Dissociable Effects of Psychopathic Traits on Executive Functioning: Insights From the Triarchic Model

Abstract

The relationship between executive functioning and psychopathy lacks consistent findings. The heterogeneity of the psychopathic personality structure may contribute to the mixed data that emerged from clinical-categorical approaches. Considering the link between antisocial behavior and executive dysfunction from the perspective of the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy, it is suggested that executive impairments in psychopathy are specifically explained by meanness and disinhibition traits, reflecting externalizing vulnerability. In turn, boldness is conceptualized as an adaptive trait. The current study assessed updating (N-back), inhibition (Stroop), and shifting (Trail Making Test) in a forensic (n = 56) and non-forensic sample (n = 48) that completed the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. A positive association between boldness and inhibition was found, while meanness accounted for the lack of inhibitory control. In addition, disinhibition explained updating dysfunction. These findings provide empirical evidence for dissociable effects of psychopathic traits on executive functioning, in light of the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy.

Refining the link between psychopathy, antisocial behavior, and empathy: a meta-analytical approach across different conceptual frameworks

“…From this standpoint, 3-dimensional models of psychopathy (see Figure 1) claimed more recently for a hierarchical organization of the psychopathic personality structure, in which deficits in personality (i.e., interpersonal-affective features) may be (or not) a risk factor for behavioral outcomes (i.e., impulsive-antisocial; Cooke & Michie, 2001;Cooke et al, 2006;Patrick, 2006;Skeem et al, 2011). Antisocial tendencies are expected to co-vary with psychopathy, but this association is merely probabilistic and not linearly determined, as other individual and contextual risk factors (e.g., deficits in cognitive functioning and the lack of care experiences in infancy) are expected to moderate this association (Cooke & Michie, 2001;Pasion et al, 2018a;Patrick, 2006;. Within the scope of 3-dimensional models, antisocial behavior does not constitute a core feature of psychopathy per se and is best viewed as a possible second-order outcome of primary deficits in the interpersonal and affective dimensions.…”

“…A longstanding research question in the field leans on whether antisocial behavior is a coherent part of the psychopathic personality structure. Some theoretical models argue that antisocial behavior is inherently blended in the construct of psychopathy Neumann et al, 2007), while others postulate that this association is not linear and depends on the intersection with other risk factors (Cooke & Michie, 2001;Pasion et al, 2018a;Patrick, 2006;. Therefore, critical processes that may underpin psychopathy and antisocial behaviore.g., empathymay be critical to examine points of convergence/divergence between both constructs.…”

“…Yet, one might be aware that boldness-related traits are thought to co-occur with affective-meanness traits as they both share the low-fear etiological pathway (Patrick & Bernat, 2009) and are positively related (e.g., Drislane et al, 2014;Pasion et al, 2018a;van Dongen et al, 2017). This makes it important to examine core differences between the two low-fear dimensions in what regards empathic processes and prosocial-antisocial expressions.…”

“…Recent studies describe that about 50% of inmates actually display low levels of psychopathy, with only 7% exhibiting the full spectrum of psychopathic traits -a finding that is proximal to what is reported in student samples (Boduszek et al, 2019;Boduszek et al, 2017). Hence, some authors argue that the personalistic features of psychopathy are generally distributed among the population, while the behavioral maladaptive features may be inflated in forensic settings simply due to criminal records (Pasion et al, 2018a).…”

A systematic review on the current conceptualisations of successful psychopathy

“…FD was associated with reduced stress and positive adaptive coping styles (Dalkner et al, 2015), professional satisfaction and material success (Eisenbarth et al, 2018;Howe et al, 2014), higher income (Lilienfeld et al, 2014), authentic pride , leadership (Lilienfeld & Windows, 2005), and adaptive behaviours (Young-Lundquist et al, 2012). Moreover, two papers explored the relationship between EF and psychopathic personality traits (Lantrip, Towns, Roth, & Giancola, 2016;Pasion, Cruz, & Barbosa, 2018), which demonstrated that FD was associated with better emotional control and cognitive flexibility. This suggests that affective-interpersonal traits (e.g., superficial charm, lack of empathy, and manipulation; as defined by PPI-R & TriPM), such as FD, can enhance specific aspects of EF.…”