The Normative Nature of Aggressive Intrusive Thinking Among an Underserved Incarcerated Population Compared With a Student Sample

<p>Psychopathic offenders are often considered to be untreatable, especially dangerous, and at very high risk of reoffending. Psychopathy has generated considerable research interest. Despite this interest, our understanding of psychopathy is relatively poor, with ongoing debate regarding how best to define psychopathy, and a lack of clarity regarding how psychopathy develops. Etiological theories of psychopathy posit deficits in recognising and responding to others’ emotions, and an attenuated experience of fear as crucial mechanisms in the development of psychopathy. The aims of this thesis are to investigate the pattern of psychopathic traits present within an inmate sample, and to investigate the relationship between these psychopathic traits and performance on two tasks related to etiological theories of psychopathy: facial affect recognition and fear conditioning. Part One of this thesis addresses the first aim, investigating the presentation of psychopathy in the current sample. The relationship between psychopathic traits in the present sample was largely consistent with previous research. A Principal Components Analysis identified two factors of psychopathic traits: a Bold/ Fearlessness factor which measures an absence of fear and anxiety and the presence of self-assurance, and a Mean/ Disinhibited factor which measures the presence of externalising and disinhibited behaviour, alongside aggression and the use of other people for one’s own gain. These findings are discussed in relation to common conceptualisations and operationalisations of psychopathy. Part Two of this thesis uses the measurement of psychopathy from Part One to investigate performance on a facial affect recognition task and a fear conditioning task. The Violence Inhibition Mechanism theory suggests that psychopaths should show impairments on facial affect recognition tasks, particularly in the recognition of fearful and sad facial expressions. However, in the current research psychopathy was unrelated to affect recognition, across all emotional expressions. When criminal offenders were compared to a student sample, the offenders showed poorer affect recognition than the students. These results suggest that there may be an effect of antisociality on affect recognition, but no effect of psychopathy. Low fear theories of psychopathy suggest that psychopaths should be impaired at learning conditioned fear associations. However, the present study found no evidence of psychopathy-related deficits in fear conditioning. Rather, higher psychopathy was related to better fear conditioning, with higher scores on the Mean/ Disinhibited factor predicting better discrimination between the conditioned and neutral stimuli. Taken together, these findings suggest that psychopathy was not related to deficits in either affect recognition or fear conditioning. These findings are inconsistent with etiological theories of psychopathy, and question common assumptions about the deficits which characterise psychopathy.</p>

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The Role of Psychopathic Traits in Female Sexual Coercion

Violence and Victims ◽

10.1891/0886-6708.vv-d-15-00168 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 479-492 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Holly A. Miller ◽

Jeffrey A. Bouffard ◽

Cassidy A. DeHaan

Keyword(s):

Sexual Coercion ◽

Psychopathic Traits ◽

Current Understanding ◽

Primary Psychopathy ◽

Coercive Behavior ◽

Undergraduate Females ◽

The Relationship

Researchers have consistently found a relationship between psychopathy and the use of sexual coercion in samples of males with and without previous sexual arrests (Abbey, Jacques-Tiura, & LeBreton, 2011; Hare, 1991; Hersh & Gray-Little, 1998; Seto & Lalumiere, 2000). Although there is growing recognition that females also engage in sexually coercive behavior, current understanding of female coercion is limited (Bouffard, Bouffard, & Miller, 2015; Cortoni, Hanson, & Coache, 2010; Muñoz, Khan, & Cordwell, 2011). This study examined the relationship between psychopathic traits and sexual coercion tactics among a sample of 558 undergraduate females. Results indicate that the use of any previous sexual coercion tactic (coax, lie, get drunk, and assault) and higher endorsement of primary psychopathy traits significantly predict whether the females state that they will engage in future sexually coercive behaviors.

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Relation of Name Frequency to the Perception of Social Class in Given Names

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1994.79.1.623 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 79 (1) ◽

pp. 623-626 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Charles E. Joubert

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Social Class ◽

Analysis Of Variance ◽

Significant Interaction ◽

Class Status ◽

Post Hoc ◽

Main Effects ◽

The Relationship

In a study of the relationship between name frequency and perceived social class, 116 college students rated the perceived social class of a list of either 60 male names or 60 female names. Each list consisted of equal numbers of common, less common, dated, or rare names. An analysis of variance indicated significant main effects of sex of name and frequency of name as well as a significant interaction between those two variables. The respondents rated the men's names as higher in social class than the women's names. Post hoc comparisons indicated that rare names of either sex were rated as lower in class status than were common, less common, or dated names. While dated women's names were rated lower than were common and less common women's names, dated men's names were not adversely affected in a comparison with common or less common men's names.

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Effects of College Students' Video Gaming Behavior on Self-Concept Clarity and Flow

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.2012.40.4.673 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 673-679 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Chiawen Lee ◽

Kirk Damon Aiken ◽

Huang Chia Hung

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

College Students ◽

Video Games ◽

Survey Data ◽

Self Concept ◽

Video Gaming ◽

Student Sample ◽

Psychological Constructs ◽

Flow Experiences ◽

The Relationship

We explored time spent playing and other video gamer behavior in relation to the psychological constructs of self-concept clarity and flow. Survey data were collected from a paper-and-pencil survey of a student sample from a university in northwestern United States. We found that compared with gamers with high self-concept clarity, gamers with low self-concept clarity spent more time playing video games. Furthermore, flow was positively associated with time spent playing. Gamers who spent more time playing reported more flow experiences. This research contributes to understanding of the relationship between gamer psychologies and gaming behavior amongst college students.

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Dark Triad Personality Traits in Cyber Aggression Among College Students

Violence and Victims ◽

10.1891/vv-d-18-00058 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 35 (4) ◽

pp. 524-538

Author(s):

Taylor R. Nocera ◽

Eric R. Dahlen

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

College Student ◽

Personality Traits ◽

Multiple Regression ◽

Psychopathic Traits ◽

Dark Triad ◽

Student Sample ◽

Hierarchical Multiple Regression ◽

Cyber Aggression ◽

College Student Sample

Despite evidence supporting the importance of cyber aggression among early adolescents (Hinduja & Patchin, 2015), we know less about its correlates among college students. The present study examined the relationships of Dark Triad personality traits to cyber aggression in a college student sample (N = 297). Machiavellian, narcissistic (both grandiose and vulnerable forms), and psychopathic traits positively related to cyber aggression perpetration. A hierarchical multiple regression including gender, age, and Dark Triad traits found that only the erratic lifestyle component of psychopathic traits explained unique variance in cyber aggression perpetration. Gender did not moderate the relationships between Dark Triad traits and cyber aggression. These findings add to the literature on cyber aggression among college students, suggesting that psychopathic traits are a useful predictor.

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Investigating the relationship between Psychopathy, Fear Conditioning, and Facial Affect Recognition

10.26686/wgtn.17005801 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Allanah R. Casey

Keyword(s):

Fear Conditioning ◽

Recognition Task ◽

Psychopathic Traits ◽

Facial Affect ◽

Inhibition Mechanism ◽

Affect Recognition ◽

Facial Affect Recognition ◽

Present Sample ◽

Student Sample ◽

The Relationship

<p>Psychopathic offenders are often considered to be untreatable, especially dangerous, and at very high risk of reoffending. Psychopathy has generated considerable research interest. Despite this interest, our understanding of psychopathy is relatively poor, with ongoing debate regarding how best to define psychopathy, and a lack of clarity regarding how psychopathy develops. Etiological theories of psychopathy posit deficits in recognising and responding to others’ emotions, and an attenuated experience of fear as crucial mechanisms in the development of psychopathy. The aims of this thesis are to investigate the pattern of psychopathic traits present within an inmate sample, and to investigate the relationship between these psychopathic traits and performance on two tasks related to etiological theories of psychopathy: facial affect recognition and fear conditioning. Part One of this thesis addresses the first aim, investigating the presentation of psychopathy in the current sample. The relationship between psychopathic traits in the present sample was largely consistent with previous research. A Principal Components Analysis identified two factors of psychopathic traits: a Bold/ Fearlessness factor which measures an absence of fear and anxiety and the presence of self-assurance, and a Mean/ Disinhibited factor which measures the presence of externalising and disinhibited behaviour, alongside aggression and the use of other people for one’s own gain. These findings are discussed in relation to common conceptualisations and operationalisations of psychopathy. Part Two of this thesis uses the measurement of psychopathy from Part One to investigate performance on a facial affect recognition task and a fear conditioning task. The Violence Inhibition Mechanism theory suggests that psychopaths should show impairments on facial affect recognition tasks, particularly in the recognition of fearful and sad facial expressions. However, in the current research psychopathy was unrelated to affect recognition, across all emotional expressions. When criminal offenders were compared to a student sample, the offenders showed poorer affect recognition than the students. These results suggest that there may be an effect of antisociality on affect recognition, but no effect of psychopathy. Low fear theories of psychopathy suggest that psychopaths should be impaired at learning conditioned fear associations. However, the present study found no evidence of psychopathy-related deficits in fear conditioning. Rather, higher psychopathy was related to better fear conditioning, with higher scores on the Mean/ Disinhibited factor predicting better discrimination between the conditioned and neutral stimuli. Taken together, these findings suggest that psychopathy was not related to deficits in either affect recognition or fear conditioning. These findings are inconsistent with etiological theories of psychopathy, and question common assumptions about the deficits which characterise psychopathy.</p>

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Inducing Unconscious Stress

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000247 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 192-201

Author(s):

Melanie M. van der Ploeg ◽

Jos F. Brosschot ◽

Markus Quirin ◽

Richard D. Lane ◽

Bart Verkuil

Keyword(s):

Repeated Measures ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Physiological Changes ◽

Implicit Measures ◽

Prime Word ◽

Student Sample ◽

Priming Task ◽

Subject Design ◽

The Relationship ◽

Stress And Health

Abstract. Stress-related stimuli may be presented outside of awareness and may ultimately influence health by causing repetitive increases in physiological parameters, such as blood pressure (BP). In this study, we aimed to corroborate previous studies that demonstrated BP effects of subliminally presented stress-related stimuli. This would add evidence to the hypothesis that unconscious manifestations of stress can affect somatic health. Additionally, we suggest that these findings may be extended by measuring affective changes relating to these physiological changes, using measures for self-reported and implicit positive and negative affectivity. Using a repeated measures between-subject design, we presented either the prime word “angry” ( n = 26) or “relax” ( n = 28) subliminally (17 ms) for 100 trials to a student sample and measured systolic and diastolic BP, heart rate (HR), and affect. The “angry” prime, compared to the “relax” prime, did not affect any of the outcome variables. During the priming task, a higher level of implicit negative affect (INA) was associated with a lower systolic BP and diastolic BP. No association was found with HR. Self-reported affect and implicit positive affect were not related to the cardiovascular (CV) activity. In sum, anger and relax primes elicited similar CV activity patterns, but implicit measures of affect may provide a new method to examine the relationship between (unconscious) stress and health.

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