Antisocial Behavior: the Impact of Psychopathic Traits, Heart Rate Variability, and Gender
- PDF / 410,663 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 94 Downloads / 209 Views
Antisocial Behavior: the Impact of Psychopathic Traits, Heart Rate Variability, and Gender Lauren A. Delk 1
&
Derek P. Spangler 2 & Roberto Guerra 3 & Vincent Ly 1 & Bradley A. White 4
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Psychopathic traits and emotion regulation (ER) deficits increase vulnerability to engage in antisocial behavior (ASB), even in community contexts (e.g., college students engaging in risky driving, plagiarism, assaults, etc.). These behaviors are often illegal and risk harm to others, motivating research to understand and manage them. However, the potential moderating role of ER on the relationship between psychopathy and ASB, and how this may vary by gender, is unknown. The present study examined this question using vagally mediated high frequency heart rate variability (HRV) as an autonomic nervous system correlate of ER. We hypothesized that meanness and disinhibition traits influence on ASB would be buffered by high resting HRV, and further vary by gender. Undergraduate students (n = 122, 65% female, ages 18–24 years, 71% Caucasian) reported on psychopathic traits and ASB prior to baseline HRV assessment. Psychopathic disinhibition uniquely predicted ASB in men and women. The role of meanness was qualified by gender and HRV. Specifically, high HRV in women buffered against high meanness expression as ASB, while the relationship was not significant for men. Findings suggest that expression of certain psychopathic traits as ASB may depend upon one’s gender and cardiac vagal ER processes. Thus, it may be helpful to consider biological factors in assessment and treatment of personality traits and antisocial behavior. Keywords Antisocial behavior . Psychopathy . Heart rate variability . Emotion regulation . Gender
Introduction Antisocial behavior (ASB) ranges from potentially legal yet damaging acts (e.g., lying), to criminal nonviolent (e.g., theft), and violent (e.g., sexual coercion) behaviors (Skeem et al. 2011). Antisocial misconduct is not uncommon in the general population, even on college campuses (e.g., parking and driving violations, theft, plagiarism, illegal use of substances, physical and sexual assault). The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that in 2011, college campuses with 2500 or more students recorded approximately 45 violent crimes and 1049 * Lauren A. Delk [email protected]
property crimes per 100,000 students (Reaves 2015). Since ASB causes serious personal and social harm, efforts have entailed understanding what contributes to vulnerability for ASB. In this regard, psychopathy and psychophysiological indicators, such as low resting vagally mediated heart rate variability, have been posited as risk factors for antisocial behavior (Beauchaine et al. 2007; Millon et al. 2002). The contributions of these risk factors to vulnerability for ASB are often examined in isolation despite theoretical suggestions that they interact to influence ASB (Beauchaine 2012). The current study addresses this limitation by examining interactions betw
Data Loading...
