Wydział Psychologii, Uniwersytet Humanistycznospołeczny SWPS, Warszawa.
Psychiatr Pol. 2021 Dec 31;55(6):1235-1255. doi: 10.12740/PP/120939.
The issue of specific cognitive deficits in psychopathy is still open for debate. Much evidencepoints to problems with affective empathy. The current study aims to verify the hypothesis about the correlation between psychopathic traits, difficulties in complex affect expression recognition and making moral decisions without taking into account the aspect of potential harm.
58 males were studied (student and inmate groups). Psychopathy was assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Recognition of complex emotional expressions was assessed with the Faces subset of the Emotional Intelligence Scale and moral inclinations to avoid harm ("deontological") and maximize consequences ("utilitarian") were measured via the process dissociation method.
Inmates generally showed deficiencies in correct expression recognition, for both positive and negative stimuli. Inmates with high psychopathy additionally showed high rate of false positive perceptions of negative emotions. High psychopathy inmates showed lower, than low psychopathy inmates and students, inclination to avoid harm. High psychopathy was related to declarations that the presented moral dilemmas were "easy decisions". Group differences in the inclination to maximize consequences in moral decisions were not significant.
Results support the hypothesis that psychopathy is related to ageneral deficiency in affective processing. Psychopathic traitsare related to worse recognition of complex emotional expressions which does not manifest itself as uncertainty, but as high rate of false positives. Inmates with psychopathic traits also declare that the presented moral sacrificial dilemmas require "easy decisions" and show reduced responsivity to harm. An important and problematic element of psychopathy seems to be the dysfunctional affective empathy with a simultaneous unawareness of these dysfunctions.
精神变态者特定认知缺陷的问题仍存在争议。大量证据指向情感共情问题。本研究旨在验证关于精神变态特征与复杂情感表达识别困难以及在不考虑潜在伤害因素的情况下做出道德决策之间存在相关性的假设。
研究了 58 名男性（学生和囚犯群体）。使用修订后的精神变态检查表（PCL-R）评估精神变态。使用情感智力量表的面部子集评估复杂情感表达的识别，通过过程分离方法测量避免伤害（“义务论”）和最大化后果（“功利主义”）的道德倾向。
囚犯通常在识别正性和负性刺激的正确表达方面表现出缺陷。高精神变态的囚犯还表现出对负性情绪的高假阳性感知。与低精神变态囚犯和学生相比，高精神变态囚犯表现出较低的避免伤害倾向。高精神变态与宣布所呈现的道德困境是“容易决策”有关。在道德决策中最大化后果的倾向方面，组间差异不显著。
结果支持精神变态与情感加工普遍缺陷有关的假设。精神变态特征与复杂情感表达的识别能力下降有关，这种下降不是表现为不确定性，而是表现为高假阳性率。具有精神变态特征的囚犯还宣布所呈现的道德牺牲困境需要“容易决策”，并表现出对伤害的反应性降低。精神变态的一个重要且有问题的特征似乎是情感共情功能障碍，同时对这些功能障碍缺乏认识。
