¿Cómo se relaciona la psicopatía secundaria con la ansiedad?una revisión meta-analítica

Abstract

Two definition and assessment models of psychopathy cohabit in scientific literature: primary psychopathy, founded by interpersonal and affective traits, and secondary psychopathy that, additionally, requires of antisocial and/or criminal behavior. At the primary psychopathy model, low anxiety is a psychopathy trait, whilst secondary psychopathy model does not comprise it as a trait or diagnostic criterion. Nonetheless, the scientific literature has studied the relationship between anxiety and secondary psychopathy as it is measured by PCL-R. The search for studies threw 29 primary studies from which 45 effect sizes were achieved, computing with them a correlational psychometric meta-analysis. The results showed a positive, significative and generalized correlation between anxiety and secondary psychopathy. Moreover, the study of gender as moderator exhibited positive, significative and generalized correlation between anxiety and secondary psychopathy of .18 y .08 for females and males, respectively. Although results showing a positive relationship between anxiety and secondary psychopathy do not allow establishing if anxiety is a characteristic trait or an associated symptom of secondary psychopathy, secondary psychopathy assessment should incorporate its measurement. The implications of the non-inclusion of anxiety in secondary psychopathy assessment for intervention are discussed