Department of Psychology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iasi, Romania.
Crim Behav Ment Health. 2024 Oct;34(5):446-461. doi: 10.1002/cbm.2351. Epub 2024 Sep 4.
Previous research has consistently shown value in studying emotion processing with psychopathy, but the relative effect of aural and visual stimulation has hardly been considered.
Our aims were to (1) compare reaction time and self-rated valence ((un)pleasantness), arousal and sense of being dominated by affective sounds or visual images among offenders with and without psychopathy (=/>26) on the psychopathy check-list revised; (2) investigate any associations, controlling for social desirability and depression; (3) explore the possible mediating effect of criminogenic cognitions on any relationships between psychopathy and emotional responses to affective stimuli.
Professional educators invited all male offenders serving semi-open custody sentences in one prison to participate. After a semi structured interview to assess psychopathy, they self-reported on criminogenic cognition, depression and social desirability scales, before a computer task using standardised human and animal sounds and images. Using the self-assessment manikin, participants rated the emotional valence, arousal and dominance levels when pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sounds or images were presented.
About one in three prisoners completed all the ratings-120 men, of mean age 38.8 years (SD = 11.06). All had shorter reaction times to sounds than images. Offenders with high affective-interpersonal factor scores rated all types of sounds as less pleasant. Men with high psychopathy scores took longer to respond to unpleasant images than those with lower scores. There was a positive relationship between psychopathy factors and criminogenic cognitions and the external locus of criminogenic cognitions mediated the relationship between psychopathy facets and emotional responses of valence to pleasant sounds.
Our findings confirm the potential importance of emotional reactions to sounds as well as images among men with psychopathy. Given the shorter reaction times to sounds, in real life sounds could prove more provocative than images. While only small differences emerged between men above and below the PCL-R threshold, indications from facet analyses suggest that further study of sound stimuli could enhance the understanding of emotional response differences to inform interventions. Future research in this area should focus on human-related stimuli and add alexithymia measures.
先前的研究一致表明，研究精神病态者的情绪处理具有价值，但听觉和视觉刺激的相对影响几乎没有被考虑到。
我们的目的是：(1) 比较有和无精神病态（=/>26 分）的罪犯在反应时间和自我评定的效价（愉悦/不愉悦）、唤醒度以及对情感声音或视觉图像的主导感方面的差异；(2) 控制社会期望和抑郁情况，调查任何关联；(3) 探索犯罪认知在精神病态与对情感刺激的情绪反应之间的关系中可能存在的中介作用。
职业教育者邀请了一所监狱中所有接受半开放式监禁的男性罪犯参与。在进行半结构化访谈以评估精神病态之后，他们填写了犯罪认知、抑郁和社会期望量表，然后使用标准化的人类和动物声音和图像进行计算机任务。参与者使用自我评估情绪效价仪，对愉悦、不愉悦和中性声音或图像呈现时的情绪效价、唤醒度和主导程度进行评定。
大约三分之一的囚犯完成了所有评分——120 名男性，平均年龄 38.8 岁（SD=11.06）。所有囚犯对声音的反应时间都比图像短。高情感人际因素得分的罪犯将所有类型的声音评定为不愉悦。高精神病态得分的男性对不愉悦图像的反应时间长于得分较低的男性。精神病态因素与犯罪认知呈正相关，而犯罪认知的外部归因中介了精神病态特征与对愉悦声音的情绪反应效价之间的关系。
我们的发现证实了情感反应对声音和图像在精神病态男性中的潜在重要性。鉴于对声音的反应时间较短，在现实生活中，声音可能比图像更具挑衅性。虽然 PCL-R 阈值以上和以下的男性之间只有很小的差异，但来自方面分析的迹象表明，对声音刺激的进一步研究可以增强对情绪反应差异的理解，为干预提供信息。该领域的未来研究应关注与人类相关的刺激，并增加述情障碍的测量。
