Variants of psychopathy in adult male offenders: A latent profile analysis.

Abstract

As measured with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), psychopathy is a dimensional construct underpinned by 4 correlated factors: Interpersonal, Affective, Lifestyle, and Antisocial. Theorists and clinicians (e.g., Karpman and Arieti) have posited 2 variants of "primary" or "true" psychopathy, both distinct from so-called "secondary" or "pseudopsychopathy." We used latent profile analysis to determine if homogeneous classes exist within a sample of 1,451 male offenders with high PCL-R scores (≥ 27). The 4 PCL-R factors were the dependent variables for clustering. A solution with 3 latent classes showed a better fit to the data than did a unitary model without latent classes. Tentative labels for the latent classes are Manipulative (Latent Class 1 [LC1]), Aggressive (Latent Class 2 [LC2]), and Sociopathic (Latent Class 3 [LC3]). The latter class represented an antisocial group that lacked the emotional detachment observed in the other 2 groups. We propose that LC1 and LC2 reflect phenotypic variations on a theme of the traditional construct of psychopathy, and that LC3 is consistent with conceptions of antisocial personality disorder and sociopathy. Replication and external classification with an independent data set of 497 adult male offenders again yielded clearly separable clusters, as well as meaningful differences or trends among latent classes on education, intelligence, symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, and self-reported psychopathic traits and negative affect. The conceptualization of psychopathy in terms of manipulative and aggressive variants is consistent with clinical theory and is empirically grounded.

The Dark Triad and dispositional aggression

“…This finding supports previous research that there are two primary types of psychopathic individuals: conning and aggressive (i.e., Mokros et al, 2015). Whereas the former are low in antisocial behavior and high in manipulative tendencies, the latter are reversed.…”

“…If we understand callousness to be the absence of empathy or feeling, then it may be the case that Dark Triad personality traits are able to manipulate people in such a way that is not motivated by feelings of hostility or some other affect, which would be consistent with the present results. In general, there are two ways an antisocial individual can go about getting something dishonestly: manipulation or aggression (Mokros et al, 2015). Thus, these findings demonstrate that manipulation is unrelated to aggression, which makes sense: one would be attempting to ingratiate or charm others when engaging in manipulation, which is a process unrelated to aggression.…”

“…At the facet level, given the latent profile of manipulative vs. antisocial tendencies in psychopathy (e.g., Mokros et al, 2015), we predicted that manipulation that is associated with psychopathy would not be related to physical aggression, unlike the other three facets of psychopathy. Further, we predicted that cynical worldview would drive the association between Machiavellianism and hostile worldview.…”

Psychopathy: The Reflection of Severe Psychosocial Dysfunction

“…These experiences are conditioned and are called as "conscience." There is a lot of evidence that psychopathic individuals and criminals show relatively poor conditionability compared with "normal" individuals [24,29,41]. Raine claims that arousal has efects on criminality [51][52][53].…”

Nusikalstamo elgesio rizikos vertinimas Lietuvoje: esama situacija ir raidos tendencijos

“…Šiuos psichopatų ypatumus lemia emociniai, elgesio ir tarpasmeninės sferos sutrikimai. Aukš-tus psichopatijos rodiklius turintiems asmenims būdinga empatijos ir kaltės stoka, siekis dominuoti ir manipuliuoti aplinkiniais, impulsyvus bei rizikingas elgesys (Douglas et al, 2005;Mokros et al, 2015).…”