Silvio José Lemos Vasconcellos

Psychopathic traits in adolescents and recognition of emotion in facial expressions

Recent studies have investigated the ability of adult psychopaths and children with psychopathy traits to identify specific facial expressions of emotion. Conclusive results have not yet been found regarding whether psychopathic traits are associated with a specific deficit in the ability of identifying negative emotions such as fear and sadness. This study compared 20 adolescents with psychopathic traits and 21 adolescents without these traits in terms of their ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion using facial stimuli presented during 200 milliseconds, 500 milliseconds, and 1 second expositions. Analyses indicated significant differences between the two groups performances only for fear and when displayed for 200 ms. This finding is consistent with findings from other studies in the field and suggests that controlling the duration of exposure to affective stimuli in future studies may help to clarify the mechanisms underlying the facial affect recognition deficits of individuals with psychopathic traits.

Medida Interpessoal de Psicopatia (IM-P): estudo preliminar no contexto brasileiro

INTRODUCTION: The direct observation of interpersonal behaviors is an important resource in the description and diagnosis of the psychopathic personality. The Interpersonal Measure of Psychopathy (IM-P) is a psychometric instrument comprised of 21 items, designed to be applied in association with other instruments that also evaluate psychopaths. It focuses specifically on interpersonal and non-verbal behaviors that become evident during the interaction between the interviewer and individuals with psychopathic characteristics. OBJECTIVE: To describe preliminary results obtained in the assessment of interpersonal behaviors of psychopathic individuals using the IM-P, including instrument translation/adaptation and inter-rater reliability results, in a sample of Brazilian adolescents. METHOD: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive, correlation study conducted with a sample of 20 institutionalized male adolescents from the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil. Following instrument translation, interviewer training, and a pilot study conducted using a semi-structured interview, the IM-P was scored by three independent raters. RESULTS: The statistical results obtained using Kendalls coefficient of concordance revealed a high and satisfactory inter-rater agreement for IM-P total scores (W = 0.84; p < 0.001). Some items showed conflicting results and were therefore discussed and evaluated separately. CONCLUSION: The psychometric properties of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the IM-P, as assessed in this preliminary study, showed consistent inter-rater concordance, suggesting instrument reliability. Some study limitations are discussed, as are some relevant aspects that should be taken into consideration in future research involving the IM-P.

Implicações da teoria da evolução para a psicologia: a perspectiva da psicologia evolucionista

A ideia de que o comportamento humano esta baseado em instintos mostrou-se popular entre os psicologos ha cem anos. Na atualidade, os psicologos evolucionistas vem postulando que o comportamento e fortemente influenciado por fatores hereditarios, e que os mesmos objetivam ampliar a aptidao. O principal proposito deste estudo foi introduzir e discutir a teoria evolucionista e suas implicacoes para a area de psicologia. Os autores revisaram artigos e livros sobre o tema. Este artigo pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento de um novo paradigma para a etologia e para a psicologia comparativa no âmbito da psicologia brasileira.

Psicopatia e Reconhecimento de Expressões Faciais de Emoções: Uma Revisão Sistemática

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by anti-social behavior, compromised judgment and deficits of emotional processing. Researchers have been investigating the ability of psychopaths and individuals with psychopathic traits to recognize emotions expressed through the face. The present study performed a systematic review using the main international databases of articles about this theme, published between 1975 and 2013. Seventeen articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria of this review. The results evidenced the use of non-converging methods and suggest that psychopathy is related to deficits in recognition of negative feelings. Confirmatory data can only be achieved through a methodological standardization. In future studies the use of distinct stimuli exposure time is suggested.Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by anti-social behavior, compromised judgment and deficits of emotional processing. Researchers have been investigating the ability of psychopaths and individuals with psychopathic traits to recognize emotions expressed through the face. The present study performed a systematic review using the main international databases of articles about this theme, published between 1975 and 2013. Seventeen articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria of this review. The results evidenced the use of non-converging methods and suggest that psychopathy is related to deficits in recognition of negative feelings. Confirmatory data can only be achieved through a methodological standardization. In future studies the use of distinct stimuli exposure time is suggested.

Psychopathic traits in adolescence: a review

Currently, and throughout the history of mental healthcare, the literature highlights that there is no agreement on the use of the terms antisocial personality disorder and psychopathic personality. This paper aims to promote a debate over these concepts and their evaluation for both adults and adolescents. With this aim, a systematic review was conducted in the MedLine data base between 1968 and March 2011 using the terms adolescent, antisocial personality disorder, and personality assessment. From the 59 identified articles 29 were selected to further analysis. The discussion of these terms was confirmed, as well as the importance of assessing psychopathic traits during adolescence. An initial tendency to disregard the term psychopathy and its affective implications was evidenced. However, the latest psychological instruments return to the discussion regarding the use of this diagnosis and its implications.

The effect of bilingualism on cognitive and auditory abilities in normally hearing adults

Purpose: to evaluate and compare cognitive and auditory abilities in normally hearing monolingual and bilingual individuals. Methods: the sample consisted of 21 normally hearing individuals ranging in age between 18 and 25 years, divided into a control group of eight monolingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese and a study group composed of 13 bilingual speakers of Brazilian Portuguese and German or Italian. The individuals underwent basic audiological assessments as well as assessments of cognitive and auditory figure-background abilities with the BPR-5 and SSW tests, respectively. Results: the assessment of cognitive abilities showed that bilinguals had a better performance for the general cognitive function, with a statistically significant difference, as well as for cognitive abilities of verbal, spatial and mechanical reasoning. Also, for auditory figure-background abilities, there was a statistically significant difference between the study groups, with bilinguals showing a better performance. Conclusions: based on the study groups, it was found that the bilingual subjects had a better performance of their general cognitive function, as compared with monolingual speakers, as well as in their specific cognitive abilities of verbal, spatial and mechanical reasoning, and in the auditory figure-background abilities.

Gênero e a capacidade de identificação de emoções expressas pela face

Recognizing emotional expressions is enabled by a fundamental sociocognitive mechanism of human nature. This study compared 114 women and 104 men on the identification of basic emotions on a recognition task that used culturally adapted and validated faces to the Brazilian context. It was also investigated whether gender differences on emotion recognition would vary according to different exposure times. Women were generally better at detecting facial expressions, but an interaction suggested that the female superiority was particularly observed for anger, disgust, and surprise; results did not change according to age or time exposure. However, regardless of sex, total accuracy improved as presentation times increased, but only fear and anger significantly differed between the presentation times. Hence, in addition to the support of the evolutionary hypothesis of the female superiority in detecting facial expressions of emotions, recognition of facial expressions also depend on the time available to correctly identify an expression.

A cognição social dos psicopatas: achados científicos recentes

O psicopata apresenta tracos na personalidade relacionados a ausencia de remorso e uma maior dominância social, expressos muitas vezes como manipulacao de outros individuos. Em estudos atuais sugere-se que psicopatas podem apresentar deficiencias no processamento de estimulos emocionais em uma situacao de interacao social. Este estudo tem por objetivo realizar uma revisao teorica, nao sistematica, discutindo pesquisas recentes sobre o tema. A partir da leitura, conclui-se que novas consideracoes revelam-se pertinentes, pois nem sempre o tipo de disfuncao da cognicao social dos psicopatas e explicito na literatura. Sugere-se que outros metodos para avaliar a capacidade dos psicopatas em identificar as emocoes possam ser investigadas, alem de identificar a medida das estrategias interpessoais. Em termos gerais, apresenta-se uma proposta de reflexao para um transtorno cuja compreensao etiologica deve ser biopsicossocial, contribuindo para assinalar novas direcoes nas pesquisas voltadas para a cognicao social dos psicopatas.

Depressão, ansiedade e psicopatia: um estudo correlacional com indivíduos privados de liberdade

Objective Evaluate the levels of correlation between depression, anxiety and psychopathy in 25 prisoners in a city of Rio Grande do Sul. Methods To collect the data, we used Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory as well as the Hare Psychopathy Scale. The interviews were conducted individually in a prison house. Results We found statistically significant correlation between depression and anxiety, and the total score of psychopathy was not correlated with anxiety, only with depression. On the other hand, the factor 2 of the scale, related to the behavioral aspect of the disorder, correlated with anxiety and depression. Conclusion Although some data were consistent with the literature, this research has shown results which were not obtained in previous studies. Thus, it highlights the need for further studies in the area.

Abertura à Experiência e Preferência por Paisagens Naturais: uma Abordagem Evolucionista

A psicologia evolucionista concebe a personalidade em termos de estruturas de inferencia que se manifestam como tendencias ou disposicoes comportamentais. Nessa perspectiva, o Modelo dos Cinco Grandes Fatores da personalidade referem-se a cinco dimensoes amplas influenciadas por sistemas motivacionais. Este artigo apresenta um estudo avaliando a relacao entre abertura a experiencias e preferencias por determinados ambientes naturais. O estudo tambem investigou a escolha por ambientes considerados mais seguros pelos participantes. Duas facetas da Escala Fatorial de Abertura a Experiencia (Atitudes e Fantasia) mostraram-se positivamente correlacionadas com as medidas de percepcao de seguranca, mas nenhuma faceta da escala correlacionou-se com as preferencias simples. A pesquisa sugere a necessidade de metodos mais acurados para a investigacao da relacao entre personalidade e a preferencia por determinadas condicoes ambientais.