engleski

Examining the effects of disinhibition in understanding empathy and attachment

According to Triarchic psychopathy model, psychopathy encompasses three distinct, elemental phenotypic constructs with psychological and neurobiological correlates, i.e. boldness, meanness and disinhibition. Disinhibition of affect includes poor emotional regulation, impaired regulation of affect and urges, impulsivity and negative affectivity, while behavioural disinhibition includes alienation and distrust, aggressive acting out (in particular, angry–reactive aggression), untrustworthiness, proneness to drug and alcohol misuse, and normbreaking behaviour. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between disinhibition and attachment dimensions (avoidance and anxiety) and cognitive and affective aspects of empathy (empathic concern, personal distress, perspective-taking and fantasy). Data was collected on 602 students (311 male) with a mean age of 21.00 years, (SD=4.41). from various faculties in Zagreb, using the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (Patrick, 2010), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983) and The Experiences in Close Relationships scaleShort Version, Inventory attachment to romantic partners (ECR ; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998 ; Kamenov & Jelić, 2003). Two main analytic approaches were used. First, zero- order correlations (Pearson’s r) were used to quantify basic bivariate relationships between TriPM scale variables and empathy and attachment subscales. Additionally, a further set of six hierarchical regression analyses was performed in order to assess for unique (incremental) variance in different aspects of empathy and attachment explained by the individual TriPM component. In these regression model, disinhibition was entered in Step 2 of the analysis, after controlling for age, gender and the two other TriPM components (boldness and meanness) at Step 1. Bivariate correlations showed that disinhibition correlated with attachment anxiety (r=.27, p<.001), avoidance attachment (r=.28, p<.001), and to a lesser degree with personal distress (r=.17, p<.001). Results from hierarchical regression analyses showed that disinhibition predicted personal distress (β=.17, p<.001) and empathic concern (β=.23, 177 p<.001). Also, disinhibition predicted attachment anxiety (β=.23, p<.001) and avoidance attachment (β=.16, p<.001). Furthermore, results showed that disinhibition did add incrementally to boldness and meanness in accounting for variance in empathic concern (ΔR2=.04, F(1, 596)=137.31, p<.001), personal distress (ΔR2=.02, F(1, 596)=97.31, p<.01), attachment anxiety (ΔR2=.04, F(1, 596)=27.67, p<.001) and avoidance attachment (ΔR2=.02, F(1, 596)=18.16, p<.001). The results are in line with the theoretical assumptions proposed in triarchic psychopathy model that disinhibition is associated with increased internalization.

psychopathy ; disinhibition ; empathy ; attachment

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