No description available.

The accuracy of perception of facial emotion expressions was studied in individuals with low and high psychopathic personality characteristics in a sample of 21 male and 39 female university students. Participants completed the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), and the Behavioural Inhibition Scale and the Behavioural Activation Scale (BIS/BAS) as measures of psychopathy. Participants completed a computerised emotion recognition task containing six emotions of facial expressions (each emotion had five different intensities). The results showed that participants scoring low on the BIS and high on the BAS scores showed significant impairments in the recognition of both sad and fearful expressions. On the other hand, group scoring high on the PPI, showed significant impairment in the recognition of angry, but not fearful or sad expressions in the total sample. Males with high psychopathic personality characteristics showed significant impairments in the recognition of sad, fearful and angry expressions compared to males with low psychopathic personality characteristics. On the other hand females with high psychopathic personality characteristics showed significant impairment in recognising the expression of disgust only compared to females with low psychopathic personality characteristics. The PPI and the BIS/BAS scales showed reasonable alpha reliabilities with some exceptions for one subscale in each measure. Correlations between the PPI and the BIS/BAS scales were weak to moderate. The current findings suggest that different dimensions of psychopathy may be associated with selective impairments in recognising unpleasant emotion expressions in others.

Psychopathic personality traits have been found to be associated with a variety of emotional deficits, including poor facial expression recognition, and reduced capacity to experience empathy. However, research has yielded conflicting results. This study investigated the relationship between psychopathic personality traits, facial emotion recognition, as well as empathy, in a community sample (n = 127), identified as having either low or elevated levels of psychopathic traits. Facial expression recognition was measured using the Hexagon task, which contains morphed facial expressions with two levels of expressivity. Psychopathic traits were assessed using the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory, and empathy was measured with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Individuals with elevated psychopathic traits did not display lower accuracy in facial expression recognition compared to the low psychopathic traits group, rather the reverse was found.  Weak to strong negative correlations were found between psychopathic traits and empathy. Zero to weak correlations was found between psychopathic traits and expression recognition, as well as between empathy and expression recognition. The results are compared with similar studies, and implications for the study of psychopathy and emotion recognition are discussed.

Meanness and Disinhibition are two components of psychopathic personality, conceptualized by the Triarchic Psychopathic Model (Tri-PM). Psychopathic personality traits are related to criminal behavior. There is however, little research on how meanness and disinhibition relate to violent crime and non-violent crime. Data were drawn from a sample of college students and prison inmates (N = 1,787 mean age = 26.8 years). Meanness, disinhibition, violent crime and non-violent crime was measured using the Externalizing Spectrum Inventory ([ESI] Krueger et al., 2007). The results indicated that meanness and disinhibition explained 61% of the variance in violent crime and 77% of the variance in non-violent crime. Disinhibition had a stronger relation to both violent crime and non-violent crime. There was also a small, but significant interaction effect of meanness and disinhibition on violent crime and non-violent crime. The results support the theoretical outlines of the Tri-PM. Implications from these findings are that the ESI and the Tri-PM can be used risk assessment tools and in work related to crime prevention. Future research should in addition to meanness and disinhibition also include boldness from the Tri-PM and more severe violent types of crime in order to examine how these traits relate to intentions of violent- and non-violent crime. / Meanness och disinhibition ar tva komponenter av psykopatisk personlighet, konceptualiserad utifran The Triarchic Psychopahtic Model (The Tri-PM). Psykopatisk personlighet ar relaterat till brottsliga beteenden. Det finns dock lite forskning pa hur meanness och disinhibition relaterar till våldsbrott och ickevåldsbrott. Data drogs fran ett urval av universitetsstudenter och intagna i fangelse (N = 1 787 medelalder = 26,8 ar). Meanness, disinhibition, våldsbrott och ickevåldsbrott mattes med The Externalizing Spectrum Inventory ([ESI] Krueger et al., 2007). Variablerna analyserades med linjara multipla regressionsanalyser. Resultatet indikerade att meanness och disinhibition forklarade 61% av variansen av våldsbrott och 77% av variansen av icke-våldsbrott. Disinhibition hade en starkare relation till bade våldsbrott och icke-våldsbrott. Det fanns aven en liten, men signifikant interaktionseffekt for våldsbrott och ickevåldsbrott. Resultatet stodjer den teoretiska utgangspunkten fran Tri-PM. Implikationer fran dessa fynd ar att ESI och Tri-PM kan anvandas som riskbedomningsverktyg och brottsforebyggande syfte. Framtida forskning bor tillsammans med meanness och disinhibition aven inkludera boldness fran Tri-PM och mer grova typer av valdsamma brott for att undersoka hur dessa drag relaterar till olika avsikter for brott.

Research has shown that children displaying conduct problems (CP) early in life are at greater risk for severe CP and other negative outcomes later in life. However, not all children with early-onset CP will develop severe CP over the life-course. Thus, it is important to identify those at greater risk, preferably as early as possible, in order to adequately prevent a negative development. Psychopathic traits have received much attention in research on risk for severe CP, involving attempts to extend these traits, and their association to CP to childhood. However, research has thus far mainly focused on one dimension of psychopathic traits, that is callousunemotional (CU) traits, to some extent neglecting two other dimensions of traits commonly included in a psychopathic personality: an interpersonal, and a behavioural dimension. Hence, we still do not know if a full psychopathic personality is identifiable in early childhood, and if and how it is related to the development of severe and persistent CP. The aim of this dissertation was to examine if a psychopathic personality could be identified in early childhood, if psychopathic traits are stable over time, and if and how the psychopathic personality is related to childhood CP. Overall, the results show that psychopathic traits, as well as the display of a psychopathic personality, could be identified in early childhood. These traits were stable over time, and they were clearly and strongly related to childhood CP. Additionally, the combination of early-onset CP and a full psychopathic personality seems to be the most precarious for severe and persistent CP, even more so than the combination of CP and CU traits. With careful consideration to ethical aspects, these results are discussed both in relation to a developmental psychopathology perspective on CP, as well as in relation to diagnostic practice as it is framed today.

No description available.

Denna studie syftade till att undersöka grad av alla tre dimensioner sammanslagna och respektive dimension av psykopati bland unga och hur det relaterade till antisocialt beteende samt om relationerna kvarstod oberoende av ungas sociala förmåga och föräldrars SES. Urvalet bestod av 1731 unga varav 912 pojkar och 819 flickor i åldern 11-13 år med medelålder 12,2. Psykopatiska personlighetsdrag definierades med tre dimensioner som var grandiositet - manipulation, brist i empati - flackt känsloliv och impulsivitet - behov av omväxling. Resultaten visade att pojkar uppvisade högre grad av psykopatiska personlighetsdrag jämfört med flickor. Psykopatiska personlighetsdrag och antisocialt beteende korrelerade i hög utsträckning med varandra. Majoriteten av korrelationerna var högre bland pojkar än flickor separat. Sambanden kvarstod mellan psykopatiska personlighetsdrag och antisocialt beteende vid kontroll för ungas sociala förmåga respektive föräldrars SES för totala urvalet samt separat för pojkar respektive flickor. Slutsatsen som drogs var att psykopatiska personlighetsdrag och antisocialt beteende var relaterade till varandra. Denna relation var oberoende av ungas sociala förmåga och föräldrars SES. Diskussioner om praktiska implikationer förs och direktiv för framtida forskning ges. / The main purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of psychopathic personality traits among youths and how it related to antisocial behaviour and whether the relationships remained independent of youth’s social skills and parental SES. The study consisted of 1731 participant, where 912 of them were boys, and 819 were girls at age 11-13 with mean age 12,2. The psychopathic personality traits consist of three different dimensions; Grandiose-Deceitful, Callous-Unemotional, and Impulsivity-Need for Stimulation. The results showed that the psychopathic dimensions were significantly higher among boys than girls. We also examined the relationship between the psychopathic dimensions and conduct problems for the total sample, which showed a high positive significant correlation. These correlations were tested for both genders separately, which showed indications of boys having a higher correlation than girls. Furthermore, the result indicated that the relationship remained between psychopathic dimensions and conduct problems in controlling for social skills respective socioeconomic status for the total sample and separately for boys and girls. The conclusion drawn that psychopathic personality traits and conduct problem were related to each other. This relationship was independent of young’s level of social skills and parental level of SES. Discussions of practical implications and directives for future research are provided.

This study examined the predictive value of the three dimensions of youth psychopathic personality towards delinquency, on delinquency through the application of hierarchical regression analysis, while controlling for gender. Dimensions being: Callous/Unemotional-, Impulsive/Irresponsible-, and Grandiose/Manipulative traits. The study included 891 (48% female) Swedish adolescents from a community sample with a mean age of 14.28 (SD=.94) years. A self-report instrument was used to assess psychopathic traits in youth, the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI), consisting of 50 items and is specifically designed to lower the risk of response bias. Results: It was discovered that Impulsivity/Irresponsible behavior predicted statistically significant 14% of the variance in delinquency, and gender significantly predicted 4%. Callous/Unemotional predicted non-significant 0,3% and Grandiose/Manipulative predicted none of the variance in delinquency and was not significant. The findings regarding dimensions contradict the majority of research on the subject which has focused on CU-traits as main predictor of antisocial behavior, but in line with recent studies using a similar analytical approach showing Impulsivity/Irresponsible behavior as main predictor. The findings regarding gender are in line with previous research.