Date of Graduation
5-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Psychological Science
Advisor/Mentor
Shields, Grant
Committee Member/Reader
Zabelina, Darya
Committee Member/Second Reader
Villaseñor, Amelia
Committee Member/Third Reader
Davidson, Fiona
Abstract
Psychopathy is characterized as an individual exhibiting callousness, grandiosity, lack of empathy, and manipulative behavior towards others over a long period of time. Given these symptoms, psychopathy is associated with a markedly increased risk of arrest and imprisonment. Together, these findings highlight the importance of understanding the cause(s) of psychopathy, as doing so may help to develop treatments or preventative interventions. Prior work has suggested that structural abnormalities in the amygdala may play a role in clinical psychopathy; however, it is less clear whether amygdala abnormalities exist on a continuum of psychopathic traits. In this study, I aimed to determine whether psychopathic traits are associated with smaller amygdala volume. To this end, twenty-nine participants were recruited for this study. Each participant completed a short self-report assessment of psychopathic traits, after which time they entered the MRI scanner. Drawing on some prior clinical psychopathy work, I predicted that greater psychopathic traits would relate to smaller volume in the amygdala. In contrast to my hypothesis, however, I found a positive association between psychopathic traits and right amygdala volume. These results suggest potential differential associations with specific amygdala nuclei, or differential associations of amygdala volumes with psychopathic traits versus clinical symptoms - either of which point to important avenues for future research.
Keywords
psychopathy; psychopathic traits; MRI; structural imaging; amygdala
Citation
Zalenski, P. (2023). Psychopathy in Society: Understanding the Neural Mechanisms that Give Rise to Psychopathic Traits. Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/psycuht/48