Men's Personality and Behavior Study

Amy Hoffmann's dissertation focused on integrating evolutionary and feminist perspectives on sexual coercion by examining the roles of psychopathic traits, social competition, and beliefs about masculinity in generating sexually aggressive behavior. Specifically, she investigated whether losing a competition to another man may lead individuals high in impulsive-antisocial traits to behave in a sexually aggressive way as an attempt to regain threatened feelings of dominance and power. She also examined the degree to which rigid beliefs about masculinity explain associations between psychopathic traits and sexual aggression in this context.

Psychopathic Traits, Aggression, and Relationships with Power

The literature on psychopathy and aggression, while thoroughly explored with regards to violence risk assessment in forensic settings, had not yet (at the time of this project) sufficiently examined relationships longitudinally to identify the predictive validity of the psychopathy factors (interpersonal-affective and impulsive-antisocial) in relation to different forms of aggression when controlling for past history of aggression. It was unclear how experiences of power and dominance may play a role in examining psychopathic aggression. As such, our lab used self-report measures that capture psychopathic traits, overt and covert aggression, and differential relationships with power (feeling powerful and desire for power) to understand the dynamics at work between these constructs. We believe that this research has implications for the adaptivity of psychopathic traits in positions of power (interpersonal-affective psychopathic traits may be more conducive to wielding power). This work was coordinated by Sean McKinley.

G3 Be More Program Evaluation

The DARC Lab is currently conducting an evaluation of the G3 Be More program. G3 is a non-profit mentoring organization that aims to redirect youth at risk for problematic developmental trajectories toward more sustainable and positive life directions. The G3 Be More program is a mixed athletics holistic program, incorporating incentive-based mentoring in academics, social/physical development, life skills, and career training. Our program evaluation seeks to address gaps in the literature by including a more robust sample size across multiple time points, assessing a variety of risk factors and personality traits to estimate better indicators of success, and including an attention control group to demonstrate that G3 is effective beyond other youth programs. Analyses on pilot data have shown significant increases in post-program prosocial behavior and peer relations and significant decreases in post-program antisocial behaviors, hyperactivity, and parental corporal punishment. This work was coordinated by Sean McKinley, Alora McCarthy, & Dr. Ashley White (collaborator).

Emotional & Cognitive Vulnerabilities for Suicide Risk

We are interested in the emotional and cognitive processes linked to suicide ideation and behaviors. In one study, we examined how insomnia may impact cognitive functioning so as to increase hopelessness and suicidal ideation (Bozzay, Karver, & Verona, 2016). Other work explored internalizing as well as externalizing trajectories to suicide and violence risk (e.g., Verona, Sachs-Ericsson, & Joiner, 2004; Verona, Bozzay, & Mendez, in preparation). This work was led by Dr. Melanie Bozzay (DARC lab alum).

Gender Differences in Pathways to Substance Use or Desistance, and Violence

This study was funded by National Institute of Drug Abuse to Dr. Edelyn Verona in order to examine distinct etiological pathways to substance use in men and women. A focus of a couple of review papers (Javdani, Sadeh, & Verona, 2011a, Clinical Psychology Review, 2011b, Psychology, Public Policy, & Law) suggests that female-specific conceptualizations of antisocial behavior are justified by evidence that certain individual level etiological factors are particularly relevant for women. In addition, closely examining gender as an individual difference variable as well as a socially-relevant category exposes the role of gender in and its implications for existing research and highlights the critical contexts in which female antisociality manifests and is maintained (e.g., interpersonal violence, sex work). This project empirically tested some of these notions by exploring distinct genetic and environmental contributors to substance use desistance and violence in women and men, using a longitudinal approach. We used multivariate models to predict pathways for desistance and determine whether these models differ between men and women.

Studies have come out of this work, including one that examines childhood sexual maltreatment and history of sex exchange as important for understanding female and male substance use disorders (Verona, Murphy, & Javdani, 2016, Psychology of Violence).

Gendered Manifestations of Psychopathic Traits

We continue to examine links between psychopathic traits and various emotional and behavioral syndromes, as a way of identifying differences in how psychopathic traits may be expressed across the genders, and to uncover processes that represent common and distinct vulnerabilities for the manifestations of personality disorders across the genders.

Two studies published in the APA journal Personality Disorders: Theory, Research and Treatment investigated gender differences in emotional manifestations of psychopathy factors . First, we found that whereas the impulsive-antisocial traits of psychopathy (Factor 2) relate to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) similarly across the genders, the interaction of affective-interpersonal deficits (Factor 1) and impulsive-antisocial traits (Factor 2) of psychopathy represent risk for BPD only in women (Sprague, Javdani, Sadeh, Newman, & Verona, 2012). Similar results were uncovered in regards to a history of suicidality or self-harm, and BPD mediated the relationship between psychopathy and suicidality in different ways across the genders (Verona, Sprague, & Javdani, 2012). Mike Kruepke and I (Kruepke & Verona, under review) worked on a replication and extension of this prior work, demonstrating more nuanced results than the previous papers: psychopathic interpersonal-affective traits seem to protect from emotional dysregulation like BPD in men but not in women, and women who score high on both the interpersonal (arrogance, manipulation) and antisocial (delinquency, criminal versatility) facets of psychopathy showed the most BPD symptoms.

In terms of externalizing correlates of psychopathy across the genders, the picture is different from the above work on emotional dysregulation. Instead, in two papers looking at gender differences in psychopathy links to intimate partner violence (Mager, Bresin, & Verona, 2014, Personality Disorders: Theory, Research and Treatment) and substance use (Schulz, Murphy, & Verona, 2016, Law & Human Behavior), we found that interpersonal-affective features of psychopathy are more linked to these externalizing behaviors in men than in women, with women high on these traits likely protected from engaging in violence and drug use.

Existing research on fear reactivity, however, suggests that female psychopathy is similar to male psychopathy. A study in female inmates showed that those high on psychopathy exhibited deficient startle reactivity during picture viewing, particularly to images of others in distress, versus to images involving direct threat (e.g., pointed gun; Verona, Bresin, & Patrick, 2014, Journal of Abnormal Psychology).

Gender, Sexual Violence and Coercion, and the Victim-Offender Overlap

We examined how pathological personality traits (e.g., psychopathy), adherence to traditional gender role beliefs, and peer group influences are involved in sexual violence, both within and outside of formal romantic relationships. We also examined gender differences along with identifying factors that explain the high co-occurrence of perpetration and victimization in sexual violence contexts. One study that has come out of this program of research (Hoffmann & Verona, 2018), in which we examined psychopathic trait correlates of sexual violence against intimate partners among a sample of male and female substance users, found that the interpersonal-affective traits of psychopathy (arrogance, callousness, manipulation) are associated with higher endorsements of sexual violence against intimates by men but lower endorsements of sexual violence among women, even though both genders reported similar frequencies of sexual coercion tactics against their partners. This work was coordinated by Amy Hoffmann.

Gender, Sex Work and Exchange

We conducted a program of research examining individual level characteristics (e.g., psychopathic traits, personality) and mental health features among persons engaging in different forms of sex work, as well as those consuming these services. We assessed the various forms that sex work takes, including more traditional sex work (i.e., street prostitution, escorting) and various other sexual services, such as stripping and the adult porn industry, as well as their prevalence and associated characteristics in various populations, including college students, drug users, and legal and illegal sex workers. In one study that has come out of this program of research (Edwards & Verona, 2016, Journal of Abnormal Psychology), we found that impulsive-antisocial traits of psychopathy (irresponsibility, reckless disregard, delinquency) are associated with higher risk for engaging in and being charged with prostitution in women, whereas the interpersonal-affective traits of psychopathy (arrogance, callousness, manipulation) are associated with engagement in sex exchange situations (typically as consumers) by men. Another study showed that men and women college students endorse engagement in both provision and consumption of sexual services and/or sex exchange, with elevated rates for consumption relative to provision. Results of this study also further support relationships between impulsive-antisocial psychopathic traits and provision of sexual services, along with interpersonal-affective psychopathic traits and consumption of services in a college student sample (Edwards, Hoffmann & Verona, under review). This work was coordinated by Bethany Edwards (DARC lab alum).

Neurobiology, Externalizing, & Comorbid Syndromes

Previous research has shown that neurobiological indicators of dysregulated performance monitoring are associated with the externalizing spectrum of psychopathology. However, the extent to which these deficits in cognitive functioning represent vulnerability for externalizing psychopathology more broadly or whether there may be differences that distinguish disorders (e.g. antisocial personality disorder, conduct disorder, alcohol use disorder, and drug use disorder) was still unknown at the time of this project. Utilizing data gathered from diagnostic interviews and psychophysiology (ERP) measures, our lab sought to understand the unique and shared variance in externalizing psychopathology as well as phenotypically similar disorders as it relates to cognitive patterns of error monitoring and awareness.

Negative Emotionality and Self-Regulation

In a series of studies, we examined links between stress, negative affect, and dysregulated behaviors, including self-harm or drug use. For example, an analog paradigm was used to analyze whether negative affect is decreased following the experience of pain when individuals are primed to ruminate about negative events (Bresin & Verona, 2016). The use of an eye-blink startle reflex paradigm allowed us to more closely map patterns of negative emotional activation in the context of rumination and pain induction, as a way of understanding the functions of self-harm and their outcomes, which have implications for the understanding and treatment of syndromes involved self-injurious behavior. In another study, we examined links between negative affect and drug use coping, using an ecological momentary assessment paradigm, and whether cognitive control measured variously in the lab modulates links between negative affect and drug use as emotion regulation (Bresin & Verona, in press). These projects were conducted by Dr. Konrad Bresin (DARC lab alum), for which he received a National Research Service Award from NIDA.