Psychopathy Essay -- Psychology, Psychopaths

Psychopathy is a topic of total interest among the psychological community and stimulates wide debate on its mingled aspects. There have been many studies attempting to define and appreciate psychopathy (e.g. Levenson, Kiehl & Fitzpatrick, 1995), hardly it is usually 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. H bes Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) (Hare, 1980, as cited in Bartol, 1999) and Psychopathy Checklist rewrite (PCL-R) (Hare, 1991, as cited in Bartol) are widely recognised as a reliable method of measuring male psychopathy in felonious populations (Bartol). The PCL-R is a twenty-item checklist that is recognised to distinguish three areas of psychopathic traits interpersonal deficits (how they move with others) affective deficits (lack of feelings or emotion) and impulsive and criminal behavior (Lilienfeld & Arkowitz, 2007). Arguments have emerged regarding the competency of the PCL-R to differentiate between those who have extreme mental disorders that may be affecting results, and those who dont (Howard, 1990, as cited in Bartol).Levenson, Kiehl and Fitzpatrick (1995) believed the capability to pecker psychopathy in a non-institutionalised population would be of great interest. utilise 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 indirect 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 Grays (2011) stu dy, evidence shows that impulsivity was importantly correlated to secondary psychopaths in a criminal population. Similar results are expected in our study as Snowden and Gray used the PCL-R to value psychopathy, which was used as a model to form the LSRP we used to measure psychopathy in our population. Furthermore we will also be development 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 marge with Snowden and Gray we expect impulsivity to only slightly, if at all, correlate to primary psychopathy.