Are all psychopathic individuals low-anxious?

Area of Science:

• Forensic Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Psychopathology

Background:

• Theorists commonly posit that primary psychopathy is characterized by low anxiety and neurotic conflict.
• This assumption has guided research and clinical understanding of psychopathic individuals.
• However, empirical evidence directly examining this relationship requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the empirical relationship between psychopathy and various facets of anxiety.
• To test the hypothesis that psychopathic individuals exhibit low levels of anxiety, neuroticism, and fear.
• To examine these relationships within a sample of incarcerated men.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R) to assess psychopathy.
• Employed multiple self-report measures to capture different dimensions of anxiety, including neuroticism, general anxiety, and fear.
• Analyzed data from 104 Caucasian and 113 African American incarcerated men.

Main Results:

• Zero-order, semipartial, and point-biserial correlation analyses were conducted.
• Results indicated that PCL-R assessed psychopathy and the anxiety construct were essentially independent.
• No significant association was found between psychopathy and measures of anxiety, neuroticism, or fear.

Conclusions:

• The findings challenge the traditional theoretical assumption of low anxiety in all psychopathic individuals.
• The independence suggests that either the assumption is incorrect or the PCL-R may not fully capture primary psychopathy.
• Further research is warranted to clarify the complex interplay between psychopathy and anxiety.