Aim: Investigate responses of psychopathic individuals to distress cues and threatening/neutral stimuli.
Sample: men serving life for murder/manslaughter. Hare's psychopathy checklist (PCL-R) used to pick 18 psychopaths and 18 non. matched for IQ and ethnicity.
Method: 28 colour slides, 10 practice, 5 distress cues, 5 threatening images, 8 neutral objects. skin conductance activity measured.
Results: psychopaths showed reduced electrodermal responses to distress cues - every thing else the same.
Conclusions: lack of response to distress cues interferes with violence inhibiting mechanism (withdrawalresponse to distress cues). - parents explain to children it's wrong to hurt others.
Comments
No comments have yet been made