Childhood Psychopathic Features and Aggression: A Test of the Fearlessness Hypothesis Pubblico
Sylvers, Patrick D (2010)
Abstract
Abstract
Childhood Psychopathic Features and Aggression: A Test of the
Fearlessness Hypothesis
By Patrick D. Sylvers
This study sought to test the fearlessness hypothesis (Lykken,
1957/1995) of psychopathy
in an at-risk sample of 88 pre-adolescent children (ages 7 - 11).
The sample consisted
primarily of Caucasian (45%) and African American (44%) children.
Psychopathy was
measured using combined child- and parent-reported Antisocial
Process Screening
Device (APSD; Frick & Hare, 2001) scores. Emotion processing
was evaluated at three
levels, including: preattentive emotion recognition, explicit
emotion recognition, and fear
conditioning. As the nature of the explicit fear recognition
deficits in children with
psychopathic traits is controversial (e.g., Dadds et al., 2008),
this study added to the
literature by including a pre-attentive fear recognition measure.
Results indicated that
APSD callous unemotional factor scores, characterized by the
affective deficits
associated with psychopathy, predicted preattentive fear and
disgust processing deficits.
However, the pre-attentive fear processing deficits were observed
in Caucasian, but not
African American, children. APSD total scores and
impulsivity/conduct problems factor
scores predicted explicit fear recognition deficits. Moreover, the
interaction of aggression
and psychopathy factor scores predicted preattentive and explicit
fear recognition
deficits. In terms of fear conditioning deficits, results indicated
that the cardiac-related
sympathetic nervous system activation was characteristic of APSD
callous unemotional
factor scores when anticipating an aversive stimulus in African
American, but not
Caucasian, children. The implications of these findings, as well as
future directions for
research, are discussed.
Childhood Psychopathic Features and Aggression: A Test of the
Fearlessness Hypothesis
By
Patrick D. Sylvers
B.S., University of Washington, 2002
Advisors: Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D. and Patricia A. Brennan,
Ph.D.
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the
James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in Clinical Psychology
2010
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................1
Psychopathy in
Adults........................................................................................2
Psychopathy in
Children....................................................................................3
The Fearlessness
Hypothesis.............................................................................7
Deficient Fear Conditioning in
Children.........................................................10
Fear Recognition Deficits in
Children.............................................................11
Child Psychopathy and
Aggression..................................................................15
Childhood Psychopathy and Disruptive Behavior
Disorders..........................17
Child Psychopathy and
Parenting....................................................................18
The Present
Study........................................................................................................20
Hypotheses.......................................................................................................22
Method.............................................................................................................23
Procedure........................................................................................................31
Data
Analysis...................................................................................................33
Results.........................................................................................................................35
Discussion...................................................................................................................39
Limitations..................................................................................................................45
Implications................................................................................................................47
References..................................................................................................................50
Tables.........................................................................................................................67
Figures........................................................................................................................81
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