There could be increased numbers of psychopaths in senior managerial positions, high levels of business, research shows

From:  Science Daily

FEATURED RESEARCH

Date:

September 8, 2014

Source:

University of Huddersfield

Summary: 

    For the first time, it has been demonstrated that people with psychopathic tendencies who have high IQs can mask their symptoms by manipulating tests designed to reveal their personalities. It raises the possibility that large numbers of ruthless risk-takers are able to conceal their level of psychopathy as they rise to key managerial posts. 

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Despite the media’s invariably lurid use of the term, there are various categories of psychopath and they are not all prone to physical violence.

Credit: © gemphotography / Fotolia

 

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A breakthrough by a talented University of Huddersfield student has shown for the first time that people with psychopathic tendencies who have high IQs can mask their symptoms by manipulating tests designed to reveal their personalities.  It raises the possibility that large numbers of ruthless risk-takers are able to conceal their level of psychopathy as they rise to key managerial posts. 

Carolyn Bate, aged 22, was still an undergraduate when she carried out her groundbreaking research into the links between psychopathy and intelligence, using a range of special tests and analysing the data. She wrote up her findings for the final-year project in her BSc Psychology degree. Not only was she awarded an exceptionally high mark of 85 per cent, her work has also been accepted for publication by the peer-reviewed Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology – an unusual distinction for an undergraduate. 

Carolyn, who has now graduated with First Class Honours, said that her project was triggered when she read about research which showed that while one per cent of the population were categorised as psychopaths, the figure rose to three per cent in the case of business managers. 

“I thought that intelligence could be an explanation for this, and it could be a problem if there are increased numbers of psychopaths at a high level in business.  The figure could be more than three per cent, because if people are aware they are psychopathic they can also lie – they are quite manipulative and lack empathy.  This could have a detrimental effect on our everyday lives,” said Carolyn, who added that some researchers have suggested that episodes such as the Wall Street Crash could be blamed on the numbers of psychopaths among decision makers. 

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Recognizing the Psychopath in Your Child

by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

It is the patterns of behavior which eventually persuade you something very wrong is going on.

Most kids do things which are wrong on occasion. They will fib about were the last ice cream went or pretend they are sick when it is time for for school. You can tell they know this was wrong, though.

They slink, evade eye contact, look scared when you find out.

A psychopathic child is different. My oldest daughter's face was sullen and then angry when she was caught in a lie. I could see these emotions flicker across her face but did not understand these were indicators that no conscience existed behind those beautiful brown eyes.

Getting what she wanted also meant only immediate gratification. By the time she was 13 my parents, who raised her, had bought her 1,000 Breyer horses and three original Cabbage Patch dolls, the ones personally autographed by Xavier Roberts.

The rest of the family, the ones who did not have to cope with Morgan, then Carolyn, day to day, were stunned when these gifts were paraded for us during visits. We were raised believing we needed to work.

Mother, who had watched little Carolyn for me while I was in college after the short and traumatic marriage which produced her, begged me to allow her and Father to raise her. They adopted her legally when she was 12.

Later, after Mother died Father and I had some frank discussions about what had gone on. I discovered Mother was very much under Carolyn's thumb from the time she was very small. The kid got away with a lot because she could be charming and cute. But this gloss of charm evaporated when she did not get her way. Smiles turned instantly to tantrums and screaming.

I had found out about this when she came to live with me when she was 19.

She lied about attending college, instead starting a sexual relationship with a rock star which went on for nine years. She lied about working. She lied about injuries in a car accident telling us she could no longer work when she was routinely riding horses.

And she just loved to get other people to distrust each other and fight. Later, I realized this is what brought the look of sublime happiness to her face.

Lies, sexual promiscuity, acting as if she, and she alone, was the only one who mattered. Any manipulation which got her what she wanted obviously pleased her, even when later she was found out. I found out about the sex from my sister, with whom she had been living. Anne called and told me, bluntly, she was not my problem. I had a tough time believing this cute little girl had seduced one of her her clients.

This and a shallowness which made a puddle seem deep, were all there. But the family did not understand what we were seeing.

Obviously, we should have been talking frankly much sooner. Transparency is essential to survival if you are coping with a disordered child. 

Don't make this mistake.   

Lisa L. Hockett: Chaos Theory — Flushing out the abuser by revealing patterns

From:  Love Fraud 

By Lisa L. Hockett, MS, CFDS

There is a mathematical theory based in fractal geometry called “Chaos Theory.” At its most simplistic level, it says that if you look long enough and carefully at what looks like total chaos, patterns begin to emerge. This is exactly how I help my clients in coping with their court cases against an abuser.

What I found in the court system is that the law does not care about a single incident unless that incident is so shocking that it can’t be ignored, like a severe beating or shooting.

Domestic terrorism is not on their radar because, until you make it concrete for them, it is entirely too abstract to consider. What they are looking for in the courtroom, or even the police station, is a pattern of behavior. Discrete incidents are like paint splatters on canvas and you have to connect the dots to make them see the picture. The legal system wants to see something so obvious and undeniable that sometimes survivors simply give up.

Connecting the dots

It can be exhausting and darn near impossible to link together incidents that to you seem ridiculously obvious, but it is an investment of time and energy that will pay off. Abusers will always have a “logical explanation” for one incident. They will have the same “logical explanation” for multiple incidents. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to connect the dots for the court. That’s what attorneys do every day and, as your own best expert witness, this responsibility rests on you.

Believe it or not, this is a big part of what we are able to accomplish when putting in place reasonable disability accommodations for litigants…because if you can’t think or you can’t speak under stressors, you can’t connect the dots.

Typical case

In a typical case, I have my client put together a long list of incidents and demonstrate a pattern not only of behavior, but escalation.

For instance, pushback against threats may have resulted in an escalation in the number and type of threats.

Blocking email might result in an exponential increase in harassing phone calls.

Blocking phone calls may have resulted in calling the police claiming a “welfare check” of the children, who may have just talked to the abuser hours before.

When that didn’t produce the intended result, it may have been followed up by a completely false contempt filing.

If a client counter-files or fights the contempt, it may result in covert terrorism, such as sending a shot-up range target or attempting to lure the client to a location under false pretenses while in possession of a firearm.

When none of that produces the intended results, it may turn into harassment of and information-seeking from an attorney, real estate agent, friends or personal proxies.

When all that fails, a private investigator may be hired on false pretenses, claiming the children are being hidden or making another outrageous claim, even if the client has just had a successful visitation exchange.

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If Psychopaths Were Identified

From:  Love Fraud 

by HG Beverly 

If psychopaths were actively identified across institutions,

we would more consistently know exactly who we’re dealing with.

Their stats on getting away with murder would go (way) down.

They would be less likely to win full custody in divorce.

There would be more public awareness around who’s running certain companies.

And our public and professional belief that interactional assessments and background checks tell us all we need to know about a person

would be turned on its head

to the benefit of all involved.

If psychopaths were identified consistently and accurately

by all mental health professionals

(which would require major change in nearly every clinical training program in the U.S.)

our psychologists and counselors and therapists would less likely be fooled into supporting 
their horrific endeavors.

And victims would be more likely to find needed support.

If psychopaths were clearly and consistently identified

through reliable, accessible, professional assessments

(when their long-term controlling, abusive behavior called for it),

children like mine would not need to wonder why this confusing and terrible thing that’s 
happening to them
never ends.

Why no adults are helping.

Whether that means there’s really no problem.

Because if something’s hurting in ways that can’t really be defined or explained,
and no one’s helping you out,
what are you supposed to do with your experience?
If we had accurate assessments,
the world would know,
would lose it’s capacity to deny,
and with that knowledge,
be forced to allow empathetic people
to tell the truth
and to help.

And if psychopaths were accurately and consistently identified,
we could stop mourning the confusion
of an inescapable, devastating life experience
that the rest of the world
is either incapable of identifying
or refuses

The logic of a psychopath

From:  Association of Psychological Science

by Wray Herbert

Published November 3, 2010

Before his execution in the Florida electric chair in 1989, Ted Bundy confessed to murdering 30 young women, typically by bludgeoning them to death and often raping them as well. He almost certainly had many more victims than that, perhaps more than 100. But he avoided suspicion for much of his five-year killing spree, in part because he was good-looking and clean-cut, a college grad and a law student.

Despite this outward appearance, Bundy was socially clueless. He was introverted and by his own description had no sense of how to get along with people. Near the end of his life he described himself this way: “I didn’t know what made things tick. I didn’t know what made people want to be friends. I didn’t know what made people attractive to one another. I didn’t know what underlay social interaction.”

Psychopaths can be paradox. Some, like Bundy, are intellectually high functioning, and they clearly know right from wrong. They are not delusional, but they are socially inept. They seem to lack normal self-control, and they persistently violate social, legal and moral rules. They don’t — as Bundy’s words suggest — comprehend the human social contract.

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