Psychopathy Essay -- Psychology, Psychopaths

Psychopathy is a topic of extreme interest among the psychological community and stimulates wide debate on its various aspects. There have been many studies attempting to define and measure psychopathy (e.g. Levenson, Kiehl & Fitzpatrick, 1995), but it is commonly thought to be a combination of specific traits and behaviors (Lilienfeld & Arkowitz, 2007). Psychopaths commonly have many socially unattractive traits such as callousness and insincerity (Snowden & Gray, 2011), however the trait that this report will concentrate on is impulsivity. Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) (Hare, 1980, as cited in Bartol, 1999) and Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) (Hare, 1991, as cited in Bartol) are widely recognised as a reliable method of measuring male psychopathy in criminal populations (Bartol). The PCL-R is a twenty-item checklist that is recognised to distinguish three areas of psychopathic traits: interpersonal deficits (how they interact with others); affective deficits (lack of feelings or emotion); and impulsive and criminal behavior (Lilienfeld & Arkowitz, 2007). Arguments have emerged regarding the ability of the PCL-R to differentiate between those who have extreme mental disorders that may be affecting results, and those who don’t (Howard, 1990, as cited in Bartol). Levenson, Kiehl and Fitzpatrick (1995) believed the capability to measure psychopathy in a non-institutionalised population would be of great interest. Using the PCL as a model, Levenson et al created a 26 item, self-report, questionnaire. Karpman (1948, as cited in Levenson et al, 1995) suggested the need for a distinction between primary psychopaths (manipulative and deceitful traits) and secondary psychopaths (extreme impulsivity and anxiety, resulting fro... ...the relationship between impulsivity and psychopathy among a university population. Our hypothesis was that impulsivity would be positively correlated with secondary psychopathy. Drawing from Snowden and Gray’s (2011) study, evidence shows that impulsivity was significantly correlated to secondary psychopaths in a criminal population. Similar results are expected in our study as Snowden and Gray used the PCL-R to measure psychopathy, which was used as a model to form the LSRP we used to measure psychopathy in our population. Furthermore we will also be using the same measure of impulsivity (BIS). We expect that the LSRP and BIS will be successful in measuring the relationship between psychopathy and impulsivity in non-institutionalised populations and in line with Snowden and Gray we expect impulsivity to only slightly, if at all, correlate to primary psychopathy.