Another piece for the puzzle: Psychophysiological indicators of the absence of empathic responding in Factor I psychopathy
type: CreativeWork
description: Antisocial behaviour has increasingly been identified as a problem in today's Western societies. One of the crucial issues is the question of identification, prevention and/or treatment. There is much debate among social scientists from different theoretical perspectives whether antisocial behaviours are a product of environmental influences or of biological predispositions. This study was lead by the assumption that there is a distinct group of antisocial individuals with a biological dimension (psychopathy Factor I), who can be distinguished early in life from merely delinquent individuals. As the research literature indicates, lack of empathy seems to be a prominent marker distinguishing psychopathic reactions from other antisocial behaviours. The overall aim of this research was to investigate whether psychophysiological indicators are powerful enough in detecting the absence of empathic responding in psychopathy Factor I. The main research questions explored were: whether empathy and psychopathy Factor I are inversely related to each other; whether it would be possible to discriminate empathic (i.e., empathy-analogues) from non-empathic children (i.e., psychopathy-analogues); and finally, whether psychophysiological measures (heart rate and skin conductance) would prove to be useful assessment tools for this task. Fifty boys, aged five years, from 22 different schools, participated in this study. They were pre-selected by their teachers to fit either into a group of 'non-empathic/difficulties with social behaviours', or a second group 'highly empathic' (via pre-screening checklist). The children's group membership remained unknown to the researcher. Each boy was tested twice. The first session (Phase A) involved the administration of test batteries using potential measures of dispositional empathy and psychopathy, whereas the second session (Phase B) included the ambulatory measurement of the children's heart rate and skin conductance, while they were watching …
abstract: Antisocial behaviour has increasingly been identified as a problem in today's Western societies. One of the crucial issues is the question of identification, prevention and/or treatment. There is much debate among social scientists from different theoretical perspectives whether antisocial behaviours are a product of environmental influences or of biological predispositions. This study was lead by the assumption that there is a distinct group of antisocial individuals with a biological dimension (psychopathy Factor I), who can be distinguished early in life from merely delinquent individuals. As the research literature indicates, lack of empathy seems to be a prominent marker distinguishing psychopathic reactions from other antisocial behaviours. The overall aim of this research was to investigate whether psychophysiological indicators are powerful enough in detecting the absence of empathic responding in psychopathy Factor I. The main research questions explored were: whether empathy and psychopathy Factor I are inversely related to each other; whether it would be possible to discriminate empathic (i.e., empathy-analogues) from non-empathic children (i.e., psychopathy-analogues); and finally, whether psychophysiological measures (heart rate and skin conductance) would prove to be useful assessment tools for this task. Fifty boys, aged five years, from 22 different schools, participated in this study. They were pre-selected by their teachers to fit either into a group of 'non-empathic/difficulties with social behaviours', or a second group 'highly empathic' (via pre-screening checklist). The children's group membership remained unknown to the researcher. Each boy was tested twice. The first session (Phase A) involved the administration of test batteries using potential measures of dispositional empathy and psychopathy, whereas the second session (Phase B) included the ambulatory measurement of the children's heart rate and skin conductance, while they were watching …
author: Isler, Veronika
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/2d8d192e-cad9-444c-b047-d51e59aedfa6/download
date published: 2003
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:21Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato