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Should Employers Screen for Psychopaths?

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posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 10:27 AM
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I often wonder what the world would be like if 'introduction to sociology' began in the 5th grade.

I suppose there may be a lot less 'lost souls', people trying to gain off the backs of others (peer manipulation) while looking all along for their own true-self; what are they worth?

They hold power and money in a higher esteem than the rest of us; because we experience fulfillment, while they thirst for it their entire life...

That's why the best things in life are for free.

When you give esteem to someone lacking self-worth, you create a monster sized ego for them to behold...

Aren't Chief's supposed to take care of the entire tribe?



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 10:29 AM
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originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: ATODASO

Testing for psychopaths and sociopaths however, is necessary for the protection of the company from corruption, and the nation/planet from some of the most remorseless, relentless, and utterly soulless people ever to have walked on the face of this Earth.


so then they are given a complimentary vasectomy and a living wage courtesy of the tax payer?

or do they go up against the wall with the rest of the scum?

personally, i think it makes more sense to improve internal checks and balances so that psychos who # others over get caught rather than go the pre-crime route.



edit on 9-9-2014 by ATODASO because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 10:31 AM
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a reply to: ATODASO


she hooked up a batch of certified psychos to electrodes...


No she didn't.


To test her ideas, Carolyn assembled 50 participants, mostly from among students, who underwent a series of tests – conducted in strict confidence – beginning with an appraisal of IQ levels using a standard procedure. Then they completed the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, which established which participants had either Factor One or Factor Two psychopathic tendencies.


It appears to me that all she really found with this small study is that folks with higher intelligence can fake their emotional responses.


The conclusion is that those with higher IQs had sufficient intelligence to fake their emotional response, making it more difficult to detect their condition.


You could apply that to any number of personality traits and/or disorders. I suppose employers could develop tests to screen out people with high IQ's and not trust them due to their superpowers, but that probably wouldn't benefit them in the long run.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 10:35 AM
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interesting topic
bump



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 10:38 AM
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originally posted by: Zarniwoop
a reply to: ATODASO

"To test her ideas, Carolyn assembled 50 participants, mostly from among students, who underwent a series of tests – conducted in strict confidence – beginning with an appraisal of IQ levels using a standard procedure. Then they completed the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, which established which participants had either Factor One or Factor Two psychopathic tendencies. "

It appears to me that all she really found with this small study is that folks with higher intelligence can fake their emotional responses.


hey bud, i might be reading it wrong, but the quote you use strongly implies that she sorted out the intelligent and not so intelligent neurotypicals. what was left to be tested with the eclectrodes were the subjects who tested high for psychopathy. what she found is that intelligent psychopaths have an abnormally flat response to negative stimuli, and that the lack of response itself indicates that one is dealing with an intelligent psychopath.


edit on 9-9-2014 by ATODASO because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 10:40 AM
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a reply to: Subaeruginosa
BRAVO!!!!!



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 10:53 AM
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a reply to: ATODASO


to be clear, the physiological test that measures for response to negative stimuli in no way screens for intelligence.


I'm not debating that. She screened the folks for intelligence and a test for "psychopathic tendencies" and found that the more intelligent folks could fake emotions to negative stimuli better. That's about it. There were no "certified psychos" involved here.

Now. Should employers screen for psychopathic tendencies for their top positions? They do that already... At least the larger companies do.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 10:55 AM
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We just had what we thought was a sociopath working and living with us.
According to this article it was a Psychopath after all..
www.psychologytoday.com...

Regardless.
This guy was throwing wrenches into every thing we did from day one.
First few times I just blew it off but kept my eye on him.
Dude wasn't very smart, I think he was 26 or so and I nailed him fairly quickly.
Zero tolerance and he's gone.

This article matched him well:
www.sott.net...



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 10:58 AM
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originally posted by: Zarniwoop
a reply to: ATODASO


to be clear, the physiological test that measures for response to negative stimuli in no way screens for intelligence.


I'm not debating that. She screened the folks for intelligence and a test for "psychopathic tendencies" and found that the more intelligent folks could fake emotions to negative stimuli better. That's about it. There were no "certified psychos" involved here.


sorry, but the way i'm reading it, she ran the iq test first, then the cleckley checklist, or whatever. so the people who participated in the first test, but didn't score high on the psychopathy test were eliminated from the study regardless of their intelligence. leaving only the dumb and smart probable psychopaths.

right?


Now. Should employers screen for psychopathic tendencies for their top positions? They do that already... At least the larger companies do.


yeah, but only using the same text based tests that can be gamed by the people the company wants to screen out.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 11:04 AM
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a reply to: ATODASO

Bah. I have been at the mercy of such people before now. I believe unless one knows what that is like, one has no idea what manner of fate one is leaving people to.

You must understand that psychopaths are VERY hard to detect, and harder still to catch. This is exactly why allowing them to come into contact with the rest of the population AT ALL is a bad idea.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 11:17 AM
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a reply to: ATODASO


sorry, but the way i'm reading it, she ran the iq test first, then the cleckley checklist, or whatever. so the people who participated in the first test, but didn't score high on the psychopathy test were eliminated from the study regardless of their intelligence. leaving only the dumb and smart probable psychopaths.

right?


There is no indication in the article that any of the 50 were weeded out by any means. It looks like all 50 were put into one bucket or the other for the two types of tendencies based on answers from the self-test. That may not be the case, but further detail would be needed in order to make an accurate assessment.

On a related note, if you look at the questions on the tendencies test, you'll notice they are pretty obvious in relation to which bucket one would be tossed into. Any smart person would be able to fake that test.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 11:19 AM
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originally posted by: TrueBrit
...carving out their little fiefdoms and scouring all else with their inherant villany.

What I am getting at, is that ONLY psychopathic or sociopathic traits must ever be extensively tested for by employers. Any other psychometric testing would be discriminatory. Testing for psychopaths and sociopaths however, is necessary for the protection of the company from corruption, and the nation/planet from some of the most remorseless, relentless, and utterly soulless people ever to have walked on the face of this Earth.


Of all the posters on ATS, I'm a little surprised to see you adopting that position. You always struck me as... well, better reasoned than that. I certainly thought that you were more aware of the complexities of MHDs.

A dangerous psychopath is a very dangerous person indeed. Not all psychopaths are dangerous. Some of the typical features of psychopathy actually make them very well suited to some roles.

I would agree entirely that working out which psychopaths are "safe" and which are "dangerous" would be a monumentally difficult task, by virtue of their typical presentation. Making psychopathy tendencies an automatic disqualifier for employment? That's a dangerous road to travel, no matter how good the intentions that pave it. You are also blocking out many people with the very qualities you might be looking for in a high level employee.

Besides, people with those tendencies are just as likely to start their own business and go on to dominate the marketplace. There's a reason why psychopathic tendencies are so heavily represented at the top of the corporate ladder. Unless you plan to lock them all up "just in case", you're not going to make any real difference. You're also depriving a company of a very valuable asset.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 11:26 AM
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a reply to: EvillerBob

I am aware that MHD are complex, but psychopathy is not. The consequences for regular folk caught up in the grasp of people like this, are beyond imagining, and for those who escape, they do not really survive either.

I am sorry to disappoint you EvillerBob, but on this issue I give myself permission to be as unreasonable as I have to be, to see psychopaths wiped from the history books, and burned to the ground in agony. They are bad for individuals, bad for countries, and bad for this species.

Ever wondered why the banks are so skewed against the common man? Psychopaths running the show for their own gain. Ever wondered why politicians do not listen to the needs of the people? Because they are damned psychopaths interested only in heaping ever more power about themselves. Ever wondered why some police officers get off on beating people senseless, headlocking them till they die from it, shooting the hell out of unarmed people? Because they are psychopaths seeking chaos and blood and the peace these sick bastards get from it while it occurs. Ever wondered why the powerful always seek more power?

That is not a mark of HUMAN nature EvillerBob, but of inhuman nature, the inhuman nature of the psychopath, and it has been allowed to continue for well long enough already.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 11:28 AM
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There is no indication in the article that any of the 50 were weeded out by any means.


here's the abstract in full, it should clear up any ambiguity in the article.


This study examined the relationships between psychopathy (primary and secondary), intelligence and emotional responding in a sample of 50 university students, using a task measuring autonomic responses to 40 pictorial stimuli (20 neutral and 20 emotionally provoking). Results indicated no significant direct relationship between primary or secondary psychopathy and emotional response, or primary or secondary psychopathy and intelligence. However, a significant moderating effect of intelligence on the association between both psychopathy factors and emotional response was observed, indicating those scoring higher on psychopathy but with lower intelligence portray the expected emotional responses to the affective stimuli... These findings indicate abnormal reactivity to emotional stimuli in lower intelligence, higher psychopathic individuals, and suggest differing roles for the two facets of psychopathy in affective responsiveness deviations...

www.tandfonline.com...-uY



On a related note, if you look at the questions on the tendencies test, you'll notice they are pretty obvious in relation to which bucket one would be tossed into. Any smart person would be able to fake that test.


true, but since an overweening sense of superiority is a defining characteristic, pride would probably lead to accurate self-reporting as long as nothing substantial (like money or sex) was on the line.


edit on 9-9-2014 by ATODASO because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 11:40 AM
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Before I left my old life behind for soldiering, traveling, and working in the security sector, I worked in corporate finance for a fortune 500 company. Basically everyone had to take a Myers-Briggs personality test. Psychopathic tendencies show up, to a more or less degree, with this test. I am an INTJ. Most of my coworkers were ENTJs with a few ISTPs and ENTPs.

Objectively, functional psychopaths who are smart enough to play by the rules and understand the purpose of social conduct make very good managers of people. They're more concerned with good results that reflect well on them, and that means doing a good job. They ultimately don't care, which can both be a good and a bad trait to have. As long as they see themselves as reaping the benefits, which could be anything from increasing their likelihood of promotion and therefore a larger paycheck, or just plain accolades, and they are willing to get there by playing by the rules, then they are very effective people.

I've encountered a few psychopaths in my time. The dumb ones tend to embellish, lie, and be very self centered and impulsive. The smart ones, while very self centered in their own way, were brutally honest to the point of disregarding social ceremony completely and were totally in control. They also had nuclear families who seemed very loving and normal. Edit: I have never met someone I would legitimately consider a psychopath who has fallen between these two extremes. They have always been one extreme or the other.
edit on 9-9-2014 by Galvatron because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 11:44 AM
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geez...gun sellers don't need to check for them, why would a business care?



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 11:47 AM
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a reply to: ATODASO

even more detail here

As I suspected, none of the original 50 were weeded out.

They were a bunch of students looking for easy course credits.

I don't see anything ground-breaking here as the article would indicate, but I'm not really a geek on this topic.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 12:04 PM
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originally posted by: TrueBrit

I am sorry to disappoint you EvillerBob, but on this issue I give myself permission to be as unreasonable as I have to be, to see psychopaths wiped from the history books, and burned to the ground in agony. They are bad for individuals, bad for countries, and bad for this species.


Then on this point we must agree to disagree.

I bet the first creature to drag itself out of the primordial soup had psychopathic tendencies. After all, why would a "normal" creature ever think to try something as unnatural as that?

At the risk of making this sound silly, it's a lot like the Force. Jedi and Sith - the same people, the same abilities, the only thing that separates them is how they choose to use those abilities.

What does perhaps distinguish psychopathy from nearly any other mental health disorder, is that an intelligent psychopath can usually make a conscious decision about whether they will play by the rules or not.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 12:13 PM
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a reply to: ATODASO

Everywhere I have ever worked......there has always been some, at least one psychopath, several sociopaths, hypochondriacs, paranoid delusionals ect otherwise know as azzholes, crazy, crybabies, whatevers ect.



posted on Sep, 9 2014 @ 12:38 PM
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a reply to: Logarock

I feel like almost everyone is a bit of a psychopath, delusional, and quite unaware of the ways of the world. This makes it difficult for someone who is well grounded and aware to relate with the others and are labeled at a 'psychopath' or something along those lines.

While I can be an effect liar, I feel like I get myself in trouble for being too honest to the point that some take it the wrong way and get hurt feelings.




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