Angela S. Book

The relationship between testosterone and aggression: a meta-analysis

Abstract In non-human animals, the relationship between testosterone and aggression is well established. In humans, the relationship is more controversial. To clarify the relationship, Archer conducted three meta-analyses and found a weak, positive relationship between testosterone and aggression. Unfortunately, each of the analyses included only five to six studies. The aim of the present study was to re-examine the relationship between testosterone and aggression with a larger sample of studies. The present analyses are based on 45 independent studies (N=9760) with 54 independent effect sizes. Only studies that reported a p-value or effect size were included in the analyses and the sample may underestimate the proportion of non-significant findings in the population. Correlations ranged from −0.28 to 0.71. The mean weighted correlation (r=0.14) corroborates Archers finding of a weak positive relationship.

Psychopaths: cheaters or warrior-hawks?

From a life history perspective, psychopaths can be thought to pursue both social cheating and warrior-hawk strategies. The Cheater Hypothesis suggests that psychopaths would exhibit more indignation, and less empathy and altruism than nonpsychopaths. According to the Warrior-Hawk Hypothesis, psychopaths should also be more aggressive. Questionnaires measuring empathy, altruism, indignation, antisociality, aggression, and behavioral activation and inhibition were administered to 37 psychopathic inmates, 40 nonpsychopathic inmates, 42 community recruited volunteers, and 38 undergraduate students. Both hypotheses received some support: psychopathic participants scored significantly higher than other participants on measures of indignation and aggression. Consistent with both hypotheses, psychopaths also had a lower ratio of behavioral inhibition to activation than other participants. Contrary to expectations, psychopaths did not score lower on measures of empathy or altruism.

The Dynamic Prediction of Antisocial Behavior Among Forensic Psychiatric Patients A Prospective Field Study

Staff ratings of 595 supervised forensic psychiatric patients on the Proximal Risk Factor Scale and the Problem Identification Checklist were completed monthly for an average of 33 months. During the follow-up, there were 265 incidents, 86 of which were violent. The average ratings, excluding those from the index month, differentiated patients who had incidents from those who did not. As well, the average ratings distinguished between individuals with and without incidents of a violent or sexual nature. There were significant increases in staff ratings in the months preceding the index incident month. Within-patient analyses showed that changes in dynamic risk scales comprising the best items for predicting incidents of any kind and violent or sexual incidents were strongly related to their respective outcomes and were significantly related to outcome in an independent sample. Changes in monthly staff ratings predict the imminent occurrence of antisocial and violent behaviors.

Psychopathy and Victim Selection The Use of Gait as a Cue to Vulnerability

Previous research has shown that victims display characteristic body language, specifically in their walking style (Grayson & Stein, 1981). Individuals scoring higher on the interpersonal/affective aspects of psychopathy (Factor 1) are more accurate at judging victim vulnerability simply from viewing targets walking (Wheeler, Book, & Costello, 2009). The present study examines the relation between psychopathy and accuracy in assessing victim vulnerability in a sample of inmates from a maximum security penitentiary in Ontario, Canada. Forty-seven inmates viewed short video clips of targets walking and judged how vulnerable each target was to victimization. Higher Factor 1 psychopathy scores (as measured by the PCL-R; Hare 2003) were positively related to accuracy in judging victim vulnerability. Contrary to research with noninstitutional participants (Wheeler et al., 2009), inmates higher on Factor 1 of psychopathy were more likely to rationalize their vulnerability judgments by mentioning the victim’s gait. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Research Report: Personality and behavior in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) present new and important opportunities for studying the connections between personality and behavior. Players of the MMORPG World of Warcraft were surveyed on their personalities and frequency of different behaviors within the game. An exploratory principal components analysis of a World of Warcraft in-game behavior survey revealed six components: Player-versus-Player, Social Player-versus-Environment, Working, Helping, Immersion, and Core Content. Significant correlations with HEXACO personality traits were found for each component. Player-versus-Player activities were primarily related to low levels of Honesty-Humility and also to high levels of psychopathic traits. Social Player-versus-Environment activities were primarily positively correlated with Extraversion, Working activities were positively correlated with Conscientiousness, Helping and Immersion activities were positively correlated with Openness to Experience, and Core Content activities were positively correlated with Emotionality. The authors discuss the implications of these results for future research and game design.

Psychopathic Sexuality: The Thin Line Between Fantasy and Reality

In two studies, we explored the relations between psychopathic traits and sexual fantasy content. In Study 1, we rated content themes in the fantasy narratives of 195 men and women recruited at a Canadian university. In Study 2, we administered a sexual fantasy questionnaire to a sample of 355 Canadian undergraduate students. In Study 1, we found that psychopathic traits predicted themes of anonymous, uncommitted, and nonromantic sexual activity after controlling for participant sex. In Study 2, we found that psychopathy added to the prediction of self-reported engagement in unrestricted, dominant, submissive, deviant, and adventurous sexual activity, even after controlling for participant sex and level of fantasizing about that activity. Furthermore, an interaction between psychopathy and level of fantasizing was observed for unrestricted and deviant sexual behavior, such that participants who reported high levels of fantasizing about these sexual themes were more likely to engage in that behavior if they also reported high levels of psychopathic traits. These findings suggest that psychopathy is related not only to interest in particular sexual behaviors, but also to whether individuals will translate these fantasized behaviors into reality.

A Factor Analysis of Traits Related to Individual Differences in Antisocial Behavior

Male undergraduates and men from the local community completed questionnaires dealing with antisocial behavior, aggression, mating effort, and self-esteem. An exploratory maximum likelihood factor analysis revealed three factors, labeled Aggressiveness, Mating Success, and Antisociality. No clear mating effort factor emerged. Number of sexual partners and Preference for Partner Variety loaded on Mating Success, but age at first intercourse loaded on Antisociality. The only significant correlation among the factors was between Aggressiveness and Antisociality. Variables from each of the 3 factors discriminated between individuals scoring at the extreme ends of the Childhood and Adolescence Taxon Scale–Self Report, a measure containing items previously shown to identify a discrete class of antisocial offenders.

Experimental faking in self-reported psychopathology: unidimensional or multidimensional?

Abstract This study examined the dimensionality of experimental faking on self-report inventories of psychopathology. For a sample of 260 undergraduates, the latent structure of response style scales indicated that intentional deception was not unidimensional. In particular, distinct dimensions emerged for positive and negative faking. These findings suggest that D. L. Paulhus’ (1984) two-component model of socially desirable responding is incomplete for the description of conscious test dissimulation. Additional experimental and naturalistic research is recommended for establishing the full nature of intentional distortion in test responding.

Dimensions of video game behavior and their relationships with personality

University students completed measures of personality and behavior in video games.Dimensions of in-game behavior were Aggressing, Winning, Creating, and Helping.Men reported more Aggressing, Winning, and Helping behaviors than women.Controlling for sex, Honesty-Humility was negatively correlated with Aggressing.Controlling for sex, Agreeableness was positively correlated with Helping. As video games become increasingly popular pastimes, it becomes more important to understand how different individuals behave when they play these games. Previous research has focused mainly on behavior in massively multiplayer online role-playing games; therefore, in the current study we sought to extend on this research by examining the connections between personality traits and behaviors in video games more generally. Two hundred and nineteen university students completed measures of personality traits, psychopathic traits, and a questionnaire regarding frequency of different behaviors during video game play. A principal components analysis of the video game behavior questionnaire revealed four factors: Aggressing, Winning, Creating, and Helping. Each behavior subscale was significantly correlated with at least one personality trait. Men reported significantly more Aggressing, Winning, and Helping behavior than women. Controlling for participant sex, Aggressing was negatively correlated with Honesty-Humility, Helping was positively correlated with Agreeableness, and Creating was negatively correlated with Conscientiousness. Aggressing was also positively correlated with all psychopathic traits, while Winning and Creating were correlated with one psychopathic trait each. Frequency of playing video games online was positively correlated with the Aggressing, Winning, and Helping scales, but not with the Creating scale. The results of the current study provide support for previous research on personality and behavior in massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

Using Reality Monitoring to Improve Deception Detection in the Context of the Cognitive Interview for Suspects

Research has found that deception detection accuracy in the context of suspect interrogation hovers around chance levels. Geiselman (2012) adapted the cognitive interview (typically used for witnesses) for use with suspects (CIS) and found that judgments of deception were more accurate than previous interrogation techniques. The current study attempted to use the CIS to improve deception detection with Reality Monitoring (RM: Vrij et al., 2008), which has already been validated in the context of witness statements. One hundred sixty-six undergraduate students were randomly assigned to 2 conditions. In the Truthful condition, participants played a game with a confederate, whereas in the Deceptive condition, participants rehearsed (but did not experience) a synopsis of the game scenario. Participants in the Deceptive condition were also instructed to steal