Self-Control Versus Psychopathy

Abstract

Self-control and psychopathy are prominent general theories of antisociality that, although present a very similar type of individual, have not often been studied in tandem, and few studies have conducted a head-to-head test of their association with serious delinquency and youth violence. Using a near census of institutionalized delinquents from Missouri, the current study found that both low self-control and psychopathy were significantly associated with various forms of delinquency and severe/chronic delinquency as measured by 90th percentile on the distribution. However, low selfcontrol was associated with more forms of delinquency, and victimization and youth with the lowest levels of self-control were at greatest risk for pathological delinquency relative to those with the most psychopathic personality. Both self-control and psychopathy are essential for understanding the most severe variants of delinquency, and more head-to-head tests are encouraged to assess the strength of criminological theories.

Investigating Sex-Related Moderation Effects and Mediation Effects of Self-Control on Delinquency Among Portuguese Youth

“…Regarding our second hypothesis, findings revealed that self-control does mediate the relations between triarchic psychopathic traits, dark triad traits, and the selfreported juvenile delinquency outcome. This is in line with previous research (e.g., DeLisi et al, 2018) and both supports and conflicts with other recent research (e.g., Xie et al, 2020) indicating the important role that self-control plays in mediating the associations between psychopathy and various forms of delinquency and antisocial conduct. For example, different levels of self-control can decrease or increase the antisocial tendencies that characterize psychopathic and other "dark traits" of personality making these individuals "successful" or "unsuccessful" (Lasko & Chester, in press).…”

“…We suspect that whether self-control mediates the effects of other dark personality features on delinquency depends in large part on the overall antisociality and age of the sample (Billen et al, 2019;Chan, 2019;DeLisi et al, 2018). In the current study, the participants are students in Portugal for whom the various problematic self-regulation features are more salient than psychopathic features for understanding delinquency.…”

“…Prior research has shown that selfcontrol mediates the association between psychopathy and various forms of serious delinquency and violence. For instance, a recent study of institutionalized delinquents reported that self-control was more consistently associated with delinquent outcomes than psychopathy, and even reduced psychopathy from significance in some models (DeLisi et al, 2018). In their study of 585 male delinquents from China, Xie et al (2020) examined the associations between childhood maltreatment and delinquency and found that both self-control and callous-unemotional traits mediated the association between maltreatment and delinquency.…”

The Brief Self-Control Scale and Its Refined Version among Incarcerated and Community Youths: Psychometrics and Measurement Invariance

“…More recently, a shorter 8-item refined version of the BSCS (i.e., BSCS-R) was developed by Maloney, Grawitch, and Barber (2012), arguing it is composed of two factors: Restraint (4 items), and Impulsivity (4 items). Self-control deficits are commonly comorbid with other antisocial features and externalizing psychopathology (Caspi et al 2017;DeLisi et al 2018;Hay and Meldrum 2015;Jonason and Tost 2010), as such, it is important to include allied covariates (e.g. impulsivity, psychopathic traits, Dark Triad traits) when examining such associations.…”

“…Spanning numerous disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological frameworks, self-control and the valid and reliable measurement of it have attracted tremendous scholarly attention (Duckworth and Kern 2011;Hay and Meldrum 2015;Jones 2017;Walters 2016;Ward, Ray, and Fox 2018;Weng and Chui 2018). Self-control attracts research attention because of its broad association with divergent conduct, externalizing, antisocial, and criminal behaviors (e.g., Audiffren and André 2015;DeLisi 2011DeLisi , 2013DeLisi et al 2018;de Ridder et al 2012;Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990;Hay and Meldrum 2015;Moffitt et al 2011;Thaler and Shefrin 1981;Vaughn et al 2009) and these effects are seen among clinical, correctional, and community samples. Irrespective of the way that it is conceptualized or the study group of interest (e.g., children, adolescents, or adults) (Hay and Meldrum 2015;Vazsonyi and Jiskrova 2018), self-control is a necessary and requisite condition for behavioral and social functioning and persons with significant deficits in self-control face hardships across multiple life domains.…”