The Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy met in New Orleans, LA April 16-18, 2009. There were several hot topics discussed at the meeting including how psychopathy might be different in men and women. The general consensus seemed to be that psychopathy is under-diagnosed in women because in women the symptoms are different.
Dr. Edelyn Verona is a, leader in the Society. Her group presented, “An Examination of Borderline Personality Disorder and Secondary Psychopathy Across Genders.” To understand these research findings look at the list of traits below:
Factor 1 Traits (Primary Psychopathy)
• Glib and superficial
• Egocentric and grandiose
• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Lack of empathy
• Deceitful and manipulative
• Shallow emotions
Factor 2 Traits (Secondary Psychopathy)
• Impulsive
• Poor behavior controls
• Need for excitement
• Lack of responsibility
• Early behavior problems
• Adult antisocial behavior
Dr. Verona’s group looked at the relationship between borderline personality (BPD) traits Factor 1 and Factor 2 in women. They stated, “We hypothesized that gender would moderate the relationship between secondary psychopathic characteristics and features, such that Factor 2 would correlate more strongly with BPD in women than in men. We further expected that primary psychopathic characteristics would be negatively related to BPD.”
The first part of their hypothesis turned out to be supported, that is Factor 2 was associated with BPD in both men and women but more so women.
More important though, is that the second part of their hypothesis was not supported. Primary psychopathic features were positively related to BPD and “F2 was significantly more predictive of BPD in high F1 women relative to low F1 women.”
The authors concluded, “In particular, the combination of F1 and F2 seems predictive of BPD in women, but not men. This suggests that psychopathy (which is typically defined as being high on both F1 and F2) is manifested as BPD in women.”
Their conclusions are supported by other studies showing a positive correlation between psychopathy and BPD scores.
I spoke with Dr. Verona about their findings, commenting that many psychiatrists consider BPD to be a mood or anxiety disorder. She answered that the criteria for BPD are not precise enough. A woman with PTSD and/or mood symptoms can be diagnosed with BPD if she is also impulsive. It does not seem fitting to group these women together with psychopathic women, especially since the treatment may be different for those who have mood/anxiety disorders.
What does this all mean for you who have family members or co-workers with BPD? My advice is consider the degree of harm done by the person in the context of Factor 1 and Factor 2 traits. The more a woman or man has BOTH sets of traits, the more dangerous she/he is likely to be.
Rosa
Jim, Annie, Elizabeth:
Once I educated myself on the personality disorder of psychopathy/narcissism, my sister-in-law’s behavior was no longer bizarre or confusing.
It suddenly became predictable, and made perfect sense.
People who are operating on the premise of a healthy, normal-functioning human being will never get it.
You need to operate on the premise of a disordered individual.
Knowledge is POWER!
lifegarded
Sociopaths defined….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=janTViXo4rY
Elizabeth Conley
Rosa,
“You need to operate on the premise of a disordered individual.”
If normal has been ruled out by a pattern of bizarre behavior, then disorder is what’s left. When you make the paradigm shift, and everything fits, you’re probably on to something.
It’s been my observation that peope are what they assume others are. If you go through life assuming others are well intentioned, then you are probably a human golden retriever. If you go through life seeing dishonesty and malice everywhere, you probably harbor a lot of darkness. When we stop projecting what we expect or need to see, and start simply observing, we learn a lot.
If I had realized that people who made ugly judgements on flimsy evidence were probably mean and dark inside, I would have avoided quite a bit of trouble in the past.
Everybody isn’t Pollyanna like me, and everybody isn’t like the S/P/N either. We have to pay attention to what’s actually presented, separate from what we want, need or expect.
Rosa
Yes, Elizabeth Conley,
I AGREE!
We need to look at WHAT IS, and not want we WANT there to be.
That would have kept a lot of us out of trouble, I think.
S O S
Professional misdiagnosis aside, if “psychopathy” is the baseline:
The greater feeling (reward dependence, agreeableness) they have, the more BDS they tend to be.
The higher IQ (possibly intellectual novelty seeking, openness) they have, the more Narcissistic they tend to be.
The less audacity (harm avoidance, extraversion) they have, the more Machiavellian they tend to be.
The greater their long term goal directedness (persistence, conscientiousness), the more malignantly narcissistic they can be.
The major differences between successful and unsuccessful sociopaths is intelligence, circumstance, and any mitigating emotional factors which promoted their cause-effect reasoning ability. One ruthlessly grabs, the other ruthlessly grabs with strategic forethought.
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Student Of Sociopathy
S O S
Of course there are limits to each temperamental variable at the edge of each variables ’sweet spot’ (Autistics are obviously not Machiavellian, but can develop some form of social agreeableness which ensures their survival within their social context, in line with their capability of understanding the benefit of such).
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Student Of Sociopathy
Rosa
SOS
“One ruthlessly grabs, the other ruthlessly grabs with strategic forethought.”
What about the one who does NOT need to grab at all, because they have manipulted others to do their dirty work for them?
S O S
Poor choice of words on my part. “To obtain or appropriate unscrupulously or forcibly” might have been more accurate.
Jewels
Hi Rosa, and E1
I was struck by your sucinct phrases:
______________________________________
Once I educated myself on the personality disorder of psychopathy/narcissism, my sister-in-law’s behavior was no longer bizarre or confusing.
It suddenly became predictable, and made perfect sense.
People who are operating on the premise of a healthy, normal-functioning human being will never get it.
You need to operate on the premise of a disordered individual.
______________
How very true – especially in the case of my guy’s STBXW – the Narcissist; her behavior was never bizarre or confusing … TO ME … but it’s been a uphill battle to educate my guy’s perceptions of her behavior. He likes to believe that “Everyone;s doing the best they can…” – Hogwash, I said to him – she’s NOT, she CAN’T and she NEVER will…
I had her PEGGED, by both her actions and attitude as an NPD afflicted individual, confirmed when I met her and spent the initial amount of “getting to know you” time with her.
Now I “PREDICT” her next-steps, and danged if I’m not right waaaay more often than not – he’ learned to trust my assessments and evals and predictions – she thinks she’s still got him snowed and under her thumb – and she HATES me, because I can see through her BS!
He’s got my predictions (of what she’s going to – or NOT – do, next) to act upon – those have come in very handy during the custody battle, which will be ending soon, finally, and in our favor.
Great post, Dr. Leedom – great responses, too, from ebverybody
sabrina
I have a question to make sure I am understanding- are you guys saying that when we realize that someone (he or she I presume applies here) is a S, that we should never confront them as such, for fear of more abusive, dangerous retaliations? Never call a spade a spade so to speak in this case?
I suspect someone in my family is an S, and am not in position to go NC at this point but I continue to see big red flags. I have commented to this person (male) that I know that he feels nothing for anyone but himself. His emotions are evident only when something dosent go well for him, no direct empathy for others.
Is this a dangerous path to go down? Thank you for your insight. This is a very
interesting and informative blog.