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University of North Texas

Adolescent Psychopathy in an Adjudicated Male Population: The Role of Sensation Seeking, Impulsivity, and Externalizing Disorders

Abstract

dc:description

Psychopathy, as conceptualized by Cleckley (1941), describes a constellation of psychological and behavioral correlates including superficial charm, untruthfulness, lack of remorse or shame, poor judgment, and failure to learn from experience. Based on Cleckley's initial work, Hare (1991) developed a two-factor model of psychopathy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles that sensation seeking, impulsivity, ADHD, conduct disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder have on adolescents classified as psychopaths. The participants consisted of 79 adjudicated male adolescents in a maximum-security facility. As hypothesized, adolescent male psychopaths had higher levels of sensation seeking, impulsivity, conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. A discriminant function analysis found that sensation seeking, impulsivity, ADHD, Conduct Disorder, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder was moderately useful in classifying adolescent psychopathy. The results suggest that behavioral dysregulation is an important aspect of adolescent psychopathy. The relationship of these data to theories of adolescent psychopathy is discussed.

Degree

thesis:*
Grantor dc:publisher
University of North Texas
Year dc:date
2002

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Vitacco, Michael J.
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Rogers, Richard, 1950-
  • Sewell, Kenneth W.
  • Neumann, Craig S.

Subjects

dc:subject × 9

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • Public
  • Copyright
  • Vitacco, Michael J.
  • Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
Language dc:language
English

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Identifier
oclc: 50923500
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3198/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc3198
OAI identifier oai:identifier
info:ark/67531/metadc3198

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of North Texas
Base URL
digital.library.unt.edu/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Vitacco, Michael J.. Adolescent Psychopathy in an Adjudicated Male Population: The Role of Sensation Seeking, Impulsivity, and Externalizing Disorders. University of North Texas, 2002. https://doi.org/10.12794/metadc3198