Psychopathy

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

Classes of expository and interactive content. Active and demonstrative methodology for the acquisition of technical skills, case studies, videos, and role-plays. Several assessment measures of psychopathy to be applyed in different settings and to diverse age-ranges will be presented and discussed. International and national intervention programs on psychopathy will be presented and discussed, including the analysis of its efficacy.

Final assessment: individual written exam with theoretical and practical contents (100%).

Learning Outcomes

Teaching Goals

1. To know the the evolution of the construct of psychopathy and its main etiological theories, as well as the advantages, risks, limits and consequent legal and ethical-deontological repercussions of the use of the construct in different contexts and age ranges

2. To know, to characterize, to compare and to analyze different assessment measures of psychopathy in community and clinical-forensic settings, to both adult and children/youth populations.

3. To know the history about the intervention efforts in psychopathy and to describe and analyze the main intervention programs, as well as the scientific evidence about their efficacy, and to demonstrate its main therapeutic strategies.

Learning outcomes:

1. Capacity to critically analyze the construct of psychopathy

2. Assessment skills of psychopathy

3. Intervention skills in psychopathy

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Psychopathy

1.1. Historical considerations

1.2. Different conceptualizations of psychopathy in adults and children/youth

1.3. Psychopathy in the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders

1.4. Advantages, risks and limits of using the construct in different contexts and age groups

1.5. Etiological theories

2. Assessment

2.1. Assessment tools of psychopathy for the adult population both in community and clinical-forensic settings

2.2. Assessment tools of psychopathic traits for the children/youth population both in community and clinical-forensic settings

3. Treatment

3.1. Historical considerations about intervention efforts in psychopathy

3.2. MST program (Multissystemic Therapy)

3.3. Chromis program (a schema therapy-based intervention for adult offenders with psychopathic traits)

3.4. PSYCHOPATHY.COMP program (a Compassion Focused Therapy based ndividual psychotherapeutic intervention for juvenile offenders with psychopathic traits)

3.5. Final considerations

Head Lecturer(s)

Nélio Jesus de Freitas Brasão

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam: 100.0%

Bibliography

 

Cleckley, H. (1988). The mask of sanity (6th Ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby. (Original work published 1941).

 

DeLisi, M. (Ed.). (2018). Routledge International Handbook of Psychopathy and Crime. Routledge.

 

Patrick, C. (2018). Handbook of psychopathy. Guilford Press: London; New York

 

Ribeiro da Silva, D., Rijo, D., Castilho, P., & Gilbert, P. (2019). The efficacy of a Compassion Focused Therapy-based intervention in reducing psychopathic traits and disruptive behavior: A clinical case study with a juvenile detainee. Clinical Case Studies, 18, 323-343. 

 

Ribeiro da Silva, D., Rijo, D., & Salekin, R. T. (2015). The evolutionary roots of psychopathy. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 21, 85

 

Salekin, R., & Lynam, D. (Eds) (2010). Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychopathy. Guilford Press: London; New York.