Psychopathic traits are associated with reduced empathy, lack of concern for others and a tendency for externalisation of blame, which are important motivating factors for monitoring our own...Show morePsychopathic traits are associated with reduced empathy, lack of concern for others and a tendency for externalisation of blame, which are important motivating factors for monitoring our own actions with negative consequences for others. Those with high levels of psychopathic traits may therefore engage in reduced performance monitoring in a social responsibility context than those with low levels. To investigate this, healthy adults scoring low or high on psychopathic traits (N=23 each) performed the error-responsibility task, a social variant of the Flanker task, in two contexts: they were led to believe their mistakes either resulted in non-harmful consequence (soft sound) or harmful consequence (loud, aversive sound) for a confederate. Error-related event-related potentials in the form of the error-related negativity (ERN), the early error positivity (Pe) and the late Pe were recorded as electrophysiological correlates of performance monitoring and analysed with linear mixed effect models. The study hypothesised that those scoring high on psychopathic traits would show reduced ERN amplitudes and differentiate less between the harmful versus non-harmful context than low scorers. As expected, ERN amplitudes were reduced for high scores in comparison to low scorers; context, however, did not affect any electrophysiological measures. Early and late Pe as well as behavioural measures were generally unaffected by psychopathic traits. These results indicate those scoring high on psychopathic traits engage in less performance monitoring in social responsibility contexts than low scorers, although further research is required to explore mediating factors such as motivation and examine whether this differs to a non-social context.Show less
Background: Until now research has concentrated on the implementation of the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI) among Western adolescents. However, the YPI, a self-report instrument for...Show moreBackground: Until now research has concentrated on the implementation of the Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI) among Western adolescents. However, the YPI, a self-report instrument for measuring psychopathic traits, has been investigated insufficiently for implementation among Moroccan adolescents. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the cross-ethnic generalization of the three factor model (Cooke & Michie, 2011) for Moroccan adolescents. In addition, research is done into the relation between the three factors of the YPI and psycho-social problems among Dutch and Moroccan adolescents. This study is based on a study by Veen et al. (2011). Methods: By means of a multi-group confirmative factor-analysis, the measuring invariance of the YPI is tested among Dutch and Moroccan adolescents from the normal population (n=283). The relation between the three factor model, externalizing- and internalizing problems has been studied by means of a Pearson correlation test. Results: The data of the random check support the three factor model of the YPI for the Dutch and Moroccan adolescents. It can be concluded that there is a good constructive validity of the YPI. Results of the correlation test confirm the strong positive relation between psychopathic traits and externalizing problems. There is also a positive but less strong relationship with the internalising problems. These relations are the same for both groups. The positive relationship between the three factors and pro-social behaviour is striking. Conclusion: The results of the survey imply that the YPI can be used without any problems on Moroccan adolescents from a standard group. They are therefore a good lead for further research into the generalization of the YPI among other ethnic groups. It is desirable for the further development of effective treatment programmes that research into the relationship between psychopathic traits and psycho-social problems is going to focus more on gender differences.Show less
In the Dutch society, Moroccan immigrant youth is overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. In this study, two different explanations for this overrepresentation were investigated. The first...Show moreIn the Dutch society, Moroccan immigrant youth is overrepresented in the juvenile justice system. In this study, two different explanations for this overrepresentation were investigated. The first theory tested whether a low socio-economic status can contribute to delinquency among Moroccan, Dutch and adolescents from other ethnic minorities. The second theory is based on the model of social defeat. This model hypothesizes that low self-esteem and feelings of being an outsider can lead to delinquent behaviour. This study examined the contribution of low self-esteem to delinquency among Moroccan, Dutch and adolescents from other ethnic minorities. Delinquency was measured by an important precursor of this behaviour: psychopathic traits. The data are based on 476 adolescents in the age of 12 to 17. The participants filled in multiple digital questionnaires at school to measure ethnicity, psychopathic traits and self-esteem. Results from moderation analysis indicated that there was no moderation effect for socio-economic status and ethnicity on psychopathic traits. However, a second moderation analysis showed that low self-esteem explained 9% of the variance in psychopathic traits among Moroccan youth whereas it explained 0% of the variance in psychopathic traits among Dutch and other ethnic minority youth. Concluding, low self-esteem, and therefore social defeat, is expected to influence delinquent behaviour among Moroccan youth. This result can be viewed as consistent with the fact that delinquent Moroccan youth feel more connected to the Dutch society than Moroccan youth in the regular population. The Moroccan youth who feel more ‘Dutch’ possibly experience more frustrations concerning their position in the society. The gap between wanted goals and achieved goals in the host society can lead to feelings of social defeat and delinquent behaviour. More research on the social defeat model is required to confirm these hypothesis.Show less
