Empathy and Psychopathy Review 2005

Which factor plays a significant role in shaping human capacities for behaving compassionately or aggressively?

In what type of environment are exploitative and self-focused strategies considered better reproductive bets according to the text?

What is a key advantage of developing phenotypes that build trusting, supportive relationships according to the text?

Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a factor that shapes evolved phenotypes for reproductive strategies in human populations?

What type of behavior is advantageous in safe and highly investing social niches?

Which term refers to the social motivations that depend on moment-by-moment interactions and shifting physiological states?

What are the two basic forms into which social mentalities can be divided?

Compassion is rooted in which two motivational systems?

What are some indications that suggest compromised caring motivational capacities in individuals?

How are different social mentalities influenced by context?

How does the ecological context influence men's behavior according to the text?

What is highlighted as a risk factor for the development of criminal behavior?

What plays a role in shaping genetic expressions?

What is one of the potential outcomes mentioned if an individual was raised in a violent drug gang?

Which factor is highlighted as motivating compassionate acts according to the text?

What is the significance of 'distress sensitivity' in the context of parenting?

Why is the competency for sympathy-based distress tolerance important?

How does 'empathy' differ from 'emotional contagion' according to the text?

Why is it important to be 'non-judgmental' according to the text?

How does 'building compassion motivation' relate to developing competencies according to the text?

What does the text suggest about the relationship between compassion and selfishness?

What is the Latin origin of the word 'compassion'?

Which of the following best describes the concept of compassion as discussed in the text?

In the CFT model of compassion, how many basic characteristics are associated with the first psychology of engagement?

Why does the text suggest it is easier to be compassionate towards people we know and like?

What is emphasized as important for compassion in the text?

In what situation might one behave compassionately even if they don't feel compassionate?

What can sometimes stimulate people to 'fight' for justice?

What did Hermanto et al. find in their test of social mentality theory?

What is suggested to play a salient role in psychopathology, according to the text?

What is suggested as a possible reason for individuals with psychopathic traits not being physiologically responsive to distress signals?

What distinguishes empathy from compassion?

What did Meffert et al. (2013) find regarding people with psychopathic traits when exposed to painful stimuli?

Why do people with Asperger syndrome struggle with perspective taking according to the text?

What does Zaki (2014) suggest influences how empathy is used in social contexts?

What is a common trait associated with criminal behavior?

What is one of the sources of callousness mentioned in the text?

What personality trait is especially associated with dismissing individuals perceived as inferior?

What is the counterpoint to callousness as discussed in the text?

Why might it be difficult for some individuals to be in tune with the harm they cause others?

One of the competencies for empathy is emotional ________.

In the context of parenting, 'distress sensitivity' is important to prevent potential ________ to infants.

Compassion can falter if there is a loss in capacities for mentalizing, distress tolerance, or even ________.

The text mentions that 'hurt people hurt people' as a saying to highlight the cycle of ________ behavior.

Developing competencies for compassion motivation involves cultivating skills like attention sensitivity, mindfulness, mentalizing, and distress ________.

Compassion is obviously the opposite motivation to __________, threat-based aggression, greed, and basic callousness.

The competency for sympathy-based distress tolerance is important for developing __________.

In the parent-child relationship, distress calls and disease signals produce approach and caring behaviour, highlighting the importance of __________.

The word compassion comes from the Latin word compati meaning 'to suffer with', but today it is defined as 'a sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it', emphasizing the role of __________.

Compassion is more than good intentions or spontaneous acts of kindness; it involves acquiring the wisdom, knowledge, expertise, and at times courage to act and do something about suffering, highlighting the importance of __________.

One of the most salient variations in human populations is the degree of prosocial, helpful, and caring behavior conspecifics show each other, in contrast to aggressive and exploitative behavior. Human capacities for behaving compassionately and morally, or aggressively and immorally, are related to evolved phenotypes which are shaped and choreographed via the interaction of genetic disposition and environmental priming and shaping. Phenotypes, for reproductive strategies, emerged to fit particular social niches. In safe and highly investing social niches it is an advantage to develop phenotypes that can exploit that niche by building trusting, supportive relationships and by being relatively altruistic and compassionate to others; having a brain that is motivated for that. In contrast, in low-investing and high-threat environments these phenotypes may be disadvantaged, and more exploitative, self-focused strategies are better reproductive bets. Hence, although different alleles of neurotransmitter genes may be associated with these different phenotypes, it is the interaction of genetic and environmental factors that determines the ______.

Natural phenotypes can be classified as psychopathologies or dysfunctions but may actually represent variations on reproductive strategies and are normal phenotypic variations within populations. Human capacities for behaving compassionately and morally, or aggressively and immorally, are related to evolved phenotypes shaped by genetic disposition and environmental priming. Phenotypes for reproductive strategies emerged to fit particular social niches. Developing phenotypes that build trusting, supportive relationships and being altruistic and compassionate to others can be advantageous in safe and highly investing social niches. In contrast, in low-investing and high-threat environments, more exploitative, self-focused strategies may be better reproductive bets. Although different alleles of neurotransmitter genes play a role, it is the interaction of genetic disposition and environmental priming that shapes these evolved ______.

Human capacities for behaving compassionately and morally, or aggressively and immorally, are related to evolved phenotypes. These phenotypes are shaped and choreographed via the interaction of genetic disposition and environmental priming and shaping. Phenotypes for reproductive strategies emerged to fit particular social niches. In safe and highly investing social niches, it is advantageous to develop phenotypes that can exploit that niche by building trusting, supportive relationships and by being relatively altruistic and compassionate to others; having a brain that is motivated for that. In contrast, in low-investing and high-threat environments, these phenotypes may be disadvantaged, and more exploitative, self-focused strategies are better reproductive bets. The text suggests that the interaction of genetic disposition and environmental factors determines the evolved ______.

The text highlights that different alleles of neurotransmitter genes play a role in shaping evolved phenotypes for reproductive strategies in human populations. These phenotypes emerged to fit particular social niches, with safe and highly investing social niches favoring the development of phenotypes that can exploit trust, support, and altruism. In contrast, in low-investing and high-threat environments, more exploitative and self-focused strategies may be advantageous. Although genetic disposition is important, it is the interaction of genetic disposition and environmental priming that ultimately shapes these evolved ______.

The text mentions that evolved phenotypes for reproductive strategies in human populations are shaped by the interaction of genetic disposition and environmental priming. These phenotypes emerged to fit particular social niches, with safe and highly investing environments favoring the development of trusting, supportive relationships and altruistic behavior. In contrast, low-investing and high-threat environments may require more exploitative and self-focused strategies. While different alleles of neurotransmitter genes may be involved, the text emphasizes that it is the interaction between genetic disposition and environmental factors that determines the shaping of these evolved ______.

In dangerous ecologies, men are much more likely to be competitive and aggressive towards each other, with clear gender divisions in roles and power, and issues of honour and perceived reputation status dominate self-presentation. In contrast, in benevolent ecologies, men are much more likely to regard the control of emotion and peaceful coexistence as higher values and more parental investment in childcare. Given this, criminal behaviors and those related to relatively callous actions against others are more common in low-investing and high-threat environments. Here the evidence is clear that early neglect and abuse are very strong risk factors for the development of criminal behavior, partly because of underlying untreated ______.

Indeed, it is very clear that early backgrounds even shape genetic expressions through a process called ______.

This can be personalized for clients by inviting them to think about the therapist. For example: If I had been kidnapped as a three-day-old baby and raised in a violent drug gang, then this version of Paul Gilbert would not exist and in its place would be a genetically expressive, psychologically and socially very different individual who may well be in prison, rich, or ______.

In every individual are multiple possible versions of the self that emerge according to their social niche in which they grow; the self and its strategies are partly socially constructed, played out through brain patterns. The question today is how happy are you with the version of you that has been created for you not by you, and how much would you like to change it and discover and cultivate new versions that may be more conducive to yours and others' well-being. Indeed, this empathic connection, arising from scientific knowledge, to the potential ‘criminality’ within each of us, is a therapeutic compassionate act and links us to our common ______.

Compassion is rooted in evolved care-focused motivation and contextualized by the fact that the human mind is organized around a number of different and often competing motivational systems. Although there is no agreed nosology for motivational systems, there are two basic distinctions. The first is the distinction between social and non-social motives. Unlike non-social motives for eating or nest building, social motives are dependent upon complex social interactions where processing systems need to be motivated to create a certain type of role relationship and able to send the appropriate signals indicating to another their preparedness to enter into that type of relationship. So, for example, in animal courting displays, if those signals become mis-attuned then one or both parties may take flight or even ______ the other.

People with psychopathic traits may lack ______ motivation

In CFT, it's important to distinguish between a competency like empathy and the underlying ______ motivation

Compassionate behavior is how we take the actions we need to alleviate suffering and promote ______

Individuals with Asperger syndrome may struggle with ______ taking

An agoraphobic requires the courage to go out and learn to tolerate ______

People can be very motivated to do things but not very competent, whereas others can be very competent but lack ______

To be effective, empathy training must be paired with genuine care and ______ training

Sometimes anger at injustice stimulates people to 'fight' for ______ for the benefit of others

In a test of social mentality theory, Hermanto et al. found that the combination of high care-seeking and high care-giving predicted the highest level of self-compassion and ______

There is increasing evidence to suggest that the inability to respond to compassion from others plays a salient role in ______

Prosocial motivation is the counterpoint to ______

Some forensic programmes focus on cultivating prosocial behaviour to develop more empathy for others and the need to experience compassion and empathy themselves, although this aspect can be lacking in individuals with unprocessed shame and ______

Individuals who are dissociated from their own trauma and the harm that was done to them, particularly as children, may find it difficult to be in tune with the harm they cause others due to unprocessed shame and ______

One reason individuals may be dissociated from the harm they cause others is because they have unprocessed shame and grief, which holds them in a self-focused threat orientation to the ______

The text mentions that 'hurt people hurt people' as a saying to highlight the cycle of ______ behavior

Social mentalities can be divided into two basic forms: 1) those that are prosocial and focused on the well-being of others; and 2) those that are self-focused, either harm avoidance and/or acquisitive controlling, with little regard to others; they are obviously not mutually exclusive though. These can be subdivided into motivational systems for: a) care seeking; b) care eliciting; c) cooperation and friendship formation; d) competitiveness; and e) ____________.

Compassion is rooted in both the care-giving and friendship/alliance-building motivational systems with the recognition that evolution has put some constraints around these motives. For example, we tend to be compassionate to those we are (kin) related to, or those we are forming cooperative friendships with, whereas we are much more likely to be competitive, even hostile, to those we don’t like or see as out-group enemies. So caring motives versus dominance seeking ones can be in conflict. This raises the intriguing question of whether or not some individuals are compromised in their actual caring motivational capacities and competencies, or whether they tend to classify most individuals as potential threats to them and as out-group members. There are certainly indications that some of the neurophysiological underpinnings of caring behaviours such as polymorphisms of the oxytocin gene and the myelinated parasympathetic system are compromised in some individuals. In addition, there is neurophysiological evidence that people who have not been able to process their own trauma or emotional pain may lack the capacity to be empathic for the pain they cause others. Compassion has been labelled a social mentality to indicate that it’s a socially co-created process in that it is dependent upon attending to social signals, interpreting and then responding to those signals and responding to the respondents’ response in a flow of dynamic, ongoing, reciprocal relationship dances. Hence, competitive and sexual behaviour are also social mentalities, dependent upon complex dynamic, reciprocal interactions. So a social mentality is simply a social motive that is textured by the ‘social dances’ it engages and creates. These dances can also operate inside our Compassion Focused Therapy heads and in the fantasies we form, e.g. imagining sexual, assertive, ______ and being physiologically changed as a result. They can also play out in our own self-to-self relating (e.g. self-criticism can play out dominant/subordinate forms of relating). Importantly, different social mentalities organise and are organised by different psychological and physiological systems which in turn represent phenotypic strategies. So if we are organised and orientated for (say) self-focused competitiveness, or threat and defence, then our whole way of attending, thinking and relating to others will be different than if we are orientated for developing friendships, cooperation or caring. Social mentalities are very sensitive to context. So care-focused and compassion-focused social mentalities will be linked to history of social context and be much more likely to be recruited in affiliative than hostile contexts.

Compassion is rooted in both the care-giving and friendship/alliance-building motivational systems with the recognition that evolution has put some constraints around these motives. For example, we tend to be compassionate to those we are (kin) related to, or those we are forming cooperative friendships with, whereas we are much more likely to be competitive, even hostile, to those we don’t like or see as out-group enemies. So caring motives versus dominance seeking ones can be in conflict. This raises the intriguing question of whether or not some individuals are compromised in their actual caring motivational capacities and competencies, or whether they tend to classify most individuals as potential threats to them and as out-group members. There are certainly indications that some of the neurophysiological underpinnings of caring behaviours such as polymorphisms of the oxytocin gene and the myelinated parasympathetic system are compromised in some individuals. In addition, there is neurophysiological evidence that people who have not been able to process their own trauma or emotional pain may lack the capacity to be empathic for the pain they cause others. Compassion has been labelled a social mentality to indicate that it’s a socially co-created process in that it is dependent upon attending to social signals, interpreting and then responding to those signals and responding to the respondents’ response in a flow of dynamic, ongoing, reciprocal relationship dances. Hence, competitive and sexual behaviour are also social mentalities, dependent upon complex dynamic, reciprocal interactions. So a social mentality is simply a social motive that is textured by the ‘social dances’ it engages and creates. These dances can also operate inside our Compassion Focused Therapy heads and in the fantasies we form, e.g. imagining sexual, assertive, ____________ and being physiologically changed as a result. They can also play out in our own self-to-self relating (e.g. self-criticism can play out dominant/subordinate forms of relating).

These dances can also operate inside our Compassion Focused Therapy heads and in the fantasies we form, e.g. imagining sexual, ____________, fun interactions and being physiologically changed as a result.

These dances can also operate inside our Compassion Focused Therapy heads and in the fantasies we form, e.g. imagining sexual, assertive, ____________ and being physiologically changed as a result.