The Moderating Effect of Impulsivity on Psychopathy
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i The Moderating Effect of Impulsivity on Psychopathy and Risk-taking in a Community Sample A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by Unnati H. Patel in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology May 2015 ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my mentor, Dr. David DeMatteo, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, immense knowledge of the field, and continuous support of my research. I appreciate the contributions of his time and ideas to make my experience at Drexel University both stimulating and productive. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor. Besides Dave, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis committee, Dr. Jennifer Gallo and Dr. Stephanie Brooks-Holliday, for their encouragement, insightful comments, and for broadening the value of my work. Additionally, I thank the fellow members of the DeMatteo lab: Heidi Strohmaier, Megan Murphy, Casey LaDuke, and Jaymes Fairfax-Columbo for the ever-helpful discussions, quick email responses, and for the moral support they provided over two years. Lastly, I would like to thank my family: my parents, Jagruti and Hemant Patel, and my sister, Reema Patel, for their love and encouragement throughout this process. Without their continual support, this project would not have been possible. iii Table of Contents List of Tables .......................................................................................................................v Abstract .............................................................................................................................. vi 1. Psychopathy .....................................................................................................................1 1.1 Psychopathy and Neuropsychology ...............................................................................4 1.2 Community Psychopathy ...............................................................................................7 1.3 Corporate Psychopathy ................................................................................................11 2. Impulsivity .....................................................................................................................13 2.1 Impulsivity and Neuropsychology ...............................................................................15 2.2 Impulsivity and Psychopathy .......................................................................................16 3. Risk-taking .....................................................................................................................18 4. Current Study .................................................................................................................19 4.1 Hypotheses ...................................................................................................................20 5. Methods..........................................................................................................................21 5.1 Participants ...................................................................................................................21 5.2 Procedures ....................................................................................................................21 5.3 Materials ......................................................................................................................22 5.3.1 Behavioral Measures .................................................................................................22 5.3.2 Self-Report Measures................................................................................................25 6. Statistical Analyses ........................................................................................................27 7. Results ............................................................................................................................29 7.1 Preliminary Analyses ...................................................................................................29 7.2 Hypothesis Testing.......................................................................................................31 iv 7.3 Exploratory Analyses ...................................................................................................33 8. Discussion ......................................................................................................................34 8.1 Limitations ...................................................................................................................36 8.2 Directions and Conclusions .........................................................................................38 List of References ..............................................................................................................40 Appendix A: Demographic Questionnaire.........................................................................48 v List of Tables 1. Correlations for personality and behavioral measures ...................................................52 2. Descriptive statistics for the LSRP and BIS-11 personality measures .........................53 3. Descriptive statistics for the behavioral measures .........................................................54 4. Demographic characteristics of sample .........................................................................55 vi Abstract The Moderating Effect of Impulsivity on Psychopathy and Risk-taking in a Community Sample Unnati H. Patel David DeMatteo, J.D., Ph.D. Psychopathy is a personality disorder comprised of affective (superficial charm, callousness) and behavioral (impulsivity, risk-taking) deficits, along with deficits in interpersonal relations (manipulativeness, grandiosity). Because a majority of the research on psychopathic individuals has been restricted to incarcerated offenders, little is known about community psychopathy and the characteristics associated with it. The construct of impulsivity is considered a core behavioral feature of offender populations, but the relationship between community psychopathy and impulsivity has received limited empirical focus. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap in the literature by examining the relationship among between impulsivity, risk-taking, and psychopathy among community members. Eighty-nine participants were recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete the study. Using several behavioral and self-report measures, participants provided information related to their impulsivity, risk-taking, and psychopathy. Separate multiple regressions were used to analyze whether impulsivity moderates the relationship between psychopathy and risk-taking. Regression results revealed no moderation effect of impulsivity between psychopathy and risk-taking, but correlational analyses suggest the presence of a relationship between psychopathy and trait impulsivity. 1 1: Psychopathy Psychopathy is a widely studied personality disorder that includes traits like callousness, manipulativeness, impulsivity, and recklessness (Lee & Salekin, 2010), and it is considered by some researchers to be the most important clinical construct in the criminal justice system (Hemphill & Hare, 2004). Despite attempts to expand knowledge of the personality disorder, research has remained focused on incarcerated populations. The study of community psychopathy is just now beginning to gain traction as a domain in which psychopathy research can grow. Cleckley’s (1941) conceptualization of psychopathy was the basis of the modern conceptualization of the construct, and he lists 16 characteristics that make up the prototypical psychopath, including superficial charm, lack of remorse, and poor judgment. Many of the characteristics are non-criminal in nature and instead focus on the affective characteristics of the prototypical psychopathic individual. Despite the likeness to antisocial personality disorder (APD), psychopathy is a distinct construct rooted in core personality traits. APD is a clinical diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5 th ed.) (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) linked to violations of social norms, disregard for safety, irresponsibility, and numerous other behavioral features. Estimates of APD in the population range from 0.2% and 3.3% using the diagnostic criteria offered by the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), while the prevalence rate of psychopathy remains around 1% (Hare, 1999). Criticisms of APD have included over-reliance of criminality as criterion for the disorder (Crego & Widiger, 2014). 2 Because psychopathy does not have a clinical basis like APD, it is assessed using measures like Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003). The PCL-R is the most widely used forensic assessment tool for the detection of psychopathy (DeMatteo et al., 2014). The most common interpretation of the PCL-R is based on the two-factor model, which taps into the interpersonal and behavioral aspects of the condition, respectively (Hare, 1991). Cleckley’s influence can be noted in PCL-R. Examples of the Factor 1 aspect include terms such as superficial charm and grandiose sense of self-worth, with Factor 2 features containing terms such as poor behavioral controls and parasitic lifestyle (Hare, 1991). Each of the 20 items is given a score from 0 to 2 with the highest possible score as 40, and a score of 30 is typically considered the cut-off