Examining the Association Between Childhood Cognitive Ability and Psychopathic Traits at Age 48

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Author(s)
Kavish, N
Bergstrøm, H
Narvey, C
Piquero, AR
Farrington, DP
Boutwell, BB
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2020
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Show full item recordAbstract
Despite early theorists suggesting that psychopathic traits are associated with higher intelligence, meta-analytic work has found that global psychopathy scores are actually negatively related to intelligence, albeit weakly. Furthermore, it was reported in the same meta-analytic work that the various dimensions of psychopathy were differentially related to intelligence. Importantly, virtually all of the research to date has relied on cross-sectional associations. The current study examined whether intelligence scores (verbal comprehension, nonverbal IQ, and a global intelligence composite) at age 8 were associated with ...
View more >Despite early theorists suggesting that psychopathic traits are associated with higher intelligence, meta-analytic work has found that global psychopathy scores are actually negatively related to intelligence, albeit weakly. Furthermore, it was reported in the same meta-analytic work that the various dimensions of psychopathy were differentially related to intelligence. Importantly, virtually all of the research to date has relied on cross-sectional associations. The current study examined whether intelligence scores (verbal comprehension, nonverbal IQ, and a global intelligence composite) at age 8 were associated with psychopathy scores at age 48 in a sample of White, urban male individuals from London (analytical n = 292). Results suggested a significant, but weak, inverse association between intelligence and the affective, lifestyle, and antisocial facets of psychopathy and a nonsignificant association with the interpersonal facet, as assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence suggesting that psychopathy, as conceptualized in most modern models, is either very weakly inversely related to or simply not a correlate of intelligence.
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View more >Despite early theorists suggesting that psychopathic traits are associated with higher intelligence, meta-analytic work has found that global psychopathy scores are actually negatively related to intelligence, albeit weakly. Furthermore, it was reported in the same meta-analytic work that the various dimensions of psychopathy were differentially related to intelligence. Importantly, virtually all of the research to date has relied on cross-sectional associations. The current study examined whether intelligence scores (verbal comprehension, nonverbal IQ, and a global intelligence composite) at age 8 were associated with psychopathy scores at age 48 in a sample of White, urban male individuals from London (analytical n = 292). Results suggested a significant, but weak, inverse association between intelligence and the affective, lifestyle, and antisocial facets of psychopathy and a nonsignificant association with the interpersonal facet, as assessed by the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence suggesting that psychopathy, as conceptualized in most modern models, is either very weakly inversely related to or simply not a correlate of intelligence.
View less >
Journal Title
Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment
Copyright Statement
© 2020 American Psycological Association. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. Reproduced here in accordance with publisher policy. Please refer to the journal link for access to the definitive, published version.
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This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advanced online version.
Subject
Psychology