Psychopathic Traits in Youth and Associations with Temperamental Features
Results from a Performance-Based Measure
Abstract
The present study aims to disentangle motivational and self-regulatory pathways to psychopathic traits in youth with severe antisocial behavior. The associations between self-reported psychopathic traits and indices derived from a laboratory measure assessing fear sensitivity and self-regulation were evaluated. Low scores on fear sensitivity and self-regulation were related to high scores on the self-reported Callous/Unemotional factor of psychopathic traits and the Callousness dimension in particular. The present study provides at least partial evidence for both motivational (low-fear hypothesis; Lykken, 1995) and self-regulatory (response modulation hypothesis; Patterson & Newman, 1993) accounts of psychopathic traits in youth.
References
1992). Attention-deficit hyperactivity and conduct disorder: Comorbidity and implications for treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 881–889.
(2002). Psychopathic traits in nonreferred youths: A new assessment tool. In E. Blaauw L. SheridanEds., Psychopaths: Current international perspectives (pp. 131–158). The Hague: Elsevier.
(1997). Approach and avoidance motivation in psychopathic criminal offenders during passive avoidance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1413–1428.
(2009). Self-reported attentional control differentiates the major factors of psychopathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 626–630.
(2009). Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory as a framework for research on personality-psychopathology associations. Clinical Psychology Review, 29, 421–430.
(1999). Responsiveness to distress cues in the child with psychopathic tendencies. Personality and Individual Differences, 27, 135–145.
(2006). The emergence of psychopathy: Implications for a neuropsychological approach to developmental disorders. Cognition, 101, 414–442.
(1994). Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 319–333.
(1976). The mask of sanity (5th ed). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
(2004). Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity model and child psychopathology: Laboratory and questionnaire assessment of the BAS and BIS. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 32, 435–451.
(2009). Psychopathic traits moderate the interaction between cognitive and affective processing. Psychophysiology, 46, 913–921.
(2001, April). Revision of the early adolescent temperament questionnaire. Poster presented at the 2001 Biennial meeting of the Society of Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN.
(2006). Callous-unemotional traits in a community sample of adolescents. Assessment, 13, 454–469.
(1998). Cognitive impairment and its relationship to psychopathic tendencies in children with emotional and behavioral difficulties. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26, 511–519.
(2006). A dual-deficit model of psychopathy. In , Handbook of psychopathy (pp. 14–34). New York: Guilford.
(2004). Inventory of Callous-unemotional traits. Unpublished rating scale, University of New Orleans.
(2001). Psychopathic traits and conduct problems in community and clinic-referred samples of children: Further development of the Psychopathy Screening Device. Psychological Assessment, 12, 382–393.
(2003). Callous-unemotional traits and developmental pathways to severe conduct problems. Developmental Psychology, 39, 246–260.
(2006). Current perspectives on conduct disorder. Current Psychiatry Reports, 8, 59–72.
(2004). Temperament and developmental pathways to conduct problems. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 54–68.
(2008). Research review: The importance of callous-unemotional traits for developmental models of aggressive and antisocial behavior. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 359–375.
(1957). A study of anxiety in the sociopathic personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 55, 6–10.
(1995). The antisocial personalities. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
(1996). Reward dominance: Associations with anxiety, conduct problems, and psychopathy in children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 24, 223–240.
(2007). Getting to the heart of psychopathy. In H. Herve J. C. YuilleEds., The psychopath: Theory, research, and social implications (pp. 207–252). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
(1993). Reflectivity and learning from aversive events: Toward a psychological mechanism for the syndromes of disinhibition. Psychological Review, 100, 716–736.
(2003). Selective attention and executive functions deficits among criminal psychopaths. Aggressive Behavior, 29, 393–405.
(2010). Assessing the affective features of psychopathy in adolescents: Further validation of the Inventory of Callous and Unemotional Traits. Assessment, 17, 44–57.
(2012 ). A performance-based measure of temperamental reactivity and self-regulation in adolescents. Manuscript submitted for publication.2000). Temperament and personality: Origins and outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 122–135.
(2006). Psychopathy in children and adolescents. In , Handbook of psychopathy (pp. 133–155). New York, NY: Guilford.
(2010). Affect 4.0: A free software package for implementing psychological and psychophysiological experiments. Experimental Psychology, 57, 36–45.
(2010). Development and tests of short versions of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory and the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Child Version. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 26, 122–128.
(