Continuity and change in psychopathic traits as measured via normal-range personality: a longitudinal-biometric study

Abstract

The discriminant validity of the interpersonal-affective and social deviance traits of psychopathy has been well documented. However, few studies have explored whether these traits follow distinct or comparable developmental paths. The present study used the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (A. Tellegen, in press) to examine the development of the psychopathic traits of Fearless Dominance (i.e., interpersonal-affective) and Impulsive Antisociality (i.e., social deviance) from late adolescence to early adulthood in a longitudinal-epidemiological sample of male and female twins. Results from mean- and individual-level analyses revealed stability in Fearless Dominance from late adolescence to early adulthood, whereas Impulsive Antisociality declined over this developmental period. In addition, biometric findings indicated greater genetic contributions to stability in these traits and greater nonshared environmental contributions to their change over time. Collectively, these findings suggest distinct developmental trends for psychopathic traits from late adolescence to early adulthood.

Figure 1

Path diagram of an AE Cholesky model for Fearless Dominance (FD) at Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2). In this model, the variance at each time point is decomposed into additive genetic (A₁, A₂) and non-shared environmental effects (E₁, E₂). For ease of interpretation, shared environmental effects (c²) were omitted from this diagram. a₁₁ and e₁₁ = paths representing additive genetic and nonshared environmental contributions to the Time 1 phenotype, respectively; a₂₁ and e₂₁ = paths representing additive genetic and nonshared environmental contributions from Time 1 to the Time 2 phenotype, respectively; a₂₂ and e₂₂= paths representing additive genetic and nonshared environmental contributions unique to the Time 2 phenotype, respectively. These paths are squared to estimate the proportion of variance accounted for by additive genetic and nonshared environmental influences.