The objective was to examine early adolescent projective risk indicators for the development of antisocial behaviour as related to adult personality traits, psychopathy, and violent behaviour over the life span. Assessment data included Rorschach (Rr) ratings (at age 11–14 years), personality inventories (EPQ-I and KSP scales), and a shortened Psychopathy Check List (PCL) (administered at age 32–40 years), obtained from a group of 199 male subjects; and smoking habits (at age 36–44 years) obtained from 125 of those subjects. Results, controlled for intelligence, indicated that the high and very high risk groups, as determined by level of total Rr risk scores, were (1) significantly higher on self-rated IVE Impulsiveness, the anxiety-related KSP Muscular Tension, and nonconformity traits, as compared to the low Rr risk group — the very high risk group also scoring significantly higher on the EPQ Psychoticism scale, related to aggressiveness and cruelty; (2) higher on clinically rated PCL total sum and factor scores; and (3) they were overrepresented among Ss with subsequent violent offence, and Ss with heavy smoking habits. The results are discussed in terms of the possible usefulness of psychodynamic oriented cognitive-emotional indicators in the search for underlying mechanisms in the development of disinhibitory psychopathology.
When focusing on early indications of antisocial behaviour, an extensive research has adopted a developmental perspective discussing and examining persistent versus adolescent limited antisocial life paths (Moffitt, 1993, Moffitt, 2006, Rutter, 1997, Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber, 1998, Nagin and Tremblay, 1999 and Eklund and af Klinteberg, 2006). Different routes over the life span and underlying behaviour dimensions were suggested, in particular externalizing behaviours such as hyperactive behaviour, aggression, and opposition. Psychoanalytic theory emphasizes developing childhood ego functions, controlling impulses and affect, and tolerating anxiety and frustration (Rapaport, 1958), as interpreted from results assessed by the Rorschach inkplot test. Disturbed ego functions significantly affect the development of an individual's interpersonal relations and the ability to adopt and internalize societal rules (cf. Harter, 1999). Such ego disturbances, or ‘ego weakness’, were found in ‘primary character disorders’ and are associated with a higher risk for criminal behaviour later in life (Glueck & Glueck, 1950; cf Lewis, 1999).
Ego weaknesses have also been associated with neuropsychological/cognitive disturbances (Douglas, 1984), such as perceptual and motor hyperactivity and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD according to American Psychiatric Association APA, 1994). Childhood hyperactivity-related behaviours were found to be connected to an increased ‘vulnerability’ or risk for adult antisocial behaviour and criminality (Loeber et al., 2000, Moffitt, 1990, Satterfield and Schell, 1997 and af Klinteberg, 2002), and some evidence of genetic influence concerning neuropsychological disturbances, such as ADHD and related behaviour disorders, closely related to sensation seeking and impulsivity, was reported supporting persistence in behaviour problems (Comings, 1997, Plomin et al., 1994 and DeYoung et al., submitted for publication).
1.1. Psychopathy and psychopathy related characteristics
Psychopaths are deficient in their socialization functioning, cooperation, and self-control. They are inconsiderate and show lack of empathy; they are impulsive, and have difficulties in establishing attachments (Gacono and Meloy, 1994, Hare et al., 2000, Meloy, 1992 and Pardini and Loeber, 2007; for a review of the term ‘empathy’, see Blair, 2005). Research on personality concepts and measures related to psychopathic behaviour have prominently emphasized interpersonal interactions and cognitive processes in the development of socialized behaviour. Psychopathy includes, however, also more general characteristics of personality, less directly related to interpersonal interactions, such as impulsiveness, thrill-seeking, and lack of long-term planning and goal-directed behaviour. Certain research results have led to the assumption that it is possible to trace signs of ‘vulnerability’ to development of antisocial behaviour and/or forms of disinhibitory psychopathology in normal healthy subjects (af Klinteberg, 1998; for a review, see Schalling, 1993). Thus, early adolescent intrapsychic processing as assessed in projective ratings was of interest to us to relate to subsequent personality, psychopathy and antisocial behaviour/violence.
1.2. Purpose of the present study
In accordance with theories of cognitive dysfunction as a risk factor for antisocial behaviour (Douglas, 1984 and Gacono and Meloy, 1994), we hypothesized that indications of disturbed neuropsychological and ego functioning as measured by the Rr projective method variables at early adolescence would be associated with adult self-reported psychopathy related personality traits, clinical psychopathy ratings and criminal behaviour in terms of violence over the life span. Moreover, it was expected that total summarized risk ratings based on the projective variables and theoretically assumed by the clinicians to indicate high risk for antisocial behaviour, would possibly contribute to the prediction of adult psychopathy and violence over the life span. Smoking has been found to be strongly related to criminal behaviour and was therefore included in the study (Garpenstrand et al., 2002).
