Self-esteem and styles of coping with stress versus strategies of planning in people with psychopathic personality disorders

Background

THE AIM OF THE STUDY:

Considering the data from the literature presented above we decided to form and empirically verify a hypothesis that people with psychopathic personality disorders are characterised by high self-esteem, unconstructive strategies of planning actions and non-adaptive styles of coping with stress.

Material and Methods

STUDY PARTICIPANTS:

The group of participants included 30 people at the age of 22–36 convicted with a legally binding sentence. Moreover, all participants had to fulfil the following clinical criteria: a) be diagnosed by a psychiatrist with dissocial, asocial, psychopathic or sociopathic personality disorders and b) obtain a result in the PCL-R test equal or higher than 30. The tests were consented to by all participants, as well as the directors of the prison that they were in.

METHOD:

The following psychological study methods were used in the studies:

Results

First of all we would like to present the results of participants in the PCL-R scale, describing the intensity of psychopathic traits (Table 1). All participants obtained 30 points in the test, which according to the concept of Robert D. Hare (1991) means a diagnosis of psychopathy. In Factor 1 participants obtained on average 17.17 (out of 20) points, and in Factor 21 – 3.82 points, which means that Factor 1 (describing the constellation of psychopathic personality traits) was dominant over Factor 2 (describing antisocial behaviour).

The variable identified with self-esteem in the PCL-R test is item 2 – a grandiose sense of self-worth. According to the rules of administering the scale, a participant can obtain a maximum of 2 points for the item. Participants obtained an average result of 1.83 points (Table 2) for this item.

Then the structure of personality of the participants was described by means of the Antisocial Personality Questionnaire (APQ), which allows not only for a diagnosis, but also describes the functioning of participants in the dimension of behaviour control and social functioning (dominance – submission and hostility – affiliation). The participants obtained high levels in scales reflecting the emotional style of functioning, which is visible in Factor 1 (Impulsiveness). The obtained results are presented in Table 3.

In the Generalised Self- Efficacy Scale (GSES) participants obtained an average result of 35.83 points, which indicates a high level of self-efficacy (Table 4).

Relating the PCL-R scale results to the efficacy of the actions of psychopaths (Table 5) it can be observed that they are characterised by a lack of realistic goals (item 13), irresponsibility, recklessness (item 15) and a lack of responsibility for undertaken actions (item 16).

An analysis of the average results obtained by the participants in the Coping Inventory of Stressful Situations revealed the dominance of style focused on emotions and avoidance, especially distraction (Table 6).

In the PCL-R scale (Table 7) the analysis covered such variables as shallow affect (item 7) and poor behavioural control (item 10), which describe the style of the emotional functioning of participants.

Discussion

The paper is based on the psychopathy concept of Hare [3], thus this author’s scale was used to study the discussed variable (The Psychopathy Checklist-Revision PCL-R). Hare assumes that we are dealing with the dimension of psychopathy, from the lack of psychopathic traits (result 0–9) through insignificant symptoms (result 10–19), and moderate symptoms (result 20–29) to psychopathy itself (result 30–40). The obtained results unequivocally indicate that according to the scale’s assumptions the participants should be diagnosed as psychopaths. Moreover, the factor analysis of the scale (dominance of Factor 1 above 2) additionally confirms such a diagnosis. Then, in considering the analysis of individual scale items, it was noticed that participants reveal a grandiose sense of self-worth, and in consequence, act to support it at any price, especially devaluating other people. Such an approach is compliant with literature data on the subject, which is found in the opinions of such authors as Hare [3,4], Cooke et al. [28], Pospiszyl [6], Pastwa-Wojciechowska [8], Millon, Davis [9]. The Antisocial Personality Questionnaire revealed a decreased estimation of self in psychopaths with increased self-control, and indicated an impulsive style of functioning. Based on the analysis of results of the APQ questionnaire we can diagnose the participants as primary psychopaths, thus confirming the PCL-R diagnosis. According to Blackburn [12] primary psychopaths are characterised by high extraversion and dominance (scales of extraversion and avoidance), aggressiveness and impulsiveness (scales of aggression and self-control), suspicion (scale of resentment), they have earlier had experiences related to the violation of legal norms (deviance scale) and do not reveal anxiety and self-criticism (self-esteem scale).

The result in the Generalised Self-Efficacy Scale showed that psychopaths consider themselves as people of high efficacy; however, an analysis of the PCL-R test indicated that their activities are characterised by the lack of realistic goals, irresponsibility, recklessness and lack of responsibility for undertaken actions. In other words, psychopaths consider themselves to be effective, but it rather seems to be a defence mechanism, which aims at the maintenance of high self-esteem. In reality psychopaths cannot set goals that they could fully implement in a responsible manner [3,4,6,8].

The stress coping style as a constant disposition of a person to cope with stressful situations in a certain manner showed that psychopaths prefer a style focused on emotions and avoidance. On one hand, in stressful situations psychopaths show a tendency to concentrate on themselves, especially their own experiences, such as anger and a tendency for wishful thinking and dreaming; on the other they avoid thinking, feeling and experiencing stressful situations. This result may seem contradictory. It is well documented in the subject literature that psychopaths are egocentric, focused on their own experiences, and react with aggression to any obstacles and frustration [3–6,8]. Avoiding confrontation with reality, they use their fantasy, which sometimes takes the form of pseudologia fantastica (pathological lying). Such a process resembles the phenomenon of egocentric deviation in the empathising described by Hoffman [29]. A person experiences emotions in response to the observed discomfort of others, but starts focusing on their own experiences and the emphatic process is discontinued [cf. 30]. The disturbed effective empathising, as well as incoherent, non-adaptive reactions to stress among psychopaths may be related to the emotional dysfunctions characterising this group mentioned in the theoretical part [cf. 8]. This problem is undoubtedly worthy of further analysis.

Conclusions

As a result of the conducted studies we formulated the following conclusions concerning people with psychopathic personality structure: