Premium
Emotion and psychopathy: Startling new insights
Author(s) -
PATRICK CHRISTOPHER J.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1994.tb02440.x
Subject(s) - psychopathy , psychology , punishment (psychology) , moro reflex , empathy , temperament , cognitive psychology , extinction (optical mineralogy) , aversive stimulus , startle response , developmental psychology , neuroscience , reflex , personality , social psychology , paleontology , biology
Abnormal affective response in psychopaths is conceptualized within a broad theory of emotion that emphasizes reciprocal appetitive and defensive motivational systems. The startle response is proposed as a specific measure of the directional component of emotional activation. I review the literature that indicates that criminal psycho‐paths do not show the expected potentiation of the startle reflex that normally occurs during processing of aversive stimuli such as unpleasant photgraphs or punishment cues. Evidence is presented to demonstrate that this deviant response pattern is specific to individuals who display the classic affective symptoms of psychopathy. The core emotional deviation in psychopathy could be a deficit in fear response, which is defined as a failure of aversive cues to prime normal defensive actions. This emotional deficit may represent an extreme variant of normal temperament.