Abstract
Like the poor, psychopaths have always been with us (Cleckley, 1976; Rotenberg & Diamond, 1971); while they appear in all societies — no matter what the level of economic development — the prevalence of the disorder shows marked cross-cultural variation (Mealey, 1995). This chapter will examine what we know about the cross-cultural variation in the rate and nature of psychopathy. The overarching themes of the chapter are that a cross-cultural perspective is not only necessary if we are to apply the diagnosis in an ethical manner, but also, such a perspective can inform research both about the nature and the etiology of the disorder.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Af Klinteberg, B., Humble, K., & Schalling, D. (1992). Personality and psychopathy of males with a history of early criminal behaviour. European Journal of Personality, 6, 245–266.
Alterman, A. I., Cacciola, J. S., & Rutherford, M. J. (1993). Reliability of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist in substance abuse patients. Psychological Assessment, 5, 442–448.
American Psychiatric Association. (1987). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (3 Revised ed.). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association.
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th ed.). Washington: American Psychiatric Association.
Armor, D. J. (1969). Theta reliability and factor scaling. Sociological Methodology, 2, 17–50.
Arrindell, W. A., Perris, C, Eisemann, E., Granell de Aldaz, J., Van der Ende, D., Kong Sim Guan, J., Richter, J., Gaszner, P., Iwawaki, S., Baron, P., Joubert, N., & Prud’homme, L. (1992). Cross-national transferability of the two-factor model of parental rearing behaviour: A contrast of data from Canada, The Federal Republic of Germany, Hungary, Japan, Singapore and Venezuela with Dutch target ratings on the EMBU. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 343–353.
Bandura, A., & Walters, R. (1963). Social learning and personality development. (1st ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Barnlund, D. C. (1975). Public and private self in Japan and the United States. (1st ed.). Tokyo: Simuli.
Barnlund, D. C. (1989). Communicative styles of Japanese and Americans: images and realities. (1st ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Barrett, P., & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1984). The assessment of personality factors across 25 countries. Personality and Individual Differences, 5, 615–632.
Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., Segall, M. H., & Dasen, P. R. (1992). Cross-cultural psychology: research and applications. (1 st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bontempo, R. (1993). Translation fidelity of psychological scales: a item response theory analysis of an Individualism-Collectivism Scale. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 24, 149–166.
Chagnon, N. A. (1974). Studying the Yanomano. (1st ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Chagnon, N. A. (1996). Chronic problems in understanding tribal violence and warfare. In G. R. Bock & J. A. Goode (Eds.), Genetic of criminal and antisocial behaviour, (pp. 202–236). Chichester: John Wiley.
Chen, G. (1995). Differences in self-disclosure patterns among American versus Chinese: A comparative study. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 26, 84–91.
Cleckley, H. (1976). The mask of sanity. (5th ed.). St Louis: Mosby.
Cohen, J. (1977). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Academic press.
Compton, W. M, Heizer, J. E., Hwu, H. G., Yeh, E. K, McEvoy, L., Tipp, J. E, & Spitznagel, E. L. (1991). New methods in cross-cultural psychiatry: psychiatric illness in Taiwan and the United States. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1697–1704.
Cooke, D. J. (1980). Causal models with contingency tables. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 582–584.
Cooke, D. J. (1994). Psychological disturbance in the Scottish Prison System: prevalence, precipitants and policy. Edinburgh: SHHD.
Cooke, D. J. (1995a). Psychopathic disturbance in the Scottish prison population: the cross-cultural generalizability of the Hare psychopathy checklist. Psychology, Crime and Law, 2, 101–108.
Cooke, D. J. (1995b). Psychological disturbance in the Scottish prison system: a preliminary account. In G. Davie, S. Lloyd-Bostock, M. McMurran, & C. Wilson (Eds.), Psychology, law and criminal justice: international developments in research and practice. Berlin: Walter de Grutyer.
Cooke, D. J. (1997). Psychopaths: oversexed, overplayed but not over here? Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 7, 3–11.
Cooke, D. J., & Michie, C. (1997a). An Item Response Theory evaluation of Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist: Psychological Assessment, 9, 2–13.
Cooke, D. J., & Michie, C. (1997b). Psychopathy across cultures: an Item Response Theory comparison of Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. Submitted for publication
Cooke, D. J., & Michie, C. (1997c). Predicting recidivism in a Scottish prison sample. Edinburgh: Scottish Office.
Cooke, D. J., Michie, C, Hart, S. D., & Hare, R. D. (1997). The functioning of the Clinical Version of the Psychopathy Checklist: an Item Response Theory analysis. Submitted for publication
Cooper, J. E., Kendell, R. E., Gurland, B. J., Sharpe, L., Copeland, J. R. M., & Simon, R. (1972). Psychiatric diagnosis in New York and London. (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Draguns, J. G. (1986). Culture and psychopathology: What is known about there relationship. Australian Journal of Psychology, 38, 329–338.
Dugatkin, L. A., & Wilson, D. S. (1991). Rover: a strategy for exploiting cooperators in a patchy environment. The American Naturalist, 138(3), 687–701.
Dugatkin, L. A. (1992). The evolution of the “Con Artist”. Ethology and Sociobiology, 13, 3–18.
Ehrenreich, B. (1983). The hearts of men: American dreams and the flight from commitment. (1st ed.). New York: Anchor.
Ekblad, S. (1988). Influence of child-rearing on aggressive behavior in a transcultural perspective. Acta Psychiatrica Scandanavica, 78, 133–139.
Ekblad, S. (1990). The children’s behaviour questionnaire for completion by parents and teachers in a Chinese sample. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 31, 775–791.
Embretson, S. E. (1996). The new rules of measurement. Psychological Assessment, 8(4), 341–349.
Eysenck, H. J. (1970). The classification of depressive illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 241–250.
Eysenck, S. B. G., Kozeki, B., & Gellenne, M. K. (1980). Cross-cultural comparison of personality: Hungarian children and English children. Personality and Individual Differences, 1, 347–353.
Farley, F. (1986) The Big T in personality. Psychology Today, May, 45-52.
Fiske, A. P. (1995). The cultural dimensions of psychological research: method effects imply cultural mediation. In P. E. Shrout & S. T. Fiske (Eds.), Personality research method and theory: a fesctschrift honoring Donald W Fiske. (pp. 271–294). Hillsdale New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Haapasalo, J., & Pulkkinen, L. (1992). The Psychopathy Checklist and non-violent offender groups. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 2, 315–328.
Hambleton, R. K. (1989). Principles and selected applications of item response theory. In R. L. Linn (Ed.), Educational measurement, (pp. 147–200). London: Collier MacMillan.
Hare, R. D. (1991). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist — Revised. Toronto, Ontario: Multi-Health Systems.
Hare, R. D. (1993). Without conscience: the disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. (1st ed.). New York: Pocket Books.
Hare, R. D. (1996). Psychopathy: a clinical construct whose time has come. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 23, 25–34.
Hare, R. D., Harpur, T. J., Hakstian, A. R., Forth, A. E., Hart, S. D., & Newman, J. P. (1990). The Revised Psychopathy Checklist: descriptive statistics, reliability, and factor structure. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2, 238–341.
Hare, R. D., & Hart, S. D. (1992). Psychopathy, mental disorder, and crime. In S. Hodgins (Ed.), Mental disorder and crime. Newbury Park, California: Sage (in press).
Harpending, H., & Draper, P. (1988). Antisocial behavior and the other side of cultural evolution. In T. E. Moffitt & S. A. Mednick (Eds.), Biological contributions to crime causation. Boston: Matinun Nijhoff.
Harpur, T. J., Hare, R. D., & Hakstian, A. R. (1989). Two-factor conceptualization of psychopathy: construct validity and assessment implications. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1, 6–17.
Hodgins, S., Cote, G., & Ross, D. (1992). Predictive validity of the French version of Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist (Abstract). Canadian Psychology, 33, 300
Hulin, C. L., Drasgow, F., & Parsons, C. K. (1983a). Item and test bias. In Anonymous, Item Response Theory: application to psychological measurement, (pp. 152–184). Illinois: Dow Jones-Irwin.
Hulin, C. L., Drasgow, F., & Parsons, C. K. (1983b). Applications of IRT to language translations. In Anonymous, Item Response Theory: application to psychological measurement. (pp. 185–209). Homewood, Illinois: Dow Jones-Irwin.
Hulin, C. L. (1987). A psychometric theory of evaluations of item and scale translation: fidelity across languages. Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology, 18, 115–142.
Ironson, G. H., & Subkoviak, M. J. (1979). A comparison of several methods of assessing item bias. Journal of Educational Measurement, 16, 209–225.
Kleinman, A. (1996). How is culture important for DSM-IV. In J. E. Mezzich, A. Kleinman, H. Fabrega, & D. L. Parron (Eds.), Culture & psychiatric diagnosis: A DSM-IV perspective, (pp. 15–25). Washington: American Psychiatric Association.
Kosson, D. S., Smith, S. S., & Newman, J. P. (1990). Evaluating the construct validity of psychopathy in Blank and White male inmates: three preliminary studies. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 250–259.
Lasch, C. (1979). The culture of narcissism: American life in an age of diminishing expectations. (1st ed.). New York: Warner.
Lewin, K. (1948). Some socio-psychological differences between the United States and Germany. In G. Lewin (Ed.), Resolving social conflicts: selected papers on group dynamics, (pp. 1935–1946). New York: Harper.
Lewis-Fernandez, R., & Kleinman, A. (1994). Culture, Personality and Psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 67–71.
Loeber, R. (1990). Development and risk factors of juvenile antisocial behavior and delinquency. Clinical Psychology Review, 10, 1–42.
Lord, F. M, & Noviak, M. (1968). Statistical theories of mental tests. (1st ed.). New York: Addison-Wesley.
Lykken, D. T. (1995). The antisocial personalities. (1st ed.). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Mealey, L. (1995). The sociobiology of sociopathy: an integrated evolutionary model. Behavioral and Brain Science, 18, 523–599.
Mellenbergh, G. J. (1996). Measurement precision in test score and item response models. Psychological Methods, 1(3), 293–299.
Mezzich, J. E., Kleinman, A., Fabrega, H., & Parron, D. L. (1996). Culture & Psychiatric diagnosis: a DSM-IV perspective. (1st ed.). Washington: American Psychiatric Association.
Millon, T. (1993). Borderline personality disorder: a psychosocial epidemic. In J. Paris (Ed.), Borderline personality disorder: etiology and treatment. Washington: American Psychiatric Press.
Moghaddam, F. M., Taylor, D. M., & Wright, S. C. (1992). Social psychology in cross-cultural perspective. New York: Freeman and Co.
Muliak, S. A. (1972). The foundations of factor analysis. (1st ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Murphy, J. M. (1976). Psychiatric labelling in cross-cultural perspective: similar kinds of disturbed behaviour appear to be labelled abnormal in diverse cultures. Science, 191, 1019–1028.
Nakanishi, M. (1987). Perceptions of self-disclosure in inital interaction: a Japanese sample. Human Communication Research, 13, 167–190.
Nunnally, J. C, & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory. (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill Inc.
Paris, J. (1993). Personality disorders: a biopsychosocial model. Journal of Personality Disorders, 7, 255–264.
Raine, A. (1985). A psychometric assessment of Hare’s checklist for psychopathy on an English prison population. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 24, 247–258.
Raine, A. (1988). Antisocial behavior and psychophysiology. In H. L. Wagner (Ed.), Social psychophysiology and emotion: theory and clinical applications. New York: Wiley.
Raine, A., & Venables, P. H. (1992). Antisocial behaviour: evolution, genetics, neuropsychology, and psychophysiology. In A. Gale & M. W. Eysenck (Eds.), Handbook of individual differences: biological perspectives. Chichester: John Wiley.
Reckase, M. D. (1996). Test construction in the 1990: recent approaches every psychologists should know. Psychological Assessment, 8(4), 354–359.
Reise, S. P., Widaman, K. F., & Pugh, R. H. (1993). Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Item Response Theory: Two approaches for exploring measurement invariance. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 552–566.
Robins, L. N., Tipp, J., & Przybeck, T. (1991). Psychiatric disorders in America. In L. N. Robins & D. A. Regier (Eds.), Antisocial Personality Disorder, (pp. 258-290). Free Press.
Robins, L. N. (1995). The epidemiology of aggression. In E. Hollander & D. J. Stein (Eds.), Impulsivity and aggression, (pp. 43–55). London: John Wiley & Son.
Rotenberg, M., & Diamond, B. L. (1971). The biblical conception of the psychopath: The law of the stubborn and rebellious son. Journal of History of Behavioral Sciences, 7, 29–38.
Samejima, F. (1996). Graded response model. In W. J. Van der Linden & R. K. Hambleton (Eds.), Handbook of modern item response theory, (pp. 85–100). New York: Springer.
Sanchez, J. (1986). Social crises and psychopathy: towards a sociology of psychopathy. In W. H. Reid, D. Dorr, J. I. Walker, & J. W. Bonner (Eds.), Unmasking the psychopath: Antisocial personality disorders and related syndromes, (pp. 78–97). New York: Norton & CO.
Schroeder, M., Schroeder, K., & Hare, R. D. (1985). Generalizability of a checklist for the assessment of psychopathy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51, 511–516.
Steinberg, L., & Thissen, D. (1996). Uses of Item Response Theory and the testlet concept in the measurement of psychopathology. Psychological Measurement, 7(1), 81–97.
Tarrier, N., Eysenck, S. B. G., & Eysenck, H. J. (1980). National differences in personality; Brazil and England. Personality and Individual Differences, 1, 164–171.
Ten Berge, J. M. F. (1986). Rotation to perfect congruence and cross-validation of component weights across populations. Multivariate Behavioural Research, 21, 41–64.
Templeman, R., & Wong, S. (1994). Determining the factor structure of the Psychopathy Checklist: a converging approach. Multivariate Experimental Clinical Research, 10, 157–166.
Thissen, D. (1991). Multilog user’s guide (version 6). (1st ed.). Mooresville, IN: Scientific Software.
Thissen, D., & Steinberg, L. (1988). Data analysis using item response theory. Psychological Bulletin, 104, 385–395.
Tyrer, P. J., Cicchetti, D. V., Casey, P. R., Fitzpatrick, K., Oliver, R., Balter, A., Giller, E., & Harkness, L. (1984). Cross-national reliability study of a schedule for assessing personality disorders. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172, 718–721.
Van de Vijver, F. J. R., & Leung, K. (1997). Methods and data analysis for cross-cultural research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Wechsler, D. (1987). Wechsler Memory Scale — Revised Manual. (1st ed.). San Antonio: The Psychological Corporation.
Westermeyer, J. (1987). Cultural factors in clinical assessment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 471–478.
Westermeyer, J. (1989). Psychiatric epidemiology across cultures: current issues and trends. Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review, 26, 5–25.
Wilson, J. Q., & Herrnstein, R. J. (1985). Crime and human nature. (1st ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster.
Winchie, D. B., & Carment, D. W. (1988). Intention to migrate: A psychological analysis. Journal of Applied Social Psychiatry, 18(9), 727–736.
Wong, S. (1984). Criminal and institutional behaviors of psychopaths. (1st ed.). Ottawa, Ontario: Ministry of the Solicitor-General of Canada.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cooke, D.J. (1998). Psychopathy Across Cultures. In: Cooke, D.J., Forth, A.E., Hare, R.D. (eds) Psychopathy: Theory, Research and Implications for Society. NATO ASI Series, vol 88. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3965-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3965-6_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-4920-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3965-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive