engleski

The relationship between psychopathy and attachment in a student population

Attachment refers to the human ability to form bonds of affection and love toward significant others, and individuals may vary in the extent to which they are anxious and avoidant in their relationships with others. Attachment processes have been proposed to play a key role in the development of the core features of psychopathy. According to Triarchic Model of Psychopathy, psychopathy is a complex, dimensional construct which encompasses three distinct, elemental phenotypic constructs: boldness (nexus of high dominance, low anxiousness, and venturesomeness), meanness (reflecting tendencies toward callousness, cruelty, predatory aggression, and excitement seeking), and disinhibition (reflecting tendencies toward impulsiveness, irresponsibility, oppositionality, and anger/hostility). As some of these traits show different relationship patterns with other constructs, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-reported attachment behavior and psychopathic traits. The sample consisted of 612 students from various faculties and colleges in Zagreb (315 male, 297 female), with a mean age of 21.58 years (SD = 4.38). Psychopathic traits were measured with The Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM, Patrick, 2010), while the attachment to romantic partners was assessed with The Experiences in Close Relationships scale-Short Version, Inventory (ECR ; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998 ; Kamenov & Jelić, 2003). Multiple regression analyses indicated that Boldness negatively predicted attachment anxiety in both gender. Meanness positively predicted attachment avoidance, while Disinhibition showed positive relation with attachment anxiety, in both males and females. However, the positive relationship between Disinhibition and attachment avoidance was found only in males. These findings increase our understanding of the relationship between psychopathy and attachment, and indicate that relations between some psychopathic traits and attachment dimension differ across gender. Finally, the results suggest that boldness can also be related to some adaptive tendencies (i.e. low attachment anxiety).

psychopathy, boldness, meanness, disinhibition, attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance

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