher order construct, psychopathic personality. The authors used a self-report questionnaire (The Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory) to study the importance of genetic and environmental influences on psychopathic personality traits in a sample of 1,090 monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs, aged 16-17 years. Results showed a strong genetic influence behind the higher order "psychopathic personality" factor, underpinned by the three psychopathic personality dimensions. Over and above the effects to the higher order factor, significant unique genetic influences were also found in the callous/unemotional and in the impulsive/irresponsible dimension, but not in the grandiose/manipulative dimension. The authors propose that this latent psychopathic personality factor is a meaningful target for future etiological research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The performance of psychopathic individuals under conditions of positive and negative partial reinforcement.

Previous theorizing had distinguished a group of primary psychopaths (PP) from neurotic psychopaths (NP) on the basis of weakness of conscience and disregard for social law (PP) vs. a strong conscience with need to get caught and be punished (NP). The present study is an attempt to distinguish NPs from PPs with regard to their ability to profit from experience (in this instance to profit from differential reinforcement schedules in a learning situation). NPs were seen to be not too different from a control group of normals. However, PPs manifested rigidity of thinking under certain conditions of reinforcement (reward vs. punishment, immediate vs. delayed), and their performance deteriorated the greater the time between stimulus and response. The study, moreover, pointed up the lack of homogeneity in groups grossly defined as "psychopath." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4JJ53P. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Passive avoidance in psychopathic offenders: A replication and extension.

A passive avoidance task was administered to 97 Caucasian and 110 African American offenders to (a) replicate prior research demonstrating poor passive avoidance in psychopathic individuals (Ps) with low anxiety, (b) compare the effects of anxiety, neuroticism, and fear in identifying subgroups of Ps and controls who differ in passive avoidance, and (c) reevaluate the generalizability of this finding to African American offenders. Replicating past research with Caucasian offenders, low-anxious Ps committed significantly more passive avoidance efforts than low-anxious controls. Although this difference was also found in Ps and controls with low neuroticism scores, the comparison involving low-fear offenders failed to reach significance. As in past research, comparable comparisons involving African American offenders were not statistically significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic effects explain the stability of psychopathic personality from mid- to late adolescence.

This study examined the importance of genetic and environmental influence for the stability of psychopathic personality between mid- and late adolescence. The target sample consisted of all 1,480 male and female twin pairs born in Sweden between 1985 and 1986. Psychopathic personality was measured with the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI; H. Andershed, M. Kerr, M. Stattin, & S. Levander, 2002) when the participants were 16 and 19 years old. Results showed that the 3 psychopathic personality dimensions were stable at different levels of analysis and linked to a stable higher order general factor (i.e., psychopathic personality factor). Genetic factors contributed substantially to the stability of this general higher order factor, whereas environmental factors were of little importance. However, the authors also found specific genetic stability in the Callous/unemotional and Impulsive/irresponsible dimension. Thus, the model provides evidence for etiologic generality and etiologic specificity for the stability of psychopathic personality between mid- and late adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)