Economic decision-making in psychopathy: A comparison with ventromedial prefrontal lesion patients

Psychopathy, which is characterized by a constellation of antisocial behavioral traits, may be subdivided on the basis of etiology: “primary” (low-anxious) psychopathy is viewed as a direct consequence of some core intrinsic deficit, whereas “secondary” (high-anxious) psychopathy is viewed as an indirect consequence of environmental factors or other psychopathology. Theories on the neurobiology of psychopathy have targeted dysfunction within ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) as a putative mechanism, yet the relationship between vmPFC function and psychopathy subtype has not been fully explored. In this study, we administered two laboratory decision-making tasks (the Ultimatum Game and the Dictator Game) to a group of prisoners (n=47) to determine whether the different subtypes of psychopathy (primary vs. secondary) are associated with characteristic patterns of economic decision-making, and furthermore, whether either subtype exhibits similar performance to patients with vmPFC lesions. Comparing primary psychopaths (n=6) to secondary psychopaths (n=6) and non-psychopaths (n=22), we found that primary psychopathy was associated with significantly lower acceptance rates of unfair Ultimatum offers and lower offer amounts in the Dictator Game. Moreover, primary psychopaths were quantitatively similar to vmPFC lesion patients in their response patterns. These results support the purported connection between psychopathy and vmPFC dysfunction, bolster the distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy, and demonstrate the utility of laboratory economic decision-making tests in differentiating clinical subgroups

Utilitarian moral judgment in psychopathy

Psychopathic behavior is characteristically amoral, but to date research studies have largely failed to identify any systematic differences in moral judgment capability between psychopaths and non-psychopaths. In this study, we investigate whether significant differences in moral judgment emerge when taking into account the phenotypic heterogeneity of the disorder through a well-validated distinction between psychopathic subtypes. Three groups of incarcerated participants [low-anxious psychopaths (n 1⁄4 12), high-anxious psychopaths (n 1⁄4 12) and non-psychopaths (n 1⁄4 24)] completed a moral judgment test involving hypothet- ical dilemmas. The moral dilemmas featured personal (i.e. involving direct physical harm) or impersonal (i.e. involving indirect or remote harm) actions. Compared to non-psychopaths, both groups of psychopaths were significantly more likely to endorse the impersonal actions. However, only the low-anxious psychopaths were significantly more likely to endorse the personal harms when commission of the harm would maximize aggregate welfare the utilitarian choice. High-anxious psychopaths and non-psychopaths did not significantly differ in their personal moral judgments. These results provide novel laboratory evidence of abnormal moral judgment in psychopaths, as well as additional support for the importance of considering psychopathic subtypes

Revisiting borderline personality disorder as a female expression of psychopathy: a facet level analysis and meta-analysis

Epidemiological and clinical evidence indicates gender differences in the rates of many forms of psychopathology. Understanding these differences is crucial to continued construct development and the advancement and implementation of primary, secondary and tertiary interventions across groups. Of particular interest is how psychopathology may manifest differently based on gender. A unique illustration of this is found in the relationship between borderline personality disorder (BPD) and psychopathic traits. Research suggests gender differences in relationships between psychopathic traits and BPD such that women but not men scoring high on both the interpersonal-affective (F1) and impulsive-antisocial (F2) features of psychopathy display higher levels of BPD. Here, we use hierarchical regression to investigate and extend these findings by examining distinct facets of F1 (interpersonal versus affective) and F2 (impulsive lifestyle and antisocial) across two community dwelling samples with recent histories of violence and/or drug use (N=467, 34% women; N=319, 42% women). Adjusting for demographic factors and other facets, we find that antisocial traits are a stronger correlate of BPD in women than men. This effect is further moderated by interpersonal traits such that antisocial traits are most strongly related to BPD at high versus low levels of interpersonal traits in women, with the opposite being the case in men. In addition, we conduct a meta-analysis of the currently available literature. We are able to show that the gendered effect at the psychopathy factor level is likely small, that there is heterogeneity across study results, and that measurement technique (e.g., interview vs. self-report) may impact effect strength. These results suggest distinct manifestations of psychopathic traits in women, provide a more fine-grained understanding of the relationship between gender, psychopathy, and BPD, and provide directions for further research

Explicating the graduate experience: Developing and testing integrated frameworks, assessing and developing methodologies, and engaging in applied work

Research into the personal experiences of graduate students and how or whether these factors impact student success, while insightful, typically has numerous limitations including studying experiences in isolation as well as definitional and methodological issues. Here, we directly address these limitations while simultaneously leveraging data-driven insights to improve the graduate experience. Specifically, in collaboration with the University of Illinois’ College of Engineering (CoE) Graduate Program we: 1) developed and tested novel overarching frameworks explicating the graduate experience and graduate success by elucidating links between: degree progress and productivity, mental and physical health, advisor/mentor relationships, social support, and identity (i.e., international/domestic students and gender); 2) investigated and addressed definitional and methodological limitations found in prior studies on mentor-mentee and/or advisor-advisee relationships in graduate students; and 3) used our data and aims 1 and 2 to assist the CoE in more formally assessing graduate student concerns including anxiety, depression, and advisor-advisee relationships - and provided initial guidance regarding these areas.LimitedAuthor requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD syste

A Brief Assessment Tool for Investigating Facets of Moral Judgment from Realistic Vignettes

Humans make moral judgments every day, and research demonstrates that these evaluations are based on a host of related event features (e.g., harm, legality). In order to acquire systematic data on how moral judgments are made, our assessments need to be expanded to include real-life, ecologically valid stimuli that take into account the numerous event features that are known to influence moral judgment. To facilitate this, Knutson et al. (in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5(4), 378–384, 2010) developed vignettes based on real-life episodic memories rated concurrently on key moral features; however, the method is time intensive (~1.4–3.4 h) and the stimuli and ratings require further validation and characterization. The present study addresses these limitations by: (i) validating three short subsets of these vignettes (39 per subset) that are time-efficient (10–25 min per subset) yet representative of the ratings and factor structure of the full set, (ii) norming ratings of moral features in a larger sample (total N = 661, each subset N = ~220 vs. Knutson et al. N = 30), (iii) examining the generalizability of the original factor structure by replicating it in a larger sample across vignette subsets, sex, and political ideology, and (iv) using latent profile analysis to empirically characterize vignette groupings based on event feature ratings profiles and vignette content. This study therefore provides researchers with a core battery of well-characterized and realistic vignettes, concurrently rated on key moral features that can be administered in a brief, time-efficient manner to advance research on the nature of moral judgment