Theory of Mind and its Relation to Psychopathy

Psychopathy is a personality dysfunction wherein an individual is unemotional and has a deficit in empathy (Dolan & Fullam, 2004). Theory of mind is the ability to perceive other’s thoughts, beliefs, emotions, etc. (Vonk, Hill, Mercer & Noser, 2015). This is similar to empathy, and as such is likely to have a relationship with psychopathy, although no such research has been undertaken to date. In this study, I correlated measures of psychopathy with theory of mind, sampling from Butler’s undergraduate population. Due to my combined major in Psychology and Criminology, I then researched and discuss the similarities theory of mind has with the sociological term, role taking, which is the process of viewing oneself from another perspective (Crawford & Novak, 2014). Rather than being an aptitude that varies per person, as is theory of mind, role taking is seen as an innate ability and rather is looked at in terms of the propensity in which one engages in it. While there were no significant relationships between theory of mind and psychopathy detected, the results suggested that a study with more statistical power may be able to find such a relationship. If a relationship does not exist between theory of mind and psychopathy, this can be explained by role taking theory. PSYCHOPATHY AND THEORY OF MIND 3 Theory of Mind and its Relation to Psychopathy Psychopathy, along with the closely-related antisocial personality disorder (ASPD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013), is a dysfunction of personality marked by a callous, unemotional style and a notable lack of empathy (Dolan & Fullam, 2004). Research has identified two subtypes of psychopathy: primary and secondary (Karpman, 1941). Primary psychopathy describes individuals who exhibit the typical lack of affect seen in psychopathy, such as decreased anxiety, fear and empathy. Secondary psychopathy is more closely related to antisocial behavior, such as impulsivity and aggression (Falkenbach, Reinhard & Larson, 2017). Additionally, psychopathy can be further broken down as past research has described two distinct types of empathy: affective and cognitive empathy (Vonk et al., 2015). Affective empathy, defined as the ability a person possesses to understand and relate to another individual’s emotions, is the type of empathy most people mean when they use the word colloquially. Cognitive empathy differs slightly, as it is simply the ability to recognize someone’s emotional state (e.g., Czarna, Wróbel, Dufner, & Zeigler-Hill, 2015; Jonason, Lyons, Bethell, & Ross, 2013; Vonk et al., 2015). Cognitive empathy is conceptually similar to theory of mind (ToM) as it defines the capacity to comprehend and reason about the mental states of others (Vonk et al., 2015). Due to the similarities of these concepts, it would seem likely that the lack of empathy, as seen in those with psychopathy, would also encompass a deficit in theory of mind. Specifically, it would seem that due to primary psychopathy’s focus on psychopathic features such as limited empathy, it would be related to ToM. This is a topic that has been explored through various means, such as in a study by Richell et al. (2003) who compared clinical (i.e., psychopathic) to non-clinical samples and found no discernible difference in performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes PSYCHOPATHY AND THEORY OF MIND 4 Task (RMET), a commonly used measure of ToM. Dolan & Fullam (2004) confirmed these results when they too found no significant link between impaired ToM and psychopathy, despite studying both psychopathic and non-psychopathic groups. From this, they concluded that empathy deficits are a result of lack of caring, rather than the inability to acknowledge emotional states of others, suggesting that psychopathic individuals are more impaired in affective empathy than cognitive empathy. However, more recently, Vonk et al. (2015) found that “dark personality features,” including psychopathy, had “reasonably consistent negative associations” with ToM. However, in finding these results, Vonk et al. used a non-standard way of scoring one of the main measures of ToM – the Hinting Task (Corcoran & Firth, 1995) – and did not include other ToM measures that would seem to be relevant to the traits being evaluated (e.g., a measure of ironic communication such as the Story Comprehension Task [Langdon & Coltheart, 2004]). Considering these recent conflicting studies, further research is needed to clarify this issue. A concept similar to ToM, but on the sociological world as opposed to the psychological world is role taking. Role taking, or perspective taking is a concept developed by Sociologist George Herbert Mead as the ability to view oneself from other’s perspective, and thus adjust your behavior accordingly (Crawford & Novak, 2014). It is the process of entering into another’s world to understand their communicative, affective and cognitive activities. (Love & Davis, 2014). This is comparable to ToM in that it that it defines the ability to perceive another’s thinking; however, role taking relates this back to the concept of the self. Likewise, perspective taking is conceptually similar to empathy as it implies the ability to place yourself in another’s position. Role taking is seen as a fundamental ability that is developed through socialization as young children (Henning & Rossol, 2003). As such, it is not seen as an ability that one possesses or has a deficit in, as is ToM, but rather is a matter of how frequently one engages in this PSYCHOPATHY AND THEORY OF MIND 5 behavior. The frequency with which one engages in role taking does vary considerably per individual and it has been seen to vary more generally by gender and status (Love Davis, 2014). With role taking’s conceptual similarity to ToM and empathy, it is likely it can aid in, and should be considered when explaining any results of this study. In order to resolve the conflicting results of the past studies on ToM and psychopathy, this study measured ToM in a multitude of ways by utilizing the Hinting Task, the RMET, and the Story Comprehension Task, while measuring psychopathy using the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick 1995). Based on the conceptual similarities between cognitive empathy and ToM, along with Vonk’s study – the most recent research in the field – it was expected that psychopathy would show a correlation with deficits of ToM.