The Differentiation of Narrative Styles in Individuals with High Psychopathic Deviate

The current study was designed to show the differentiation of narrative styles in individuals with high scores in Psychopathic deviate (Pd) scale and develop a method enabling identification of psychopathic personality traits based on linguistic indicators. 600 spontaneous narrations related to emotional topics have been examined for grammar, syntactic, and lexical indicators. The indicators have been selected based on a review related to language of psychopaths. The narrations were written by 200 persons who were also tested for psychopathic deviate and intelligence level, including prisoners diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Independent judges identified the linguistic indicators which were then counted for each person with the use of computer software. The configuration profiles of the linguistic indicators/narrative styles were established using k-mean clustering method. Then, ANOVA was performed to show which clusters differentiate the levels of psychopathic deviate. The findings show there are two configurations of language features (important: single features were not examined) associated with high levels of psychopathic deviate patterns. Two narrative styles were identified, labelled demonstrative-digressive-egocentric-emotional-dogmatic and reserved-focused on the topic-repetitive, which indicate high psychopathic deviate traits. The ROC curves were applied to establish the prediction of the narrative styles for high psychopathic deviate scores.

People that score high on psychopathic traits are less likely to yawn contagiously

Considerable variation exists in the contagiousness of yawning, and numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the proximate mechanisms involved in this response. Yet, findings within the psychological literature are mixed, with many studies conducted on relatively small and homogeneous samples. Here, we aimed to replicate and extend upon research suggesting a negative relationship between psychopathic traits and yawn contagion in community samples. In the largest study of contagious yawning to date (N = 458), which included both university students and community members from across 50 nationalities, participants completed an online study in which they self-reported on their yawn contagion to a video stimulus and completed four measures of psychopathy: the primary and secondary psychopathy scales from the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRPS), the psychopathy construct from the Dirty Dozen, and the Psychopathic Personality Traits Scale (PPTS). Results support previous findings in that participants that yawned contagiously tended to score lower on the combined and primary measures of psychopathy. That said, tiredness was the strongest predictor across all models. These findings align with functional accounts of spontaneous and contagious yawning and a generalized impairment in overall patterns of behavioral contagion and biobehavioral synchrony among people high in psychopathic traits.

Why are Psychopaths Difficult to Treat? Testing the Two-Component Model for the Treatment of PCL Psychopaths

<p>Psychopathic personality disorder as conceptualised by the family of scales referred to as the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL), is often cited as a specific responsivity characteristic that will interfere with an otherwise effective treatment programme. However, most research on the treatment of prisoners high on PCL psychopathy asks whether or not they are treatable as opposed to why they are difficult to treat. The Two-Component model (2-C; Wong & Olver, 2015) for the treatment of PCL psychopaths proposes that treatment difficulties observed for those high on PCL psychopathy are primarily caused by the interpersonal and affective personality features of psychopathy represented by PCL Factor 1 (F1). Thus the 2-C model suggests that therapists work around the emotional deficits and disruptive behaviours associated with PCL F1 to focus on changing risk-relevant behaviours that are associated with PCL Factor 2 (F2). In this thesis, we test the assumptions of the 2-C model with a group of high-risk violent men who attended an intensive violence treatment programme and were assessed with a PCL instrument. Specifically, we examined whether the personality features of PCL psychopathy led to more treatment difficulties than the behavioural features by exploring relationships between the factors/facets of the PCL and treatment completion, reconviction, change on dynamic risk, the therapeutic alliance and behaviour during treatment. In support of the 2-C model we found that PCL:SV Part 1 and its underlying facets were significantly associated with higher rates of removal from treatment, a poorer therapeutic alliance, and lower levels of emotional and performance based behaviours during treatment. Mediation analyses also revealed that the relationships between PCL:SV Part 1 variables and removal were partly explained by lower levels of emotional and performance based behaviours. Also in support of the 2-C model, we found that PCL:SV Part 2 and its underlying facets demonstrated stronger, significant associations with pre-treatment dynamic risk and post-treatment reconvictions when compared with PCL:SV Part 1 variables. Furthermore, poorer performance based behaviours during treatment mediated relationships between PCL:SV Part 2 variables and reconviction outcomes. Several of our findings however, also failed to support or contradicted assumptions of the 2-C model. All these findings are discussed in relation to their implications for the 2-C model, psychopathy treatment research, specific responsivity, the structure of PCL psychopathy, and the utility of the PCL in forensic and legal settings.</p>

Why are Psychopaths Difficult to Treat? Testing the Two-Component Model for the Treatment of PCL Psychopaths

<p>Psychopathic personality disorder as conceptualised by the family of scales referred to as the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL), is often cited as a specific responsivity characteristic that will interfere with an otherwise effective treatment programme. However, most research on the treatment of prisoners high on PCL psychopathy asks whether or not they are treatable as opposed to why they are difficult to treat. The Two-Component model (2-C; Wong & Olver, 2015) for the treatment of PCL psychopaths proposes that treatment difficulties observed for those high on PCL psychopathy are primarily caused by the interpersonal and affective personality features of psychopathy represented by PCL Factor 1 (F1). Thus the 2-C model suggests that therapists work around the emotional deficits and disruptive behaviours associated with PCL F1 to focus on changing risk-relevant behaviours that are associated with PCL Factor 2 (F2). In this thesis, we test the assumptions of the 2-C model with a group of high-risk violent men who attended an intensive violence treatment programme and were assessed with a PCL instrument. Specifically, we examined whether the personality features of PCL psychopathy led to more treatment difficulties than the behavioural features by exploring relationships between the factors/facets of the PCL and treatment completion, reconviction, change on dynamic risk, the therapeutic alliance and behaviour during treatment. In support of the 2-C model we found that PCL:SV Part 1 and its underlying facets were significantly associated with higher rates of removal from treatment, a poorer therapeutic alliance, and lower levels of emotional and performance based behaviours during treatment. Mediation analyses also revealed that the relationships between PCL:SV Part 1 variables and removal were partly explained by lower levels of emotional and performance based behaviours. Also in support of the 2-C model, we found that PCL:SV Part 2 and its underlying facets demonstrated stronger, significant associations with pre-treatment dynamic risk and post-treatment reconvictions when compared with PCL:SV Part 1 variables. Furthermore, poorer performance based behaviours during treatment mediated relationships between PCL:SV Part 2 variables and reconviction outcomes. Several of our findings however, also failed to support or contradicted assumptions of the 2-C model. All these findings are discussed in relation to their implications for the 2-C model, psychopathy treatment research, specific responsivity, the structure of PCL psychopathy, and the utility of the PCL in forensic and legal settings.</p>