Investigating the Construct of Psychopathy in Lebanese and American Adults

<p>Psychopathy has been primarily investigated in forensic and psychiatric populations in North America. Cross-cultural studies, mainly conducted in Europe, have shown disparities in psychopathy scores and the measures’ psychometric properties, which raise the issue of cultural factors, such as individualism-collectivism, values, and different ways of emotional expression, and the impact of these cultural factors on the construct and its manifestation. Psychopathy has been rarely explored in Arab populations. This dissertation examines the construct of psychopathy among Lebanese adults, to assess its meaning, relevance, and utility among this population and compares the responses of Lebanese to American adults. The design of this study involves: 1) a comparison of Lebanese and American adults on measures of psychopathy and its correlates and 2) an examination of the associations between the affective and behavioral correlates of psychopathy, such as impulsivity, antisocial traits, empathy, contextualism, and trauma, in both the Lebanese and American samples. Participants (N=139) included 53 males and 86 females, 59 Lebanese, 75 American, and 5 with dual-nationality who completed a survey either on-line or in-person. Results showed group differences: Americans scored higher than Lebanese on psychopathy, all the sub-scales of the Hare Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, antisocial traits, and trauma and lower than Lebanese on empathy. Only in the total sample, and not within the groups, the Callous Trait was found to be a mediator between trauma and psychopathy. Males in both groups scored higher than females on psychopathy and all the Hare Self-Report Psychopathy Scale subscales. Finally, limitations of this research, implications for the utility and relevance of the construct, and directions for future research are addressed.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Issa, Marie-Anne

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cathy Spatz Widom

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Chitra Raghavan
• Andrew Shiva
• Shuki Cohen
• Carlton Jama Adams

• Clinical Psychology
• Other Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Psychopathy
• culture
• Arab
• Lebanese
• antisocial
• trauma

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1536

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-2542