Latest research abstracts
by Robert D. Hare, Ph.D. (Reproduced with permission. © 2007 Psychology Today All Rights Reserved.) (Re-added 2017 due to website glitch) Jeffrey Dahmer. Ted Bundy. Hannibal Lecter. These are the psychopaths whose stunning lack of conscience we see in the movies and in tabloids. Yet, as this report makes abundantly clear, these predators, both … Read more
Written by Ellen Tansony and the Research Committee Past research has reported that individuals high in psychopathic traits tend to form atypical social relationships with others. Those high in psychopathic traits tend to have shorter relationships with friends and significant others, and have placed less value on long-term relationships. Despite these findings, little research has … Read more
Written by Dr. Adelle Forth and the Research Committee What might be an effective intervention approach with children who exhibit psychopathic-like features? Kochanska and colleagues (2013) have been focusing on callous-unemotional (CU) features, which include low levels of guilt and empathy, disregard for rules, shallow emotions, and fearlessness. CU features in children are predictive of … Read more
Written by Sandra Michels and the Research Committee Hamilton, Hiatt-Racer, and Newman (2015) developed a new theory of psychopathy by expanding on Baskin-Sommers et al.‘s attention bottleneck theory and Newman’s response modulation hypothesis, which are theories that predict that psychopathic traits are caused by attention processing deficits. The new theory is basically an expansion of … Read more
Written by Alicia Spidel and the Research Committee Introduction Despite the increased representation of female youth in the forensic system they are a strikingly under-studied population. To better understand this population 145 young female offenders who had committed a violent offense were assessed for psychopathic traits, specific motivations (instrumental vs. reactive) for the crime, and … Read more
Written by Sandra Michels and the Research Committee Blair (2005) has stated that the empathy system is comprised of three main neural networks, which drive emotional empathy, cognitive empathy and motor empathy. The neural networks can work partially alone, but an empathic response typically involves all three neural networks working together. Emotional empathy is an … Read more
