Gender differences in contributions of emotion to psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder

doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2008.09.004

Clinical Psychology Review

Volume 28, Issue 8, December 2008, Pages 1472-1484

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2008.09.004 Get rights and content

Abstract

Traditional conceptualizations of psychopathy highlight the importance of affective features as they relate to social deviance; however, little empirical research has actually investigated specific roles of emotion and emotion processing with respect to antisocial conduct. Antisocial personality disorder (APD), prevalent in forensic populations, is commonly associated with psychopathy despite the notable omission of such core affective features in its diagnosis. In this paper, we review the empirical literature on the contribution of emotion to psychopathy and APD, highlighting in particular research on emotion processing and various facets of emotional expression, including empathy and alexithymia. Research findings are discussed on gender differences in emotional functioning and their likely effects on the assessment of psychopathy and APD. Given the known gender differences in the expressions of emotion, the article concludes with recommendations to bridge research for different offender groups, including psychopathy and APD.

Section snippets

Conceptualization of psychopathy and its measurement

Hervey Cleckley (1941) characterized the prototypic psychopath in his seminal work, The Mask of Sanity. Presenting 16 specific criteria, Cleckley emphasized personality features of the syndrome as its core, with behavioral features being of lesser importance. Since this influential portrayal, researchers have attempted to produce measures of psychopathy that adequately capture the essence of Cleckley's description. Of these assessment tools, Hare, 1980, Hare, 1991, Hare, 2003 developed what is

Psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder

APD is the one personality disorder most commonly associated with psychopathy. In fact, DSM-IV-TR (APA, 2000, p. 702) uses the two terms interchangeably, stating that the pattern of behaviors that typifies APD “has also been referred to as psychopathy, sociopathy, or dissocial personality disorder.” Researchers have criticized the DSM-IV-TR's readiness to equate the two constructs when empirical evidence indicates that the constructs are very different.

Historically, the diagnosis of APD was

Gender differences in psychopathy

The volumes of research on psychopathy have almost exclusively focused on male offenders. While both Cleckley (1941) and Hare (1993) described case studies of female psychopaths that illustrate the construct's applicability to women, research has only shifted its focus to include female psychopathy in the last ten years. However, it remains unclear whether the construct or its assessment measures must be modified when applied to female offenders (Nicholls & Petrila, 2005). Stated otherwise,

Affective features of psychopathy

As previously noted, affective deficits are often viewed as the core characteristics of psychopathy and are associated with criminal, often violent, behaviors (e.g., Blair, 1995, Lykken, 1995). Affective features are operationalized with four PCL-R items: (a) lack of remorse or guilt, (b) shallow affect, (c) callousness and lack of empathy, and (d) failure to accept responsibility for one's actions. These four items characterize deficiencies that psychopathic individuals display with respect to

Conclusions and future directions

Research suggests that the role of emotion processing and emotional expression varies substantially between male and female offenders, particularly between those classified as psychopathic and those diagnosed with APD. Despite evidence of a construct drift between psychopathy and current conceptualizations of APD (Hare, 1996), few research studies have investigated competing hypotheses between psychopathic offenders and offenders with only APD, particularly with respect to affective features

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Nathan Gillard for his thoughtful comments in preparing this review paper.

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Previous research also strongly suggests gender differences exist in average levels of psychopathic traits, with male samples typically scoring higher than females (see Cale & Lilienfeld, 2002). Research also suggests, albeit less consistently, that there may be gender differences in some of the correlates of psychopathy and the salience of environmental etiological factors (Cale & Lilienfeld, 2002; Colins, Fanti, Salekin, & Andershed, 2017; Miller, Watts, & Jones, 2011; Rogstad & Rogers, 2008). Furthermore, research directly examining the relationship between HR and psychopathy measured continuously, in a nationally representative sample, found that controlling for age, gender, and race fully attenuated the association (Kavish, Fu, et al., 2018); however, research on HR reactivity has not provided evidence for gender differences (see Kelly, Tyrka, Anderson, Price, & Carpenter, 2008).
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Gender differences in contributions of emotion to psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder

Abstract

Section snippets

Conceptualization of psychopathy and its measurement

Psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder

Gender differences in psychopathy

Affective features of psychopathy

Conclusions and future directions

Acknowledgement

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

Cognition

Personality and Individual Differences

Clinical Psychology Review

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

International Journal of Law and Psychiatry

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Journal of Adolescence

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

Personality and Individual Differences

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

Clinical Psychology Review

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2nd ed.)

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed.)

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.)

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; text revision)

Applying a cognitive neuroscience perspective to the disorder of psychopathy

Development and Psychopathology

The psychopathic individual: A lack of responsiveness to distress cues?

Psychophysiology

Turning a deaf ear to fear: Impaired recognition of vocal affect in psychopathic individuals

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

A multigroup item response theory analysis of the Psychopathy Checklist — Revised

Psychological Assessment

The prediction of violent and nonviolent criminal behavior in a methadone maintenance population

Journal of Personality Disorders

Gaze patterns when looking at emotional pictures: Motivationally biased attention

Motivation and Emotion

The mask of sanity

The measurement of concern about victims: Empathy, victim advocacy and the Victim Concern Scale (VCS)

Legal and Criminological Psychology

Empathy in conduct-disordered and comparison youth

Developmental Psychology

Psychopathy and antisocial behaviour: Clarifying the links. Keynote address presented at the International Conference Violence risk assessment and management: Bringing science and practice closer together

Refining the construct of psychopathy: Towards a hierarchical model

Psychological Assessment

Measuring differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Anomalous perceptual asymmetries for negative emotional stimuli in the psychopath

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Facial emotion processing in criminal psychopathy

British Journal of Psychiatry

Does treatment really make psychopaths worse? A review of the evidence

Journal of Personality Disorders

Youth psychopathy and criminal recidivism: A meta-analysis of the psychopathy checklist measures

Law and Human Behavior

Critical issues in the study of empathy

Victim empathy, social self-esteem, and psychopathy in rapists

Sexual Abuse: Journal of Research and Treatment

Figuring out la femme fatale: Conceptual and assessment issues concerning psychopathy in females

Behavioral Sciences and the Law

Review of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist — Revised

Gender and antisocial behavior

Disinhibitory psychopathology: A new perspective and model for research

Psychological Review

The PCL-R and gender

European Journal of Psychological Assessment

The Hare Psychopathy Checklist — Revised

Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us

Psychopathy: A clinical construct whose time has come

Criminal Justice and Behavior

Technical manual for the Revised Psychopathy Checklist

Psychopathy and the DSM-IV criteria for antisocial personality disorder

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

The PCL-R assessment of psychopathy: Development, structural properties, and new directions

Factor structure of the Psychopathy Checklist

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology