Psychopathy and alexithymia are disorders with many
conceptual similarities. For example, Factor 1
of the
Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) contains
items like shallow affect and lack of empathy, which seem to map
on to the construct of alexithymia. Additionally, both
psychopaths and alexithymics display striking differences from
others in their use of language, especially affective language.
The two areas of interest in the present study were (a)
occurrence and co—occurrence of psychopathy and alexithymia in a
sample of female inmates, and (b) the relationship between
affective language and these two disorders.
Psychopathy and alexithymia were assessed in 37 women
offenders incarcerated in a
Burnaby Correctional Centre, using
the PCL-R
and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (
TAS; Taylor, Ryan &
Bagby, 1985). Each subject was presented with a
short written
scenario designed to elicit an emotional response, and asked to
describe the feelings of the characters in the story. Their taped
responses were analyzed for measures of affect.
Base rates of both disorders were comparable to those in
similar samples, (
30% of the inmates were diagnosed as
psychopathic; 33% as alexithymic) but the coxnorbidity rate was
only 8%. There was a
significant correlation between alexithymia
scores and PCL—R
Factor 2
scores —
the factor assessing
antisocial behaviour. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the TAS and PCL-R were both predictive of violence. This
relationship between the PCL-R and violence is well
substantiated; that the TAS also predicts violence is a newer
finding.
Alexithymics spoke more slowly, used fewer total words
overall and fewer affective words, and displayed less emotion in
their voices than did nonalexithymics. Psychopaths could not be
identified by any vocal measures except a slight tendency to
speak faster than nonpsychopaths. Although both disorders are
characterized’ by affective impoverishment, the verbal expressions
of affect were very different in psychopaths and alexithymics.
The psychopaths were adept at convincing raters of an emotional
investment they did not feel; alexithymics could not disguise
their lack of appropriate emotional response.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/5397 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Louth, Shirley May |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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