Deck 11: Psychopathic Offenders Psychology of Criminal Behaviour

Question 1

All of the following are recommendations that have been made about ways to increase the success of treatment for psychopaths except:

A)using cognitive-behavioural treatments
B)permitting poorly motivated offenders to drop out of treatment
C)giving offenders pharmacological agents that increase amygdala activity
D)targeting deficits in response modulation

Answer 1

permitting poorly motivated offenders to drop out of treatment

Question 2

The use of self-report scales to assess psychopathy is

A)rare because there are no validated self-report assessment tools for psychopathy that exist to date
B)more common than the use of rater-based assessments of psychopathy
C)criticized because psychopaths lie often and have poor insight into their behaviours and emotions
D)only done with young male offenders

Answer 2

criticized because psychopaths lie often and have poor insight into their behaviours and emotions

Question 3

The work of Robert Hare,a leading expert on the assessment of psychopathy,based his work on the conceptualization of the disorder described by:

A)Phillippe Pinel
B)Cesare Lombroso
C)George Partridge
D)Hervey Cleckley

Answer 3

Hervey Cleckley

Question 4

Research on the DSM-5 indicates that the symptoms of psychopathy included in the new version match up with other measures of psychopathy.

Question 5

One of the main challenges of treating psychopathic offenders is preventing them from:

A)lying during assessments
B)influencing other offenders to adopt antisocial beliefs during group therapy
C)dropping out of treatment
D)engaging in physical violence during treatment

Question 6

Results from research on female victims of psychopaths indicate that:

A)they are more likely to be victimized by female psychopaths than male psychopaths
B)psychopaths are more likely to have victims that are strangers than non-psychopaths
C)all victims report being harmed or having their health affected by psychopaths
D)it is rare for psychopaths to engage in economic abuse of victims

Question 7

One type of psychopath that has yet to be studied is the elderly psychopath.

Question 8

To be diagnosed with psychopathy in the new DSM-5,a person must exhibit the following psychopathic-specific traits:

A)Low anxiousness,low withdrawal,and high attention seeking
B)High anxiousness,high withdrawal,and low attention seeking
C)Low boldness,low meanness,and high inhibition
D)High boldness,high meanness,and low inhibition

Question 9

Lykken's (1995) belief that psychopaths are not responsive to punishment and are therefore not motivated to avoid antisocial behaviour upon threat of punishment is referred to as the:

A)specific emotional deficit theory
B)low-fear hypothesis
C)developmental model of psychopathy
D)genetic theory of psychopathy

Question 10

There is a higher prevalence of psychopathy in male offenders than in female offenders.

Question 11

Which assessment instrument has been developed especially for assessing psychopathic traits of those in corporate or management settings?

A)The PCL-R
B)The B-Scan
C)The TriPM
D)The APSD

Question 12

When it comes to understanding the crimes that psychopaths themselves commit,

A)they know what they are doing is legally wrong and morally wrong
B)they do not know what they are doing is legally wrong or morally wrong
C)they know what they are doing is legally wrong,but may not understand if it is morally wrong
D)they may not understand that what they are doing is legally wrong,but they do understand that it is morally wrong.

Question 13

Which of the following statements accurately reflects the cognitive model of psychopathy?

A)Once psychopaths focus their attention,they fail to use information to modify their response or learn to inhibit behaviour
B)Psychopathy results from the failure of parents to instill negative emotions in children when they misbehave
C)Psychopaths are unable to plan ahead and this puts them at a disadvantage,causing them to seek out impulsive and criminal solutions to their problems
D)When people have particular genetic defects or neurological impairments,it prevents them from being able to acquire prosocial behaviours

Question 14

Psychopathy and sociopathy essentially refer to the same disorder because the etiology of their symptoms is the same.

Question 15

A rater-based instrument for the assessment of psychopathy in adults that is considered by some to be the "gold standard" and has been adopted worldwide as the most reliable and valid measure is the:

A)Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised
B)Hare Psychological Symptoms - Revised
C)Hare Personality Inventory - Revised
D)Hare Psychotic Scale - Revised

Question 16

Approximately 10 to 25 percent of adult offenders are psychopaths,while only approximately 1 percent of the general community scores high on psychopathic measures.

Question 17

The most current research indicates that association between psychopathy and recidivism is as follows:

A)increased psychopathy scores in adults and youth are associated with decreased general and violent recidivism including sexual recidivism
B)increased psychopathy scores in adults and youth are associated with increased general and violent recidivism but not sexual recidivism
C)relationship between psychopathy and recidivism is not consistent across studies
D)increased psychopathy scores in adults and youth are associated with increased general,violent,and sexual recidivism

Question 18

In the DSM-5,psychopathy is referred to as:

A)Sociopathy
B)Antisocial Personality Disorder
C)Criminal Personality Disorder
D)Psychosis

Question 19

The consistent finding in the role of genetics and psychopathy is:

A)there is a very strong genetic influence
B)there is a weak genetic influence
C)there is no genetic influence
D)there is a moderate to strong genetic influence

Question 20

A limitation of using neuroimaging procedures to understand psychopathy is:

A)the techniques used to map brain areas are not very precise
B)it promotes the idea that a psychopath's behaviour can never change if it is biologically based
C)psychopaths are able to regulate their brain activity during such procedures if they wish to fool the assessor
D)decreased activation in individual brain areas cannot be automatically associated with abnormal brain function

Question 21

Until recently,psychopathy was assumed to be largely untreatable.

Question 22

There are specific measures used to assess psychopathy in youth that are distinct from the ones used with adults.

Question 23

Describe the recommended characteristics of treatment of adult psychopaths based on the findings of research on treatment of psychopathy.

Question 24

How has the concept of psychopathy evolved over time?

Question 25

If a psychopath suffers from brain impairments that predispose him to commit impulsive violence,should we hold him fully accountable for his behaviour? Describe arguments made in the textbook for and against holding psychopaths responsible for their actions.

Question 26

What is the association between psychopathy and recidivism?

Question 27

The three personality traits identified by Paulus and Williams (2002) as comprising the "dark triad",which are related to socially aversive behaviours,are pessimism,Machiavellianism,and antisociality.

Question 28

When looking at the Risk-Needs-Responsivity model,psychopathy has implications for the risk,needs,and responsivity principles.

Question 29

There seems to be a relatively weak link between psychopathic traits and criminal and aggressive behaviour in adults,adolescents,and children.

Question 30

Discuss major concerns that have been raised with respect to the assessment of psychopathic traits in youth and the research studies that have addressed these issues.

Question 31

Discuss the genetic and neurological basis of psychopathy.

Question 32

Describe how developmental psychologists explain the origins of psychopathy.

Question 33

The Antisocial Process Screening Device (ASPD; Frick and Hare 2001) is a tool that assesses psychopathic traits in adults.

Question 34

Describe how self-report vs.rater-based methods of assessing psychopathy are administered and name some commonly used examples of each type of measure.