Early maladaptive schemas in relation to facets of psychopathy and institutional violence in offenders with personality disorders

Abstract

Purpose. Current knowledge suggests that the psychopathy construct is multifaceted in nature, and reflects different underlying pathological mechanisms, including neurobiological dysfunction and maladaptive cognitions. Although many contemporary studies focus on neurobiological aspects of psychopathy, few have addressed the maladaptive cognitions.Method. In this study, we examined facets of Hare's psychopathy construct in terms of their associations with maladaptive cognitions, as defined by Young's cognitive theory of Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS). Personality disordered offenders (N = 124) were assessed with the PCL-R and the Young Schema Questionnaire.Results. The PCL-R Lifestyle and Antisocial Facets were significantly related to EMS Mistrust/Abuse and Insufficient Self-Control, consistent with our hypotheses, and were significantly, but negatively, related to EMS Subjugation. Also as hypothesized, EMS showed no associations with the PCL-R Affective and Interpersonal facets. Contrary to our expectation, EMS did not predict institutional violence.Conclusion. Our findings suggest that schemas relating to mistrust, inadequate self-control/low frustration tolerance, and autonomy/dominance, play a role in the impulsive lifestyle and antisocial behaviour features of psychopathy. Treatments that focus on ameliorating these schemas may lead to better outcomes in psychopathic offenders.Psychopathy affects about 0.6%-1.2% of the general population (Coid, Yang, Ullrich, Roberts, & Hare, 2009a;Neumann & Hare, 2008) and prevalence rates have been reported consisting of 7.7% for correctional settings in England and Wales (Coid et al., 2009b; 15%-25% of the North-American forensic and correctional samples (Hare, 2003), and 24% of the Dutch forensic psychiatric samples (Hildebrand,

The role of aggression‐related early maladaptive schemas and schema modes in aggression in a prisoner sample

“…In a community forensic mental health sample, Gilbert et al () found that higher levels of Insufficient Self‐Control was independently related to a greater history of past aggression ( β = 0.35). Contrary to the above findings, Chakhssi, Bernstein, and De Ruiter () found that in a sample of male offenders meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–Fourth Edition PD diagnostic criteria, EMSs were not independently associated with institutional violence.…”

The habitual female offender inside: How psychopathic traits predict chronic prison violence.

“…However, the affective dimension has neither been shown to predict institutional violence in male offenders (Chakhssi et al, 2014;Walters & Heilbrun, 2010) nor to be associated with frequent physical fights in adulthood (Hall et al, 2004).…”

The effects of the growing pro-social program on cognitive distortions and early maladaptive schemas over time in male prison inmates: A randomized controlled trial.

“…In forensic samples, the content and nature of EMSs have been reliably assessed via selfreport methodology. A considerable amount of research (e.g., Calvete, 2008;Chakhssi et al, 2012;Gilbert & Daffern, 2013;Specht, Chapman, & Celluci, 2009) found a positive association of mistrust/abuse, insufficient self-control and entitlement schemas with antisocial behavior. It is noteworthy that entitlement can also develop as an overcompensation for failure and defectiveness/shame schemas (Rafaeli et al, 2011).…”