Instrumentality, Reactivity and Psychopathy in Sexual Offenses against Children: An Exploratory Analysis
Open Access
- Author:
- Jabbour, Aref
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- April 25, 2007
- Committee Members:
- Peter Andrew Arnett, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Sandra T Azar, Committee Member
Eric Silver, Committee Member
Richard Hazler, Committee Member - Keywords:
- psychopathy
sexual offenses
instrumentality
reactivity - Abstract:
- Even though past investigations have examined psychopathy in various types of sex offenders and examined some of the motivational components of sexual offenses, there remained a gap in the literature in measuring and understanding complex motives of child molestation. This investigation examined levels of psychopathy as well as instrumentality (or goal-directedness) and reactivity (or spontaneity/impulsivity) in a group of 54 incarcerated child molesters. Results confirmed hypothesized significantly elevated scores in child molesters, compared to a normative sample, on certain subscales of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), namely Machiavellian Egocentricity, Coldheartedness, Carefree Nonplanfulness, Blame Externalization, and Impulsive Nonconformity. The majority of the index child molestations were designated as instrumental in nature, highlighting the goal-oriented nature of child sexual abuse. Carefree Nonplanfulness and Stress Immunity correlated significantly positively and negatively, respectively, with instrumentality/reactivity designations, and Carefree Nonplanfulness emerged as the only significant factor of psychopathy to differentiate instrumentality and reactivity. Post-hoc analyses involving intrafamilial and extrafamilial child molesters demonstrated that intrafamilial offenders had significantly higher scores on the Coldheartedness and Carefree Nonplanfulness subscales. In those analyses, Coldheartedness emerged as the only significant factor to discriminate between intrafamilial and extrafamilial child molestation. Treatment implications for child molesters and future research directions are further discussed.