emotional manipulation and sub-clinical psychopathic traits

Emotional Manipulation and Subclinical Psychopathic Traits

Keenan Jensen, MSFSJeff Elison, PhDSouthern Utah University

What is Psychopathy?

Psychopathic Personality TraitsGeneral lack of emotions and guilt

Manipulative nature

Shallowness

Superficial (charm)

Impulsivity

Unrealistic heightened sense of self.

Psychopathic Behavioral ManifestationsHigh need for stimulation

Poor behavioral controls

Parasitic lifestyle

Promiscuity and high drug/alcohol use (irresponsibility)

Why worry about it?

1% of the population in the U.S.

2% of the population in the U.K.

Responsible for 30-50% of crime

Proportion of Population

Percentage of Crime

Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism stems from the writings of Nicolo Machiavelli

The ends justify the means

Machiavellianism generally correlates highly to Psychopathy (r = .31-.59, Paulhus et al., 2002, McHoskey et al., 1998)

Construct Overlap with Psychopath?

Social Manipulation

Are psychopaths capable of emotional manipulation?

Emotional Manipulation correlates to Machiavellianism (r = .40, Austin et al., 2008)

Emotional Capabilities of psychopaths as measured by the PCL-R currently debated.Emotional Perception seems to remain normal

Empathic abilities and Emotional Understanding seem to be a key breakdown in the emotional levels of psychopaths

Measures

Self Report of Psychopathy Scale (SRPS)16 Personality Items such as Success is based on the survival of the fittest; I am not concerned about the losers

10 Behavioral Items such as I find myself in the same kind of trouble time after time

Personality Subscale = 0.84; Behavioral Subscale = .71

Emotional Manipulation Scale24 Emotional Manipulation Items such as I can simulate emotions like pain and hurt to make others feel guilty.

7 Concealment Items such as When someone has made me upset or angry, I tend to downplay my feelings.

Emotional Manipulation Subscale = 0.90; Concealment Subscale = 0.73

Machiavellianism Personality Scale16 Social Manipulation Items such as I am willing to sabotage the efforts of other people if they threaten my own goals

Combined Score = 0.85

Measures (continued)

Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)7 Empathic Concern Items such as I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me.

7 Perspective Taking Items such as I try to look at everybodys side of a disagreement before I make a decision

Emotional Concern = 0.81; Perspective Taking = 0.81

Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR)20 Impression Management Items such as I always obey laws, even if Im unlikely to get caught

20 Self-Deceptive Items such as I am a completely rational person

Impression Management Subscale = 0.80, Self-Deceptive Enhancement Subscale = .65

Emotion Perception Task24 Photos displaying basic emotions (Happiness, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust and Neutral)

100 ms allotted for each photograph, Unlimited time to identify emotion and rate intensity.

= .82, Mean misidentification = 7.58 or 31.6% of all photographs

Hypothesis 1

Psychopathic trait scores will be correlated positively to Emotional Manipulation.

Hypothesis 2

Emotional Perception task scores will be correlated with Emotional Manipulation

PsychopathicPersonalityTraitsPsychopathicBehavioralTraitsEmotionalManipulation

PsychopathicBehavioralTraits r = (+)

EmotionalManipulationEmotionalPerceptionTask

r = ( + )

Hypothesis 3

Psychopathic trait scores will be correlated positively to Machiavellianism

Hypothesis 4

Psychopathic trait scores will be correlated negatively to Empathy

PsychopathicPersonalityTraitsPsychopathicBehavioralTraitsMachiavellianismPsychopathicBehavioralTraits

r = ( + )

PsychopathicPersonalityTraitsPsychopathicBehavioralTraits r = ( - )

PsychopathicBehavioralTraitsEmpathy

r = ( - )

Hypothesis 5

Scores on the Emotional Perception task mediate the path from Psychopathic traits to Emotional Manipulation

Hypothesis 6

Machiavellianism mediates the path from Psychopathic traits to Emotional Manipulation


EmotionalPerceptionTaskPsychopathicBehavioralTraits

r = ( + )

r = n.s.

r = ( ? )


MachiavellianismPsychopathicBehavioralTraits

r = ( + )

r = n.s.

r = ( + )

Hypothesis 7

Empathy partially mediates the path from Psychopathic traits to Emotional Manipulation

Hypothesis 8

The model will converge will Psychopathic traits predicting Emotional Manipulation. Emotional Perception, Machiavellianism, and Empathy will mediate the path from Psychopathic traits to Emotional Manipulation. Relationships with Impression Management will indicate possible spurious relationships.


r = ( - )

PsychopathicBehavioralTraits r < zero-order correlations

Empathy

r = ( - )

r = ( - )


r = ( - )


r = ( + )

r = n.s.

Empathy

r = ( - )

r = ( + )

r = ( - )

Impression Management

r = ( - )

r = ( - )

r = ( + )

r = ( - )

r = (+)

EmotionalPerception

r = ( ? )

Hypothesis 9

The relationships with Psychopathic traits, Machiavellianism, Empathy and Emotional Manipulation are partially spurious due to Impression Management.


r = ( - )


r = ( + )

r = n.s.

Empathy

r = ( - )

r = ( + )

r = ( - )


r = ( - )

r = ( - )

r = ( + )

r = ( - )

Participants

N = 163

Mean Age = 21.38 years of age

66 Males (40.5%), 97 Females (59.5%)

Primarily Psychology undergraduates, mostly Freshman

Results

H1 upheldPersonality psychopathic trait scores are indeed correlated to emotional manipulation

Personality traitsEmotional Manipulation subscale r = .38, p < .01

Concealment subscale r = .19, p < .05

Behavioral traitsEmotional Manipulation subscale r = .19, p < .05

Concealment subscale r = .22, p < .01

Controlling for IM and SDEPersonality and Emotional Manipulation r = .23, p < .01

Personality and Concealment of Emotions r = .19, p = .03

Behavior and Concealment r = .23, p < .01

The relationship between Psychopathic Behavior and Emotional Manipulation lost significance.

Results

H2 not supportedNo relationships were found with the Emotional Perception task

Reliability was adequate ( = .82), however on average 31.6% of photographs were misidentified

Emotional Perception removed from further analysis.

Results

H3 upheldPsychopathic traits do indeed correlate positively with Machiavellianism

Personality traits and Machiavellianism r = .63, p < .01

Behavioral traits and Machiavellianism r = .28, p < .01

After controlling for IM and SDEPersonality traits r = .50, p < .01

Behavioral traits r = .14, p < .05

Subscales combined due to moderate correlations

rs = .28-.46

Results

H4 upheldEmpathy (EC + PT) has a negative correlation to Psychopathic traits

Psychopathic Personality and Empathy r = -.56, p < .001

Psychopathic Behavior and Empathy r = -.34, p < .001

Controlling for IM and SDEPersonality r = -.46

Behavior r = -.22

Personal Distress and Psychopathic Behavior r = .19, p < .05

Results

H5 not testedEmotional Perception was not tested since Hypothesis 2 was not supported.

Emotional Perception had no significant correlations to any other variables, therefore it would be meaningless to test for mediation.

Results

H6 initially upheldMachiavellianism is indeed a mediator between Psychopathic Personality traits and Emotional Manipulation

Psychopathic Personality traits and Emotional Manipulation initial = .36, p < .001

Test for Mediation from Psychopathic Personality traits to Emotional ManipulationPsychopathic Personality = .004, p = .96

Machiavellianism = .60, p < .001

Regression on Concealment of Emotions did not indicate any mediation by Machiavellianism.

Machiavellianism included in path analysis.

Results

H7 initially not supportedRegression does not indicate mediation by Empathy in the path from Psychopathic Personality traits to Emotional Manipulation, however possibly mediation from Psychopathic Behavioral traits to Concealment of Emotions

Psychopathic Personality traits and Emotional Manipulation initial = .38, p < .001

Test for Mediation from Psychopathic Personality traits to Emotional ManipulationPsychopathic Personality = .43, p < .001

Empathy = .10, p = .31

Empathy still has a significant relationship to Emotional Manipulation, despite lack of mediationEmotional Manipulation r = -.18, p < .05

Concealment of Emotions r = -.22, p < .01

Controlling for IM and SDERelationship between Empathy and Emotional Manipulation becomes non-significant

Concealment of Emotions and Empathy r = -.20, p < .05

Empathy will be tested in the model to test for mediation between Concealment of Emotions and Psychopathic Behavior traits.

Results

H8 upheldA model converges with Psychopathic traits (Both subscales), Machiavellianism, Emotional Manipulation, Concealment of Emotions, Impression Management and Self-Deceptive Enhancement.

= 3.66, df = 5, p = .60, n.s. RMSEA = .000

No models converge with Empathy as a mediator, H7 ultimately rejected

Machiavellianism shows complete mediation, H6 upheld

r =.05; n.s.



r = .62

r = .54


r = .46

Self-Deceptive EnhancementConcealment

r = .29

r = -.21

r = .20

r = .49

r = .29

r = .26

Chi-Squared = 3.66, df=5, p=.60; RMSEA=0.000

Results

H9 partially upheldRegression and the model indicate partially spurious relationships due to Impression Management and Self-Deceptive Enhancement.

Machiavellianism and Psychopathic PersonalityInitial = .61, p < .001

Controlling for IM and SDE = .50, p < .001

Path model r = .54

Machiavellianism and Emotional ManipulationInitial = .61, p < .001

Controlling for IM and SDE = .51, p < .001

Path model r = .62

Results


Initial Correlation between Impression Management and Psychopathic Personality r = -.44, p < .001

Model does not include path between IM and Psychopathic Personality

Initial Correlation between Self-Deceptive Enhancement and Psychopathic Personality r = .06, n.s.

Model does include path from Self-Deceptive Enhancement and Psychopathic Personality r = .29

Results


Psychopathic Behavioral traits and Concealment of EmotionsInitial = .22, p < .01

Controlling for IM and SDE, = .19, p = .04

Psychopathic Personality traits and Concealment of EmotionsInitial = .14, n.s.

Controlling for IM and SDE = .20, p = .03

r =.05; n.s.



r = .62

r = .54


r = .46

Self-Deceptive EnhancementConcealment

r = .29

r = -.21

r = .20

r = .49

r = .29

r = .26

Chi-Squared = 3.66, df=5, p=.60; RMSEA=0.000

Does the Model Hold Up?

Psychopathic traits are a predictor of Machiavellianism.

Machiavellianism completely mediates the path from Psychopathic Traits to Emotional Manipulation.

Psychopathic traits are a predictor of Empathy; however Empathy does appear to be a mediator. No models converge with empathy as a mediator.

Relationships are partially spurious. Empathy and Emotional Manipulation only completely spurious relationship.

Implications & Discussion

Those high in psychopathic traits appear to be highly capable of manipulating the situation directly, with an indirect effect on emotions.

The indirect effect of emotional manipulation has a hypothetical relationship of r = .33

Machiavellianism and Psychopathy have constructual overlap (r = .63). Highly similar, yet different constructs.


Emotional Manipulation and Psychopathic traits possibly controlled by Empathy.Increased levels of Empathy predict lower Psychopathic traits (r = -.56, p < .01)

Increased levels of Empathy predict lower levels of Emotional Manipulation (r = -.18, p < .05)

Empathy training and increased manipulation?

Empathy training provides a new route to manipulation?

Personal Distress subscale positively correlated to Psychopathic Behavioral traits r = .19, p < .05Social Anxiety

Poor perception of distress


Psychopathic Personality traits inflated by Self-Deceptive Enhancement r = .29Egocentricity

Zero-order correlations reveal oppositePsychopathic Personality and IM, r = -.44

Psychopathic Personality and SDE, n.s.

Emotional Manipulation and Empathy completely spurious, r = -.18 to -.04

Concealment of Emotions not affected by Impression Management or SDE, r = -.20 to -.22

Model does indicate a significant relationship between Concealment of Emotions and IM, r = .20


Psychopathic Behavioral traits highly correlated to Psychopathic Personality traits (r = .46)

Relationships with Psychopathic Behavioral traits are relatively low (r = n.s. - .34)

Not controlled in this study, however Psychopathic Personality may be feeding into the relationships with Psychopathic Behavior.

Assessment inclusive of Psychopathic Behavioral traits is likely testing Antisocial Behavior, not psychopathy

Circular Argument

Limitations

No additional information provided about emotional capabilities of those with high psychopathic traits due to lack of relationships with the Emotional Perception taskAverage number of misidentified emotions 7.58, 31.6% average percentage misidentified

Reliability adequate =.82

Focus of participants varied, increasing reliability and lowering validity.

Environment may need to be controlled or 100 ms was not long enough

Sample may have not had enough varianceAcademic settings

Lack of individuals with high psychopathic traits

Future Directions

Emotional skills and intelligence in relationship to psychopathy

Impression Management and psychopathy, better measure or measurement error in this study?

Personality emphasis in psychopathy, what are the behavioral differences in forensic and successful psychopaths

Conclusions

Those high in psychopathic traits do not target emotions for manipulation, any effects are likely indirect.

Psychopathic Behavior likely manifestations of psychopathy, not psychopathy itself

Empathy related to both Psychopathy and Emotional Manipulation, however does not appear to be a mediator or moderator.

No statements about emotional capabilities can be made.

Column 1Column 2Column 3

General Population993.24.54

Psychopaths18.89.65

Column 1Column 2Column 3

NonPsychopathic Crime603.24.54

Psychopathic Crime408.89.65

emotional manipulation and sub-clinical psychopathic traits

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