Psychopathy and Impulsivity

The relationship between Psychopathy and Impulsivity amongst students taking part in a 100 level psychology course at Victoria University. Numerous studies have been conducted to examine the correlation between psychopathy and impulsivity (e.g. Levenson, Kiehl & Fitzpatrick, 1995; Bartol, 1999; Herpertz et al., 2001; Moeller, Barratt, Dougherty, Schmitz & Swann, 2001; Ray, Poythress, Weir & Rickelm, 2008). Psychopathy includes a set of characteristics such as superficial charm and a high level of intelligence. These are two of the main traits of a psychopath. Psychopaths usually seem to be very outgoing, friendly, alert and can easily get themselves out of trouble as they are very good with words. Cleckley (1976, as cited in Bartol, 1999).

Levenson et al., (1995) developed the Levenson's primary, secondary and anti-social scales as a method of measuring the relationship between primary and secondary psychopathy to pro-social and anti-social behaviour scale. (LSRPS) The primary scale was constructed to assess selfish, manipulative and uncaring act towards other people while the secondary scale was constructed to measures impulsivity and a self-defeating lifestyle. By using the sub scales, it would be easier to identify which level of psychopathy correlated more with impulsivity. The sample consisted of 487 undergraduate Psychology students at the University of California at Davis who participated in this experiment for course credit. After the testing they used a questionnaire which consisted of 30 multiple questions. It was found that the standard deviation for primary psychopathy was 6.86 and for secondary psychopathy were 4.06. The male participants scored much higher than women for the primary psychopathy subscale scoring a total percentage of twenty three. Women only scored a low six percent but when both groups were tested for the secondary psychopathy subscale women were marginally higher. It was found that there were significant patterns of correlation suggesting that primary and secondary psychopathy scales are necessary for the assessment of psychopathic traits amongst a non-institutionalized population. Levenson et al., (1995) developed the LSRPS as a way to measure primary and secondary psychopathy in a non-institutionalised population. They correlated it with these characteristics as way to validate the scale.

Additional work studying psychopathic traits was carried out by Hare (1980 as cited in C.R Bartol 1999) who used the psychopathy checklist (PCL). This measurement was designed to identify psychopaths in male prison, forensic, or psychiatric populations. It assesses social deviance facets of criminal psychopathy. To qualify a criminal psychopath he/she would need to have a score of 30. Criminals scoring between 21 and 29 are categorised as 'middle' subjects who are prone to show many of the features of psychopathy. Scores below 21 are classified as 'non psychopaths. The PCL is mostly used in criminal populations, it would therefore be irrelevant to use in our study as the research was conducted in non-institutionalised population, and the data collected will not be as effective as it would be if it were conducted in a criminal population.

Impulsivity is commonly defined as behaviour without ample thought and the inclination to act on the spur of the moment than most individuals. (Moeller et al., 2001; Herpertz et al., 2001) conducted a study measuring the emotional response of male prisoners who were labelled as psychopaths