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Stress and the military go hand-in-hand, particularly in combat environments. While some personality traits or types weaken relationships between stress and performance, others, such as psychopathy, may strengthen them. In the present chapter, we consider the ramifications of individuals with high levels of psychopathy or psychopathic tendencies in the military with regard to both their own stress and performance and that of those around them. We discuss different reactions to psychological and physical stress, as well as the implications of psychopathic tendencies as they relate to current military issues, including gender, leadership, teamwork, turnover, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide. By juxtaposing relevant research findings on stress and psychopathy, we conclude that psychopathic tendencies should have neither uniformly negative nor positive effects on stress and performance in the military. Rather, effects on such individuals and the peripheral others with whom they interact will likely vary greatly depending on numerous factors.

To replicate and extend research on psychopathy and intrinsic interpersonal preferences under the broader umbrella of affiliation, intimacy and antagonism, this paper aims to examine motivational correlates of psychopathy in a nonclinical sample (N = 125).

We used a multimethod design, including self-reports, a behavioral task and a physiological assessment of motive dispositions (automatic affective reactions to stimuli of interpersonal transactions measured with facial electromyography).

Results showed that self-reported psychopathy was negatively associated with self-reported intimacy motive. In the same vein, via the social discounting task, this paper found a negative association between psychopathy and a tendency to share hypothetical monetary amounts with very close others. Finally, regarding fEMG findings, multilevel analyses revealed that although individuals with low levels of psychopathy reacted more positively to affiliative stimuli, individuals with high levels of psychopathy reacted equally positively to both affiliative and antagonistic stimuli, and these results were robust across psychopathy measures. Results remained mostly unchanged on the subscale level.

These findings highlight the contribution of multimethod assessments in capturing nuances of motivation. Implicit physiological measures might be particularly sensitive in capturing motive dispositions in relation to psychopathy. Identifying mechanisms that foster positive connections between psychopathic traits and nonprosocial tendencies may be theoretically and clinically informative, with implications for forensic and penal practices.

Zara et al. (2023) provide novel findings into how psychopathy may develop, showing that early life predictors of poor relationships (e.g. being unwanted before birth) are predictive of psychopathy in adulthood. The authors provide a theoretical interpretation of why psychopathy might develop based on these findings by using an adaptive perspective, suggesting that psychopathy may protect or shield individuals from poor relationships. This commentary aims to critically evaluate and extend this latter suggestion in hopes of fostering further research and clarity on the topic.

After presenting an overview of evolutionary perspectives, a summary and elaboration are presented of the interpretation that psychopathy may be an adaptive response that functions to protect individuals from poor relationships. Then, an additional adaptive interpretation is offered.

Psychopathy describes a collection of traits and behavior that facilitates an approach-oriented and exploitative motivational style that might suggest more than a protective function. When negative or poor relationships are experienced (e.g. being unwanted), it is suggested that psychopathy may begin to develop not just for protection (If I am not loved, I will shield myself from those around me) but to actively orient toward exploitation (If I am not loved, I will exploit those around me).

This commentary hopes to arouse further interest into the theoretical interpretations of why psychopathy may develop that are based on findings of how psychopathy develops. These considerations are consequential for understanding what to target in treatments that aim to meet the specific needs and motivations of individuals with psychopathic traits.

The Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (Tri-PM) was developed in 2010 as an alternative approach to the assessment of psychopathy. The measure aims to capture psychopathic traits on a 3-factor model, which encompass the characteristics established in previous measures, as well as those evidenced within practise. Though support for the tool in academic research is growing, less is known about the scale’s utility within crime forensic settings. Thus, this study aims to explore the relationship between the Tri-PM psychopathy constructs and criminal cognition within a forensic sample.

Seventy-three adult male offenders, convicted for acquisitive or sexual crimes, from a Category B prison within the Northwest of England completed questionnaires measuring their criminal backgrounds, psychopathy traits (Tri-PM; Patrick, 2010) and criminal thinking styles (Psychology Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles; Walters, 2001).

The Tri-PM measurement proved to be a successful predictor of most criminal thinking styles. Moreover, the meanness construct was the strongest predictor of proactive thinking styles, whereas the disinhibition construct was the strongest predictor of reactive thinking styles, and the boldness construct was negatively associated with reactive thinking. Comparisons among offender groups also indicated that acquisitive offenders reported higher scores of psychopathy and criminal thinking.

This study offers valuable insight into the proposed relationship between psychopathy and criminal thinking, using a recent addition to the repertoire of psychopathy measurements, the Tri-PM. This study also offers practical implications for those offering treatment within forensic settings, with significant relationships identified between the highly scoring psychopathy constructs and various criminal thinking styles.

Effective treatment of patients with severe psychopathy is very difficult to achieve. This conclusion may be drawn from an extensive examination into the usage of the term ‘psychopathy’ in scientific research literature, in theoretical development from various psychological schools of thought, in the practice of therapy and in assessment. The central issue for the authors of this article is the inability of severely psychopathic patients to commit to the patient‐therapist relationship. Attachment theory and mentalisation‐based treatment are used here to define the cause and nature of this inability, which is incurred in very early childhood. These two models can aid in the development of more dynamic definitions of psychopathy, better suited to dynamic therapy formats.The ways in which psychopathy is defined partly account for a number of problems encountered in the practice of therapy. The authors assume that the treatment of psychopathy should be interactional and should match patients' individual levels of psychological development and mentalisation; highly psychopathic patients often perceive others as objects, ie. as part of the context, not as subjects, ie. autonomous personalities.The authors propose to conduct further research in order to verify the validity of their hypothesis. They also put forward a number of suggestions for therapy formats with a view to establishing effective working relationships with psychopathic patients.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of psychopathy on employees’ creativity through the mediating role of work engagement and negative socioemotional behavior (NSEB). It also attempts to investigate the moderating effect of abusive supervision on the relationship between psychopathy and work engagement, psychopathy and NSEB.

Data were collected at two-time intervals with a time-lag of three months. The final sample comprised of 267 public sector paramedical staff and supervisors in different hospitals from the southern provinces of China.

The study results show that individuals with a high level of psychopathic tendencies show a higher NSEB. Moreover, abusive supervision simulates negative social and emotional behaviors of those employees with psychopathic tendencies, which inhibit the emergence of novel and useful ideas.

This study is distinctive from earlier studies by presenting novel findings that employees with psychopathic tendencies are reactive to abusive supervision. Additionally, this study presents valuable implications and future research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between resting heart rate (RHR) and psychopathy. The literature on heart rate vs criminality (including violence) is quite clear; low RHR is associated with engaging in violent and criminal behavior. However, results are not as consistent for psychopathy.

This paper analyzes heart rate measured at ages 18 and 48, and psychopathy at age 48, in the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development (CSDD). The CSDD is a prospective longitudinal study that has followed 411 boys from childhood to middle age, and measured social and biological factors of interest to the field of criminal psychology.

Interestingly, it was only heart rate at age 18 that was negatively and significantly related to psychopathy at age 48. No trends or relationships were found between heart rate at age 48 and psychopathy at age 48. The findings do, however, indicate that low heart rate at age 18 predicts psychopathy at age 48, and the strongest negative relationships are found between low heart rate (beats per minute) and impulsive and antisocial psychopathic symptoms.

This is the first ever longitudinal study showing that low RHR predicts later psychopathy. Suggestions for future research are outlined.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between leader psychopathy and organizational deviance. In particular, the authors introduce employee’s psychological safety as the mediator. Furthermore, the moderating role of moral disengagement in the relationship between leader psychopathy and organizational deviance is also considered.

The data of this study include 611 certified nurses from 9 university hospitals in Turkey. The proposed model was tested by using hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The results of this study supported the positive effect of leader psychopathy on organizational deviance along with the mediating effect of employee’s psychological safety. Furthermore, when the level of moral disengagement is low, the relationship between leader psychopathy and organizational deviance is weak, whereas the effect is strong when the level of moral disengagement is high.

The findings of the study recommend that administrators in the healthcare industry ought to be sensitive in treating their subordinates, since it will result in positive organizational relationship, which, subsequently, will certainly reduce organizational deviance. Furthermore, they have to pay more focus on the buffering role of moral disengagement for all those subordinates with high distrust and displaying organizational deviance.

This paper contributes to the literature about workplace deviance by uncovering the relational mechanism between leader psychopathy and employee organizational deviance. Furthermore, it includes practical assistance to healthcare employees and their leaders interested in building trust, increasing leader–employee relationship and reducing organizational deviance.

Recent research has suggested that a heightened sensitivity to nonverbal cues may give individuals with psychopathic traits an advantage when selecting potential victims. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of gender on the association between psychopathy and perceptions of vulnerability to violent victimization.

A sample of 291 undergraduate students viewed a series of eight videos depicting individual female targets walking down a hallway from behind. Participants rated each target’s vulnerability to violent victimization and provided a justification for each rating. In addition to these ratings, participants completed the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale.

A series of hierarchical linear regressions revealed gender differences in the association between psychopathy and accuracy. Among male observers, total psychopathy scores, Factor 2 psychopathy scores, and scores on the antisocial behavior facet were positively associated with accuracy in perceiving vulnerability to violent victimization. Conversely, no associations were identified between psychopathy (total, Factors, and facets) and accuracy among female observers. This suggests that the adept ability to accurately perceive nonverbal cues signalling vulnerability is specific to males exhibiting psychopathic traits.

The results of the current study highlight the importance of distinguishing male and female psychopathy in research and practice. Moreover, with an understanding of individual differences in the ability to accurately perceive nonverbal cues associated with vulnerability, we may begin to develop intervention strategies aimed at reducing future incidences of victimization.

This paper aims to assess whether the factor structure of the Psychopathic Processing and Personality Assessment (PAPA) could be confirmed in a large community sample (n = 1,850), comprising three subsamples of adult men (n = 189, 248 and 198) and women (n = 499, 469 and 247). It was predicted that the four-factor solution originally proposed in earlier studies (i.e. dissocial tendencies, emotional detachment, disregard for others, lack of sensitivity to emotion) would be replicated and produce a multi-dimensional structure consistent across sex.

This study explored the structure of the newly developed PAPA among a non-forensic sample.

Although exploratory analysis indicated a four-factor solution, the structure was different with “lack of sensitivity to emotion” being replaced by “responsiveness to perceived aggression.” Confirmatory analyses supported this structure among women, yet a three-factor structure was preferred for men that excluded emotional detachment.

This study highlights the importance of attending to sex differences when assessing for psychopathy.

This is the first confirmatory factor analysis completed on the PAPA, with the findings conveying its value when assessing for psychopathic traits among a community sample.