When it comes to a typical psychopath, the suited and booted Patrick Bateman from the novel American Psycho might spring to mind, but, according to one expert, the number of women with the neuropsychiatric disorder could be far greater than previously thought.
Psychopaths are generally considered to lack empathy and guilt, exhibit antisocial behavior, lie frequently and be ruthless, narcissistic and manipulative.
“Psychopaths are after money, power and control,” said Clive Boddy, from Anglia Ruskin University, who is an expert on psychopaths in the corporate world.
Photo: Reuters
While the idea of psychopaths as violent, antisocial criminals has given way to a more nuanced view — with Boddy among those to argue they are often found in big business — the idea that they are mostly male has remained.
“The behavior of female psychopaths seems to be subtle enough and less obvious than male psychopaths and therefore they’re not recognized as much,” Boddy said.
“A small but mounting body of evidence describes female psychopaths as prone to expressing violence verbally rather than physically, with the violence being of a relational and emotional nature, more subtle and less obvious than that expressed by male psychopaths,” he noted, adding that may include spreading rumors and lies for personal advantage.
Boddy said one problem was that part of an assessment used to help identify psychopathic traits — known as the Levenson self-report psychopathy scale (LSRP) — was skewed towards men.
That, he said, was because while the first part of the assessment looked at how emotionally detached, selfish, uncaring and manipulative a person was, the second part — which covered the psychopathic lifestyle — focused on violence and antisocial behavior.
“The secondary element, and the measures for it, were largely based on studies of criminals who were in jail at the time and psychopathic — so the feeling is, among researchers these days, that those measures are just not suited to identifying female psychopathy.”
There had also been fewer studies looking at psychopathy in women than in men, he said, and assessors may be reluctant to label women as psychopaths.
Some estimates have suggested there could be a 10:1 ratio of male to female psychopaths, but Boddy’s work, using only the first part of the LSRP, suggested the figures were very different.
“It’s almost one to one,” Boddy said, although he noted large-scale studies of randomly chosen adults would be needed to get a more definitive picture.
Boddy said that while an estimated 1 percent of men were psychopaths, the diagnosis sat at one end of a spectrum.
“Estimates [using the first part of the LSRP suggest] there are about 23 percent of men who, although they’re not categorically psychopathic, have enough of the traits to be problematic for society,” he said.
Boddy’s own research, based on surveys of white-collar workers, suggested such traits were not uncommon in females. “Around 12 percent to 13 percent of females have enough of those traits to be potentially problematic,” he said.
Recognizing psychopathy in women and men was important, Boddy said, not least because such individuals could have a huge impact in the workplace, with employees sidelined, abused and bullied. In addition, he noted, businesses led by such individuals could lose direction, and it could affect how people viewed large organizations.
“They see the greed, untruthfulness and ruthlessness of those at the top and this undermines democracy and the rule of law,” he said.
Boddy advocated for screening to be applied to job applicants to help protect employees.
“Especially the higher up you go in terms of seniority — therefore you have more power and control — the more those sorts of screening tests and psychometric tests are needed,” he said.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
RSS