The purpose of this proposal is to use recent developments in the neuropsychology of antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy) to: (a) clarify the importance of situational and motivational variables in predicting the influence of punishment on the behavior of psychopaths; (b) operationalize a distinctive behavioral style that discriminates between psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders; (c) demonstrate a crucial information processing deficit that may account for the psychopath's failure to learn from punishment; and (d) provide behavioral data that will be essential to the evaluation and interpretation of the emerging physiologically-based theories of psychopathy and related syndromes. The experiments, which focus on passive-avoidance as the key deficit in psychopathy, involve the comparison of prison psychopaths and controls on variations of a passive-avoidance task that was developed during the initial period of this grant. Each variation is designed to illustrate a crucial aspect of the person-situation interaction that contributes to the psychopath's passive-avoidance deficit. Based on the neuropsychological model, the psychopath's breakdown in passive-avoidance is conceptualized as a four stage process involving: the formation of a dominant response set; the occurrence of punishment for an inappropriate response; and emotional reaction to the punishment involving facilitation as opposed to inhibition of responding; and a resultant failure to learn the stimulus cues that predict the occurrence of punishment. The anticipated results would provide evidence for a distinctive behavioral style among psychopathic offenders; highlight the situational factors associated with the psychopath's failures of inhibition; and clarify the mechanism through which this behavioral style comes to interfere with learning. In addition to the identification of a distinctive behavioral style among psychopaths that would further efforts to discover the etiology of this disorder, the novel characterization of the psychopathic deficit suggested by this research may provide a context for the development of more effective strategies for the early identification, prevention, and treatment of psychopathy. Finally, the development of the neuropsychological model described in this proposal has implications not only for psychopathy but for a variety of psychopathology and normal behavior involving the interaction of inhibition and arousal.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH037711-05
Application #
3376303
Study Section
(PCBA)
Project Start
1983-09-01
Project End
1988-08-31
Budget Start
1987-09-01
Budget End
1988-08-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
1987
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Wisconsin Madison
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
161202122
City
Madison
State
WI
Country
United States
Zip Code
53715
Arnett, P A; Smith, S S; Newman, J P (1997) Approach and avoidance motivation in psychopathic criminal offenders during passive avoidance. J Pers Soc Psychol 72:1413-28
Howland, E W; Kosson, D S; Patterson, C M et al. (1993) Altering a dominant response: performance of psychopaths and low-socialization college students on a cued reaction time task. J Abnorm Psychol 102:379-87
Patterson, C M; Newman, J P (1993) Reflectivity and learning from aversive events: toward a psychological mechanism for the syndromes of disinhibition. Psychol Rev 100:716-36
Newman, J P; Wallace, J F; Strauman, T J et al. (1993) Effects of motivationally significant stimuli on the regulation of dominant responses. J Pers Soc Psychol 65:165-75
Newman, J P; Kosson, D S; Patterson, C M (1992) Delay of gratification in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic offenders. J Abnorm Psychol 101:630-6
Bachorowski, J A; Newman, J P (1990) Impulsive motor behavior: effects of personality and goal salience. J Pers Soc Psychol 58:512-8
Smith, S S; Newman, J P (1990) Alcohol and drug abuse-dependence disorders in psychopathic and nonpsychopathic criminal offenders. J Abnorm Psychol 99:430-9
Newman, J P; Patterson, C M; Kosson, D S (1987) Response perseveration in psychopaths. J Abnorm Psychol 96:145-8
Patterson, C M; Kosson, D S; Newman, J P (1987) Reaction to punishment, reflectivity, and passive avoidance learning in extraverts. J Pers Soc Psychol 52:565-75
Kosson, D S; Newman, J P (1986) Psychopathy and the allocation of attentional capacity in a divided-attention situation. J Abnorm Psychol 95:257-63

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