blink rate of psychopaths (Patrick, Lang, Bradley)
bak...@yahoo.com
as pleasant? It is obvious that pictures that are deemed unpleasant by
normal people (pictures of violence) are very pleasant to a
psychopathic individual and hence normal startle reflex. That will
prove that Patrick et all were wrong that psychopaths have different
startle reflex.
Reference:
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/156/10/1550
"Cook et al. (11) reported greater emotional startle modulation among
highly fearful personalities in comparison with personalities with low
fear while they were viewing unpleasant slides, suggesting that an
enhanced startle modulation is associated with an increased tendency
to experience negative affective states. On the other hand, Patrick et
al. (12) found that potentiated startle was absent in psychopathic
individuals during exposure to unpleasant slides. This finding was
more closely associated with emotional detachment than with
disinhibited behavior."
http://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/lit/articles/veronae2004a.pdf
"Psychopaths also have demonstrated
unusual startle responses, as measured by the number of eye blinks
following
neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant slides (Patrick, Bradley, &
Lang, 1993), specifically showing diminished blink responses during
unpleasant slides as compared with controls. However, they did
not differ from controls during either pleasant or neutral slides.
Furthermore, psychopaths appear to be less responsive to distress cues
than nonpsychopaths (R. Blair, Jones, Clark, & Smith, 1997).
Although some researchers have suggested that psychopaths suffer"
This is the original research by Patrick, Lang, Bradley:
http://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/Lit/doc/levenston00a.doc
"The Psychopath as Observer: Emotion and Attention in Picture
Processing
This was a famous research and many times reproduced by other noted
researchers as well. At one point I noticed following:
"...nonpsychopaths showed startle inhibition for pleasant pictures
and startle potentiation for unpleasant pictures... Psychopaths, on
the other hand, showed an aberrant pattern of blink inhibition for
both
pleasant and unpleasant pictures in relation to neutral (cf. Patrick
et
al., 1993)"
This is the crux of their research. However, my question is if
Non-psychopaths also showed blink inhibition then there must be some
other factor that is involved here (X-factor). For example, it has
been
demonstrated tat psychopaths has problem with processing pictures
involving emotion. If Patrick et all are testing defensive mechanism
and avoidance by psychopaths then they should employ some other
method
other than pictures. They should come up with a testing method (for
example touch or something) to invoke fear instead of pictures. "
Following is the research that talks about psychopaths having problem
processing facial expression:
Keyword search: psychopath ventromedial facial
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/122/5/883
Dissociable neural responses to facial expressions of sadness and
anger
It will be interesting to know PCL score of the people who are not
easily startled.
'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`''`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
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bak...@yahoo.com
> Dissociable neural responses to facial expressions of sadness and
> anger
>
> It will be interesting to know PCL score of the people who are not
> easily startled.
>
> '`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`''`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`
> sci.psychology.research is a moderated newsgroup.
> Before submitting an article, please read the guidelines which are posted
> Submissions are acknowledged automatically.
Patrick et all:
http://dionysus.psych.wisc.edu/Lit/doc/levenston00a.doc
Page 19 of the document reads:
"However, psychopaths rated pleasant pictures as more pleasurable and
aversive pictures as less unpleasant in relation to neutral than did
nonpsychopaths...."
Therefore my question is does blink rate of psychopaths differ
significantly from non-psychopaths? This study needs to be
replicated.
dank
> On Nov 21, 12:09 am, bake...@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>>Is it possible that psychopaths considered those 'Unpleasant' pictures
>>as pleasant? It is obvious that pictures that are deemed unpleasant by
>>normal people (pictures of violence) are very pleasant to a
>>psychopathic individual and hence normal startle reflex. That will
>>prove that Patrick et all were wrong that psychopaths have different
>>startle reflex.
>>
>>Reference:
>>
>>http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/156/10/1550
>>
>>"Cook et al. (11) reported greater emotional startle modulation among
>>highly fearful personalities in comparison with personalities with low
>>fear while they were viewing unpleasant slides, suggesting that an
>>enhanced startle modulation is associated with an increased tendency
>>to experience negative affective states. On the other hand, Patrick et
>>al. (12) found that potentiated startle was absent in psychopathic
>>individuals during exposure to unpleasant slides. This finding was
>>more closely associated with emotional detachment than with
>>disinhibited behavior."
So what does this mean for society? Does this mean people have to deal
with annoying Dr. Fucking Phils who declare them to be psychopaths,
terrorists, pedophiles, or assorted heretics based on eye blinks? Is
there any legal recourse for slander against those who offer their
unsolicited eye blink analysis? Is improper eye blinking sufficient for
criminal conviction or involuntary commitment to a mental hospital, or
is additional evidence such as a dowsing rod required to be fair?