An exploration of the relationship between criminal cognitions and psychopathy in a civil psychiatric sample.
The relationship between psychopathy and thinking styles that support and maintain a criminal lifestyle is examined using the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV; Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995) and the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS; Walters, 1995). These measures are administered to a sample of 75 patients recruited from a state psychiatric hospital in the northeastern United States. Correlational analyses indicate that the PICTS General Criminal Thinking, Self-Assertion/Deception factor scale, and several criminal thinking style scales are significantly related to psychopathy. The significantly associated criminal thinking scales include Entitlement (r = .44) and Superoptimism (r = .43) with Factors 1 and 2 of the PCL:SV, respectively. Multiple regression analyses reveal that these two criminal thinking scales are the strongest predictors of Factors 1 and 2 of the PCL:SV, respectively. Implications for the cognitive basis of the construct of psychopathy, as well as potential treatment interventions, are discussed.
Magyar
Melissa
M
Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-4235, USA. psymsm36@neo.tamu.edu
Carr
W Amory
WA
Rosenfeld
Barry
B
Rotter
Merrill
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D057189:Checklist; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D003417:Criminal Psychology; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006783:Hospitals, State; D006801:Humans; D008257:Machiavellianism; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013850:Thinking; D055815:Young Adult