Psychology 2032A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Psychopathic Personality Inventory, Amygdala, Prison

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2032A/B
• Professor: Mc Keown

Document Summary

Psychopathy: a personality disorder defined by a collection of interpersonal, affective, and behavioural characteristics, including manipulation, lack of remorse/empathy, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviours, descriptions of psychopathy exist in most cultures. Assessment: hare"s psychopathy checklist-revised, most popular method of assessing psychopathy in adults, 20 item scale, assesses interpersonal (ex. Scores range from 0-40: 30 or higher =psychopath, currently psychopathy is a 2 factor model, factor 1: interpersonal, affective traits, glibness/superficial cahrm, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, conning/manipulative, callousness, lack of empathy. Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric) Failure to accept responsibility for their own actions: factor 2: unstable and socially deviant traits, need for stimulation/prone to boredom, parasitic lifestyle, poor behavioural control, early behaviour problems, revocation of conditional release. Forensic use of psychopathy: court cases involving youth offenders that included testimony about psychopathy resulted in more severe dispositions. Instrumental: callous, calculated, non reactive in nature, targeted at strangers.