// by Donna Andersen// Leave a Comment
Dr. Essi Viding of University College London discusses recent findings on the genetic roots of callous-unemotional traits in children, and how they may evolve into antisocial behavior. Callous-unemotional traits in children, on PsychologicalScience.org. …
The links between callous-unemotional traits in children and antisocial behaviorRead More
// by Donna Andersen// 29 Comments
James Fallon, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry, human behavior, anatomy and neurobiology, discovered that his own brain matches the brains of diagnosed psychopaths. In this radio interview, he talks about psychopaths, their brains, and why he didn't turn into an exploiter. Am I a psychopath? on ScienceFriday.com. …
// by Donna Andersen// 8 Comments
Dr. Delroy L. Paulhus and his colleagues ran experiments to study "everyday sadists" people who enjoy inflicting pain on others. According to this article in the New York Times, "Psychopaths want to get things from people and don't care about hurting them to do so," Paulhus said. "Sadists look for opportunities to hurt people, and prolong it for their own pleasure." 'Everyday sadists' among us, on NYTimes.com. …
// by Donna Andersen// 2 Comments
Dr. Robert Hare developed the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), which is the usually instrument used by researchers to evaluate a person's level of disorder. In this video, he explains the traits of a psychopath, and compares them to corporate behaviors. …
Dr. Robert Hare compares psychopathic traits to corporationsRead More
// by Donna Andersen// 1 Comment
A new study in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that psychological assessment tools were about as effective as flipping a coin in predicting whether disordered individuals will re-offend after being released from prison. Predicting violence among psychopaths is no more than chance, on Phsy.org. Predicting future violence among individuals with psychopathy, on PJP.RCPsych.org. Story suggested by a Lovefraud reader. …
Tools to predict if psychopaths will re-offend are only 46.7% accurate, study saysRead More
// by Donna Andersen// 8 Comments
Researchers studied the brains of 121 prison inmates who were categorized as weakly, moderately or highly psychopathic. While in an fMRI brain imaging machine, the inmates were shown photos of someone experiencing physical pain, for example, a finger caught in a door. Asked to imagine it was their finger, the psychopaths' brains showed typical neural responses. But asked to imagine it was another person's finger, the psychopathic brains did not register a pain response. They showed a pleasure response. Neurological basis for lack of empathy in psychopaths, on ScienceDaily.com. Here's another similar study: Psychopaths are not neurally equipped to have concern for others, on …
Psychopaths’ brains react to pain in themselves, but not othersRead More
// by Donna Andersen// 2 Comments
The language of diagnosed psychopaths in prison for murder reflected their personalities: selfish, detached from their crimes and emotionally flat, according to research by Jeff Hancock of Cornell University and colleagues. The investigators used sophisticated computerized text analysis to measure word usage as psychopathic and non-psychopathic murderers described their crimes. Psychopathic killers: Computerized text analysis uncovers the word patterns of a predator, on ScienceDaily.com. If you want to know more, the highly readable study is also available online. It contains a lot of great information. Hungry like the wolf: A word-pattern analysis of the language of psychopaths, on …
// by Donna Andersen// 51 Comments
Psychopaths are typically described as lacking in empathy. New research from the Netherlands, however, suggests that psychopaths have the capacity for empathy, but it's usually turned off. The study was just published in Brain: A journal of neurology. I heard the first author, Dr. Harma Meffert, present the research when I attended the conference sponsored by the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy in June. The researchers asked convicted criminals, who had been diagnosed as psychopaths, to view short video clips while hooked up to fMRI machines, so that the activity in their brains could be observed. The videos showed two hands interacting in ways that were painful, …
// by Donna Andersen// Leave a Comment
The Wellesley Centers for Women has just released a new report, Family Court Approaches to Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse: Stakeholder Perceptions and Implications for Systemic Change. Researchers have been gathering data about how family courts see domestic violence cases, how the courts handle the cases, how often children are involved, and whether biases exist. It is the first field study of family courts in which judges, probation officers and litigants were surveyed simultaneously. Improving the court approach to domestic violence cases in the Massachusetts family courts, on WCWOnline.org. …
// by Donna Andersen// 164 Comments
[youtube_sc url="https://youtu.be/OYfoGTIG7pY"] According to Dr. Helen Fisher, a biological anthropologist, romantic love is an addiction. The drive to find a romantic partner is buried deep in the brain, and biologically intertwined with the brain's reward system, which is linked to wanting, motivation, focus and craving. To hear Dr. Fisher explain this, watch the video. Dr. Fisher points out that when you love someone and are rejected, the addiction is worse. Not only do you continue to feel the intense romantic love, but you love your beau even more. Your love becomes an obsession. It turns out that the brain system associated with rewards becomes even more active when you can't get …
