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Pathways of Psychopathic Traits to Aggression Through Affective Correlates Olivia C The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Master's Theses Fall 12-2018 Pathways of Psychopathic Traits to Aggression Through Affective Correlates Olivia C. Preston University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Preston, Olivia C., "Pathways of Psychopathic Traits to Aggression Through Affective Correlates" (2018). Master's Theses. 585. https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/585 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PATHWAYS OF PSYCHOPATHIC TRAITS TO AGGRESSION THROUGH AFFECTIVE CORRELATES by Olivia C. Preston A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School, the College of Education and Human Sciences and the School of Psychology at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved by: Dr. Joye C. Anestis, Committee Chair Dr. Michael D. Anestis, Committee Member Dr. Nora E. Charles, Committee Member ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ Dr. Joye C. Anestis Dr. D. Joe Olmi Dr. Karen S. Coats Committee Chair Director of School Dean of the Graduate School December 2018 COPYRIGHT BY Olivia C. Preston 2018 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT This thesis project examines the roles of empathy facets and emotion dysregulation in the relationship between psychopathic personality traits and aggression within an undergraduate sample. The project addresses three gaps in research – how psychopathic personality traits relate to empathy facets from a recently developed measure of empathy (Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy [ACME]; Vachon & Lynam, 2016); how psychopathic traits indirectly affect aggression functions (i.e., reactive, proactive) through empathy facets; and how emotion regulation contributes to these relations, above and beyond empathy. The sample was comprised of 368 university students. Findings indicated that largely all psychopathic traits were negatively related to empathy; however, the traits diverged in association to emotion dysregulation. Path modeling indicated that impulsive-antisocial psychopathic traits exerted positive indirect effects on proactive and reactive aggression through different affective correlates (i.e., empathy, emotion dysregulation, respectively). Similarly, interpersonal-affective traits had indirect effects through affective correlates, but with some differential implications for increased proactive aggression through empathy and decreased reactive aggression through level of emotion dysregulation. In all, this study contributes to further conceptualization of affective correlates of psychopathic traits and towards understanding the contributions of empathy and emotion regulation to aggression in psychopathy. This understanding may potentially inform efforts to reduce aggression among individuals with varying levels of psychopathic traits. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my greatest appreciation to my thesis committee chair and major professor, Dr. Joye Anestis, for her continued guidance, support, patience, and encouragement. This mentorship was integral to completing this study and thesis document. I also would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Nora Charles and Dr. Michael Anestis, for their guidance and support. iii DEDICATION I dedicate this work to all those who supported and encouraged me during my education, including my parents, brother, friends, and four-legged family members. I also want to extend my gratitude to my friends within the clinical psychology program at USM, who have been incredible sources of support and understanding during my time in graduate school. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................ ix CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 Psychopathy and Aggression .......................................................................................... 1 The Role of Empathy ...................................................................................................... 4 The Role of Emotion Regulation .................................................................................... 8 The Current Study ........................................................................................................... 9 Hypotheses ................................................................................................................ 10 CHAPTER II - METHOD ................................................................................................ 12 Participants .................................................................................................................... 12 Measures ....................................................................................................................... 13 Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised ........................................................... 13 Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy ......................................................... 13 Reactive and Proactive Aggression Questionnaire ................................................... 14 Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale .............................................................. 14 Procedure ...................................................................................................................... 15 v Data Analytic Procedure ............................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER III - RESULTS ............................................................................................... 17 Correlations ................................................................................................................... 17 Path Models Testing Indirect Effects ............................................................................ 19 Indirect Effects via ACME Facet Scores Model ....................................................... 19 Indirect Effects via ACME Total Score Model ........................................................ 19 Indirect Effects via DERS Total Score Model .......................................................... 20 Indirect Effects via ACME and DERS Total Scores Model ..................................... 20 Model Comparisons ...................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER IV – DISCUSSION........................................................................................ 26 The Roles of Empathy and Emotion Dysregulation ..................................................... 26 Clarifying Findings on Empathy Facets and Indirect Effects ....................................... 29 Broad Considerations for Psychopathy ......................................................................... 31 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 33 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 34 APPENDIX A IRB Approval Letter ................................................................................. 35 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 36 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Descriptive Statistics and Zero-Order Relations for Study Variables ................. 18 Table 2 Direct and Indirect Effect Estimates in the ACME Empathy Models ................. 21 Table 3 Direct and Indirect Effect Estimates in the DERS Total Score Model and the ACME and DERS Total Scores Model ............................................................................ 22 Table 4 Fit Indices for Models 1-4 ................................................................................... 24 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 Path model depicting standardized beta weights of PPI-R traits to RPQ Aggression Via ACME and DERS Total Scores .............................................................. 23 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS PPI-R Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised FD Fearless Dominance SCI Self-Centered Impulsivity CH Coldheartedness ACME Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy ACME COG ACME Cognitive Empathy ACME RES ACME Affective Resonance ACME DIS ACME Affective Dissonance DERS Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale RPQ Reactive and Proactive Aggression Questionnaire ix CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION Psychopathic personality traits are linked to both empathy deficits (Hare & Neumann, 2008; Lykken, 1995) and increased aggression (Porter, Woodworth, & Black, 2016). Although
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