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)     

Alcohol and drug abuse-dependence disorders in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic criminal offenders.

Co-occurrence of psychopathy (assessed with the Revised Psychopathy Checklist [R. D. Hare, 1985]) and lifetime Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) alcohol and drug disorders (assessed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule; National Institute of Mental Health) was examined in a sample of 360 male inmates. Consistent with previous research that used diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder, psychopaths were more likely than nonpsychopaths to have lifetime diagnoses of alcoholism, any drug disorder, and multiple drug disorder. The relation between substance abuse and the 2 factors of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist was also examined. Substance abuse was significantly related to general social deviance (Factor 2) but was unrelated to core personality features of psychopathy (Factor 1). Two possible models of psychopathy (unitary syndrome vs dual-diathesis model) are presented that may account for the association between psychopathy and substance abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interhemispheric integration in psychopathic offenders.

The goal of the present study was to determine whether a reduced capacity for interhemispheric integration can explain the attention deficits seen in psychopathic individuals under conditions that place substantial demands on left-hemisphere-specific resources. The present study examined the performance of 54 incarcerated psychopathic and nonpsychopathic male offenders on a same-different global-local paradigm that permits manipulation of both the magnitude of processing demands and the demand for interhemispheric coordination. Prior studies with similar paradigms have demonstrated that the cerebral hemispheres can function more efficiently as relatively independent processors on simple tasks, whereas communication between the hemispheres improves performance when processing demands are heavy. Analyses indicated that psychopathic offenders are not deficient in interhemispheric integration but provided additional evidence consistent with the left hemisphere activation hypothesis of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Rorschach comparison of psychopathic and nonpsychopathic conduct disordered adolescents

Forty-eight male subjects who met the DSM-IV (APA, 1994) criteria for conduct disorder (CD) were assessed for psychopathy level using a modified version of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R, Forth, Hart, & Hare, 1990). Rorschach variables associated with self-perception, affects, and object relations, early behavioral problems and history of violence were compared between psychopathic and nonpsychopathic CD adolescents. Psychopathic CD subjects were significantly more self-centered and violent than nonpsychopathic CD subjects. Decreased attachment and anxiety were found in both CD groups. Our study adds empirical support to the heterogeneity noted among CD adolescents (PCL-R), supports the utility of the Rorschach for detecting individual differences among CD subjects, and extends the empirical work of Gacono and Meloy (1994) to adolescent psychopathy.     

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)     

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)     

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)     

Approach and avoidance motivation in psychopathic criminal offenders during passive avoidance.

The authors evaluated competing theories that attribute psychopathic individuals' poor passive avoidance to a strong activating system, a weak inhibitory system, or poor modulation of behavioral activation when inhibitory cues appear. In Study 1, the continuous motor task involved a reward phase to elicit the activating system followed by a passive avoidance phase. Study 2 tested the generality of the theories by using an active avoidance phase to elicit the activating system. Heart rate and response speed results from Study 1 best supported the strong activating system and poor response modulation models in low-anxiety psychopathic offenders. Study 2 results did not clearly support any of the models. Further research is needed to determine if excessive activation by reward and poor response modulation are associated with passive avoidance deficits and other characteristics of low-anxiety psychopathic offenders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

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)     

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)     

Behavioral suppression of seriously disruptive behavior in psychotic and retarded patients: A review of punishment and its alternatives.

Reviews the use of punishment procedures to suppress seriously disruptive behavior. Although differential reinforcement of behaviors incompatible with disruptive behavior is attractive to many because it does not involve aversive procedures, it has shown mixed results and may be effective only when combined with other procedures. Contingent removal of reinforcement (timeout) has been found moderately effective for dealing with self-stimulation and aggression but is of more limited value in treating severe self-injury. Overcorrection also has a beneficial effect on a variety of serious management problems. It is suggested that although electric shock has been the focus of considerable debate, it may have value under certain conditions. Research on generalization, maintenance, and side effects of these procedures is reviewed, and ethical issues are examined. (188 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delay of punishment and choice behavior in the rat.

Trained 4 groups of female Sprague-Dawley albino rats (N = 24) to press each of 2 bars for reward delayed 120 sec. A different set of distinctive cues prevailed between bar press and food depending on which bar was pressed. For experimental Ss shocks were then introduced following each response to the preferred bar. The response-shock interval was 1.5, 12, or 96 sec. Experimental Ss' preference shifted from the shock bar; preference remained the same for no-shock controls. The rate of changes was a negative function of delay of shock, but final percentage of responses to the nonshock bar was the same for all delays. Results support the hypothesis that delay of punishment as such has no effect on choice at asymptote. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapeutic responses of psychopathic sexual offenders: Treatment attrition, therapeutic change, and long-term recidivism.

The authors examined the therapeutic responses of psychopathic sex offenders (≥25 Psychopathy Checklist—Revised; PCL–R) in terms of treatment dropout and therapeutic change, as well as sexual and violent recidivism over a 10-year follow-up among 156 federally incarcerated sex offenders treated in a high-intensity inpatient sex offender program. Psychopathy and sex offender risk/treatment change were assessed using the PCL–R and the Violence Risk Scale—Sexual Offender version (VRS–SO), respectively. Although psychopathic participants were more likely than their nonpsychopathic counterparts (     

Deficient response modulation and emotion processing in low-anxious Caucasian psychopathic offenders: Results from a lexical decision task.

The clinical and research literatures on psychopathy have identified an emotion paradox: Psychopaths display normal appraisal but impaired use of emotion cues. Using R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist--Revised and the G. S. Welsh Anxiety Scale (1956), the authors identified low-anxious psychopaths and controls and examined predictions concerning their performance on a lexical-decision task. Results supported all the predictions: (a) low-anxious psychopaths appraised emotion cues as well as controls; (b) their lexical decisions were relatively unaffected by emotion cues; (c) their lexical decisions were relatively unaffected by affectively neutral word-frequency cues; and (d) their performance deficits were specific to conditions involving right-handed responses. The authors propose that deficient response modulation may underlie both the emotional and cognitive deficits associated with low-anxious psychopaths. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental corporal punishment predicts behavior problems in early childhood.

Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (Research Triangle Institute, 2002), this study examined the impact of corporal punishment (CP) on children's behavior problems. Longitudinal analyses were specified that controlled for covarying contextual and parenting variables and that partialed child effects. The results indicate that parental CP uniquely contributes to negative behavioral adjustment in children at both 36 months and at 1st grade, with the effects at the earlier age more pronounced in children with difficult temperaments. Parents and mental health professionals who work to modify children's negative behavior should be aware of the unique impact that CP likely plays in triggering and maintaining children's behavior problems. Broad-based family policies that reduce the use of this parenting behavior would potentially increase children's mental health and decrease the incidence of children's behavior problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reinforced alternative behavior during punishment and extinction with rats.

Evaluated the suppressive effect of a reinforced alternative response during extinction and during punishment plus extinction in a discrimination learning paradigm with 36 male hooded rats. Although reinforcement of the alternative response did augment the suppression produced by extinction and by punishment plus extinction, the recovery which resulted when reinforcement for alternative behavior was discontinued eliminated any net reduction in extinction responses. Therefore, under the particular conditions of this study, no significant overall savings in regular extinction or in punished extinction resulted from the temporary reinforcement of alternative behavior. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)