Psychopathy, criminogenic cognitions and emotional responses to affective stimuli among male adult offenders

IF 1.1 4区医学 Q3 CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health Pub Date : 2024-09-04 DOI:10.1002/cbm.2351

Steluța Manole, Violeta Enea

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Abstract

Background

Previous research has consistently shown value in studying emotion processing with psychopathy, but the relative effect of aural and visual stimulation has hardly been considered.

Aims

Our aims were to (1) compare reaction time and self-rated valence ((un)pleasantness), arousal and sense of being dominated by affective sounds or visual images among offenders with and without psychopathy (=/>26) on the psychopathy check-list revised; (2) investigate any associations, controlling for social desirability and depression; (3) explore the possible mediating effect of criminogenic cognitions on any relationships between psychopathy and emotional responses to affective stimuli.

Methods

Professional educators invited all male offenders serving semi-open custody sentences in one prison to participate. After a semi structured interview to assess psychopathy, they self-reported on criminogenic cognition, depression and social desirability scales, before a computer task using standardised human and animal sounds and images. Using the self-assessment manikin, participants rated the emotional valence, arousal and dominance levels when pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sounds or images were presented.

Results

About one in three prisoners completed all the ratings—120 men, of mean age 38.8 years (SD = 11.06). All had shorter reaction times to sounds than images. Offenders with high affective-interpersonal factor scores rated all types of sounds as less pleasant. Men with high psychopathy scores took longer to respond to unpleasant images than those with lower scores. There was a positive relationship between psychopathy factors and criminogenic cognitions and the external locus of criminogenic cognitions mediated the relationship between psychopathy facets and emotional responses of valence to pleasant sounds.

Conclusion

Our findings confirm the potential importance of emotional reactions to sounds as well as images among men with psychopathy. Given the shorter reaction times to sounds, in real life sounds could prove more provocative than images. While only small differences emerged between men above and below the PCL-R threshold, indications from facet analyses suggest that further study of sound stimuli could enhance the understanding of emotional response differences to inform interventions. Future research in this area should focus on human-related stimuli and add alexithymia measures.

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男性成年罪犯的变态心理、犯罪认知和对情感刺激的情绪反应。

研究背景以往的研究一直表明，研究心理变态的情绪处理很有价值，但听觉和视觉刺激的相对效果却几乎没有被考虑过。目的：我们的目的是：（1）比较心理变态检查表修订版上有心理变态和没有心理变态（=/>26）的罪犯的反应时间和自评情绪（（不）愉快度）、唤醒和被情感声音或视觉图像支配的感觉；（2）在控制社会宜人性和抑郁的情况下，调查任何关联；（3）探索犯罪认知对心理变态和对情感刺激的情绪反应之间任何关系的可能中介效应：方法：专业教育工作者邀请一所监狱的所有半开放式监管服刑的男性罪犯参加。在进行半结构化访谈以评估心理变态后，他们对犯罪认知、抑郁和社会可取性量表进行自我报告，然后使用标准化的人类和动物声音和图像进行计算机任务。使用自我评估人体模型，当呈现出令人愉悦、令人不悦和中性的声音或图像时，参与者对情绪价值、唤醒和支配水平进行评分：结果：大约三分之一的囚犯完成了所有评分--120 名男性，平均年龄 38.8 岁（SD = 11.06）。所有囚犯对声音的反应时间均短于对图像的反应时间。情感-人际因素得分较高的犯人对所有类型的声音的评分都较低。心理变态得分高的男性对不愉快图像的反应时间比得分低的男性长。心理变态因素与犯罪认知之间存在正相关，而犯罪认知的外部位置在心理变态因素与对悦耳声音的情绪反应之间起着中介作用：我们的研究结果证实了精神变态男性对声音和图像的情绪反应的潜在重要性。鉴于声音的反应时间较短，在现实生活中，声音可能比图像更具煽动性。虽然高于和低于 PCL-R 临界值的男性之间只有很小的差异，但是面分析表明，对声音刺激的进一步研究可以加深对情绪反应差异的理解，从而为干预措施提供依据。今后这方面的研究应侧重于与人类相关的刺激，并增加情感障碍测量。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health Multiple-

CiteScore

1.60

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0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Criminal Behaviour & Mental Health – CBMH – aims to publish original material on any aspect of the relationship between mental state and criminal behaviour. Thus, we are interested in mental mechanisms associated with offending, regardless of whether the individual concerned has a mental disorder or not. We are interested in factors that influence such relationships, and particularly welcome studies about pathways into and out of crime. These will include studies of normal and abnormal development, of mental disorder and how that may lead to offending for a subgroup of sufferers, together with information about factors which mediate such a relationship.