Relations between Psychopathy Facets and Externalizing in a Criminal Offender Sample

Abstract

The construct of psychopathy is viewed as comprising distinctive but correlated affectiveinterpersonal and social deviance facets. Here, we examined these facets of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in terms of their associations with the externalizing dimension of adult psychopathology, defined as the common factor underlying symptoms of conduct disorder, adult antisocial behavior, alcohol use/abuse, and drug abuse, along with disinhibitory personality traits. Correlational analyses revealed a strong relationship between this externalizing dimension and the social deviance facet of psychopathy (r = .84), and a lesser relationship with the emotionalinterpersonal component (r = .44). Structural models controlling for the moderate overlap between the PCL-R factors revealed that externalizing was substantially related to the unique variance in the social deviance features of psychopathy, but unrelated to the unique variance of the emotional and interpersonal features whether modeled together or as separate factors. These results indicate that the social deviance factor of the PCL-R reflects the externalizing dimension of psychopathology, whereas the emotional-interpersonal component taps something distinct aside from externalizing. In addition, based on our finding of an association between PCL-R social deviance and externalizing, we were able to predict new relations between this facet of psychopathy and criterion variables, including nicotine use and gambling, that have previously been linked to externalizing. Implications for future research on the causes and correlates of psychopathy are discussed.Antisocial behavior is a problem of enormous social importance that has been the focus of intensive psychological study. Two research traditions have been prominent in this area: (1) longitudinal, epidemiological studies examining precursors and predictors of criminality in the population at large, and (2) experimental psychopathology studies investigating the construct of psychopathic personality in incarcerated offender populations. The former has yielded evidence of a broad spectrum of externalizing problems, encompassing alcohol and drug abuse as well as child and adult antisociality, that arise from a common etiologic vulnerability (e.g., Krueger et al., 2002;Young, Stallings, Corley, Krauter, & Hewitt, 2000). The latter has produced evidence that there are distinct facets to psychopathy with differing external correlates (e.g., Cooke & Michie, 2001;Hall, Benning, & Patrick, 2004;Hare, 1991Hare, , 2003Harpur, Hare, & Hakstian, 1989;Patrick, 1994;Widiger & Lynam, 1998) that may reflect separate etiologic processes (Fowles & Dindo, 2006; Patrick, 2001, in press). The current study bridges these research domains by demonstrating a link between the externalizing dimension of adult psychopathology and the social deviance factor of psychopathy, and illustrating how novel predictions can be generated through knowledge of this association.

Fear extinction, persistent disruptive behavior and psychopathic traits: fMRI in late adolescence

“…In addition, various studies have shown that psychopathic traits are not a unitary construct: i.e. that its dimensions are distinctly associated with behavioral criterion variables (Patrick et al, 2005;Hicks and Patrick, 2006) and regional brain function (Carré et al, 2013;Cohn et al, 2013). Indeed, we found that neural responses during fear acquisition were positively associated with GM and II psychopathic traits and negatively with CU psychopathic traits (Cohn et al, 2013).…”

Psychophysiological correlates of aggression and violence: an integrative review

“…The explanation for this divergence in findings almost certainly lies in the distinction between the affectiveinterpersonal versus the antisocial deviance features of psychopathy. It is the latter features that reflect heightened externalizing tendencies, including aggression and impulsiveness (Patrick 2007;Patrick et al 2005). However, most EEG/ERP and brain imaging studies have not examined effects for these two components of psychopathy separately (for exceptions, see Laakso et al 2001;De Oliveira-Souza et al 2008).…”

Psychopathy and trait emotional intelligence

“…Conversely, Patrick, Cuthbert, and Lang (1994) found that the poor fear conditioning of psychopathic individuals was associated with the impulsive-antisocial (Factor 2) dimension and suggested that such deficits reflect a problem with the maintenance of neural representations, undermining the ability to associate fear with specific environmental events. Noting the association between Factor 2 and antisociality, substance abuse, suicidal behaviors, and heightened negative affect, Patrick, Hicks, Krueger, and Lang (2005) have linked this construct to a "general inhibitory diathesis" (p. 352) that seems to include difficulty inhibiting pre-potent affective states.…”