Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisors: Charles J. Holahan and David M. Tucker. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

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Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2002. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 75 p. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Michael Vasey, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-75).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1969. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 211-214). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

This study was concerned with the relations between representations of psychopathy and interpersonal perceptions. From 147 inmates seen in a federal medium security prison, 79 of the men provided complete data for comparisons. Groups were defined under criteria from (1) the Psychopathy Checklist (PC) (Hare, 1985b), or (2) American Psychiatric Association (1980, 1987) outlines for Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). Measures were derived from the Interpersonal Adjective Scales-Revised (IAS-R) (Wiggins, Trapnell, and Phillips, 1988 ) which relate interpersonally defined perceptions of personality as locations within a circumplex space--Interpersonal Circle (Wiggins, 1979, 1980). Self-ratings were obtained as descriptive of (1) self, (2) ideal self, (3) self as thought seen by a friends, and (4) self as thought seen by a specific member of the institutional staff. A rating was also obtained from the specific staff members as descriptive of the particular inmates. Comparisons were also made with respect to the specificity and sensitivity of MMPI profiles considered relevant to psychopathy. Supplementary comparisons used selected scales from the Adjective Checklist (ACL) (Gough and Heilbrun, 1980) and Rosenberg's (1965) Self- esteem Scale. These comparisons provided manipulation checks of the consistency of the data and contributed to the interpretive generalizability of the results. The primary hypotheses were that a group of individuals defined as psychopathic would show differences in representations obtained from self-rated and other-rated descriptions, with respect to circumplex location and derived difference scores from the IAS-R, in comparison to groups considered non-psychopathic. Results indicated differential perceptions, particularly by staff members, which provided good discriminations of groups based on the PC but not for groups defined by APD. Circumplex locations of psychopaths defined by the PC were consistent with expectations for the Interpersonal Circle. The discriminative utility of group differences was much higher for the PC-defined groups than for APD relative to the base rates for these different categorizations. The results are discussed in terms of (1) their contribution to the nomological network for the concept of psychopathy as represented by the PC, (2) specific limitations of the study, and (3) the evident confusion which can result from the use of measures assumed to to relate to the 'psychopath,' but that rely on primarily behavioural descriptions. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This study was designed to examine the hypothesis that criminal psychopaths differ from criminal nonpsychopaths in their ability to over-focus attention on certain kinds of stimuli. For the purposes of this study, the concept of over-focussing was operationalized to mean the ability to process stimuli more quickly or efficiently by making use of one or more attentional mechanisms for selecting among locations or stimuli. A second aim of the study was to identify the component processes contributing to this more efficient selection. Five experiments were run to assess several different components of attention contributing to selection of stimuli in a variety of paradigms. Experiments 1 and 2 assessed covert orienting of attention across the visual field using both peripherally presented physical cues and centrally presented symbolic cues to prime locations in visual space. Three dissociable components of attention were assessed in this paradigm. Experiments 3-5 were designed to assess the efficiency of processing a target item in the presence of a distractor item. Four additional dissociable components of selective attention were measured in these three studies. The results supported the hypothesis that psychopaths can over-focus attention, but the groups were differentiated by only one of the component processes measured. In Experiments 1 and 2 endogenous orienting of attention was greater for psychopaths than for nonpsychopaths. In these paradigms endogenous facilitation controlled the allocation of attention to cued locations, and the subsequent speeding of reaction time to targets presented at those locations, when the cue was symbolic or predictive, but not when it involved a physical change of energy at the cued location. This strategic allocation of attention probably resulted from the predictive validity (approximately 68% valid) of the cue in relation to the target. Other component processes failed to differentiate the groups. These included measures of exogenous orienting and inhibition of return in experiments 1 and 2, and measures of interference due to a distracting stimulus, habituation of interference, attenuation of interference due to spatial displacement of the distractor, and negative priming in experiments 3-5. The difference in covert orienting was replicated in experiments 1 and 2 in two groups of criminals who also failed to demonstrate any abnormalities in a variety of other processes involved in attention. It was concluded that psychopaths differ from nonpsychopaths specifically in their strategic allocation of attention in situations of moderate uncertainty, but show no other abnormalities in the component processes that control attention. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Both researchers and clinicians, especially those working in criminal populations, have long suggested that psychopathy (or antisocial personality disorder) and schizophrenia are associated on an etiological or on some other level (e.g., Eysenck and Eysenck, 1976, 1978). Others (Hare, 1984; Hare and Harpur, 1986; Raine, 1985) argue that psychopathy is not associated (or even negatively associated) with other psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. To evaluate these competing positions concerning the psychopathy-schizophrenia association, 80 male prisoners remanded to a forensic psychiatric institute for assessment of their fitness to stand trial were diagnosed using both the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL; Hare, 1980, 1985a) and DSM-III Axis I and II criteria. In addition, clinical global ratings and self-report inventories were used to measure the strength of psychopathy- and schizophrenia-related traits. The results indicated that: a) although diagnoses of psychopathy (according to PCL criteria) did not have perfect specificity with respect to schizophrenia-related clinical diagnoses, the overlap was small, and the PCL scales were either not associated or negatively associated with these disorders; b) diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder (APD, according to DSM-III criteria) were generally not associated with schizophrenia-related disorders, but had lower clinical specificity than did the PCL criteria with respect to both schizophrenia-related and other psychiatric disorders; c) there was no association between psychopathy- and schizophrenia-related clinical ratings; d) psychopathy and APD diagnoses and clinical ratings were not related to scores on other standard rating scales of the severity of psychiatric symptomatology; and e) there was no difference between schizophrenic and non-schizophrenic subjects in the strength of psychopathy-related traits, and no difference between psychopaths and nonpsychopaths (or APD versus non-APD subjects) in the strength of schizophrenia-related traits. As well, self-report measures related to psychopathy and schizophrenia did not correlate with each other, or with clinical ratings of the two disorders. The results are interpreted as supporting the view that psychopathy is not positively associated with schizophrenia or with psychiatric disorder in general. The practical utility of various techniques for assessing psychopathy in forensic psychiatric populations is also discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate