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SURVIVORS OF PSYCHOPATHS: AN INVESTIGATION OF VICTIMIZATION EXPERIENCES, COPING, AND SOCIAL SUPPORT A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts by Melissa J. L. Pagliaro Department of Psychology Carleton University May 2009 ©2009 Melissa J. L. Pagliaro Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-58435-4 Our We Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-58435-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lntemet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Abstract Psychopathy research neglects victimcentric studies. Hypotheses on psychological consequences, deception, distress predictors, psychopathy severity, coping, and social support were tested. Adult survivors of psychopaths (N= 490-707) recruited from support groups and professional referrals completed web-based questionnaires. Survivors experienced physiological, psychological, and interpersonal consequences, but victim status affected distress similarly. Delayed-path psychopaths were closely and frequently involved with victims, but were similar to shortcut-path psychopaths in psychopathic traits. Distress predictors included closer relationships, frequent exposures, increased physical injury severity, and physically violent crimes. Problem- and avoidance-focused coping and psychopathy severity were associated with increases in distress and decreases in social support. Emotion-focused coping and social support were negatively related to distress. Survivors who used emotion-focused coping techniques had more social support. Knowledge of the victimization experiences of survivors and psychopathic deception could encourage ideas for predictive, preventative, and treatment measures. 11 Acknowledgements First and foremost, my Masters Thesis is dedicated to the hundreds of survivors of psychopaths from all over the world whose courage enabled them to describe their experiences to an unfamiliar yet sympathetic researcher. Like many of you have expressed, it is my hope that this research will benefit others. May this work fulfill its ultimate goals of public awareness of victimization by psychopaths within the community and forensic or criminal institutions, to allow for the healing and recovery of past and present survivors. I would like to extend my thanks to the online maintainers of support groups devoted to survivors of psychopaths and psychopathy researchers who promoted my study. Several academic faculty and administrative professionals were instrumental in the production of this Masters Thesis. To my advisor, Dr. Adelle Forth, one of the leading experts in the field of psychopathy research, thank you for your guidance and support from the brainstorming stage to the final document itself. To Dr. Shelley Brown and Dr. Connie Kristiansen, your advice during my Thesis Proposal "Meeting" were noted, implemented, and well appreciated. Judith Godin, thank you very much for being my content and analysis tutor for Structural Equation Modeling so I could present certain results in a more comprehensive manner. Thanks to Etelle Bourassa and Natalie Pressburger for your friendly smiles and helpfulness with respect to various administrative aspects throughout my career as a graduate student. My appreciation also goes out to Dr. Diana Majury of the Department of Law at Carleton University, my external defense committee member, for her questions and comments during the final presentation of my study. iii Thanks to all my friends and family for being there and understanding the crazy fluctuations of downtime and busyness that come with being a graduate student. Heartfelt thanks particularly go to Miss Fox, my twin in almost everything, who recently graduated with a Masters degree in Forensic Psychology at Carleton University. You truly empathized with my joys and sorrows, in my personal, social, and academic life, during our online conversations and our regular restaurant outings. To both my significant others, Christopher Kafka and Karla Nissle, thank you for being there for me with your practical, emotional, and informational support. For Rockefeller, my service dog with perhaps more crystallized education than most canines on the face of this Earth, thank you for being by my side and alerting me to important sounds as I continuously revised this document. To the three felines that currently rule my household, thank you all for being mischievous, as you reduced my stress levels through making me laugh while I was writing my Thesis. Finally, because I could never conclude any of my publications without some kind of dedication to Her - capitalized on purpose, I devote this work to my beloved Demeter, a feline whose spirit is like the wind, who is always watching over me, and guiding me through hard times. This research was supported by a Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's (#0066-2006- 0920) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. IV Table of Contents Introduction 1 Victimization 3 Psychological Consequences 7 PTSD 7 Depression 8 Other 9 Distress Predictors 9 Victim-offender relationship 10 Frequency of exposure 10 Physical injury severity 10 Type of crime 11 Coping and Social Support 13 Coping and Social Support in Crime Victimization 18 Sexual assault 18 Intimate partner violence 19 Physical or verbal assault 19 All crimes 20 Psychopathy 22 Crimes 24 Recidivism 26 Victim Injury 26 Motives 27 v Deception 28 Victims of Psychopaths 32 Victim Stories 33 William 33 Sydney 34 An empirical study 35 Psychological Consequences 39 Purpose of Current Study 39 Hypotheses 40 Symptoms 40 Hypothesis 1 40 Hypothesis 2 40 Deception 40 Hypothesis 3 42 Hypothesis 4 42 Hypothesis 5 42 Distress Predictors 42 Hypothesis 6 42 Hypothesis 7 42 Hypothesis 8 43 Hypothesis 9 43 Relationships Between Psychopathy Severity, Coping, Social Support, and Distress. 43 Method 45 VI Participants 45 Demographics 45 Materials 50 Informed consent form 50 Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-Ill 50 Questionnaire protocol 52 Impact of Event Scale-Revised 53 Beck Depression Inventory-II 54 Other effects 55 Brief COPE 55 Perceived Support Scale 57 Received Support Scale 58 Debriefing form 59 Design and Procedure 59 Results 60 Data Treatment 60 Survivors' Ratings of Psychopathy 62 Relationships and Experiences 64 Victim-offender relationship 64 Timing of involvement 64 Exposure 65 Harm and violence 65 Impact on health 67 vii Psychological Distress 67 Coping 68 Social Support 68 Checking for Redundancy 70 Data Analyses 72 Symptoms 73 Hypothesis 1 73 Hypothesis 2 77 Deception 77 Hypothesis 3 77 Hypothesis 4 79 Hypothesis 5 82 Distress Predictors 82 Hypothesis 6 82 Hypothesis 7 83 Hypothesis 8 84 Hypothesis 9 84 Relationships Between Psychopathy Severity, Coping, Social Support, and Distress..85 Preliminary analyses 85 Reliability analyses 86 Structural equation modeling 87 Confirmatory factor analyses 90 Revised full model 91 viii Structural equation modeling and correlations 91 Discussion 95 Advantages and Limitations 98 Future Directions 100 Implications and Conclusions 102 References 103 Appendixes 129 IX List of Tables Table 1. Abridged Reproduction of the Stages of Crime-based Victimization Model Developed by Casarez-Levison (1992) 6 Table 2. Common Characteristics of Male Psychopaths in Heterosexual Relationships Extracted from Participants' Interview Responses in the Kirkman (2005) Study 38 Table 3. Ethnicity or Race of Survivors and Psychopaths 45 Table 4. Location, Employment, and Education Status of Survivors 47 Table 5. Referral Sources and Corresponding Website Addresses for Recruited Participants (N = 627) 48 Table 6. Participants' Motives for Participation and Descriptive Examples 49 Table 7. Examples of Items for Each Coping Strategy on the Brief COPE and Corresponding Subscales