The Continuum of Conscientiousness: The Antagonistic Interests among Obsessive and Antisocial Personalities

• Authors: Steven C. Hertler
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The five factor trait of conscientiousnessis a supertrait, denoting on one hand a pattern of excessive labor, rigidity, orderliness and compulsivity,and on the other hand a pattern of strict rectitude, scrupulosity, dutifulness and morality. In both respects the obsessive-compulsive personality is conscientious; indeed, it has been labeled a disorder of extreme conscientiousness (Widiger et al., 2009). Antisocial personality disorder, in the present paper, is described as occupying the opposite end of the conscientiousness continuum. The antisocial is impulsive rather than compulsive, illicit rather than licit, and furtive rather than forthright.After clinically comparing the obsessive and antisocial personalities, the present paper invokes evolutionary theory to explain their resultant behavioral, ideological, political and demographic differences.

Keywords

EN

Obsessive; Antisocial; Personality; Conscientiousness; Evolution; Society

• Publisher: Committee for Psychological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 167-178

Dates

published

2014-06-01

online

2014-06-17

Contributors

author

Steven C. Hertler

• The College of New Rochelle, Department of Psychology, 29 Castle Ave, New Rochelle, NY 10805

References

• Alves, D. A., Imperatriz-Fonseca, V. L.,& Francoy, T. M. (2009). The queen is dead-long live the workers: Intraspecific parasitism by workers in the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris. Molecular Ecology, 18, 4102-4111.[Crossref][PubMed]
• American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fourth Ed. Washington, DC: Author.
• Blair, J. & Frith, U. (2000). Neurocognitive explanations of antisocial personality disorders. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 10, 66-81.
• Brune, M. (2008). Textbook of evolutionary psychiatry: The origins of psychopathology. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Buschinger, A. (2009). Social parasitism: A review among ants (Hymenoptera Formicidae) Myrmecological News, 12, 219-235.
• Buss, D. M. (2011). Personality and the adaptive landscape: The role of individual differences in creating and solving social adaptive problems. In Buss, D. M & Hawley, P. H. (2011). The Evolution of Personality and Individual Differences. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Buys, S. (2012). Nesting habits, alternative nesting strategies and female territoriality of the cockroach- hunting solitary wasp, Penepodium luteipenne (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 24, 27-41.[Crossref]
• Careau V., Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P., Thomas, D. W., Reale, D.,& Humphries, M. M. (2009). Exploration strategies map along fast-slow metabolic and life-history continua in muroid rodents. Functional Ecology, 23, 150-156.[Crossref]
• Carere, C. & Maestripieri, D. (2013). Animal personalities: Behavior, physiology, and evolution. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
• Chapman A. L., Lynch, T. R., Rosenthal, M. Z., Cheavens, J. S., Smoski, M. J., & Krishnan, K. R. R. (2007). Risk aversion among depressed older adults with obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 31, 161-174.
• Cicchetti, D.& Cohen, D. J. (2006). Developmental psychopathology, Vol 2: Developmental neuroscience (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
• Cohen, L. E.& Machalek, R. (1988). A general theory of expropriative crime: An evolutionary ecological approach. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 465-501.[Crossref]
• Costa, P. T. & Widiger, T. A. (2009). Personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Cramer, K. M. (1995). The effects of description clarity and disorder type on MMPI-2 fake-bad validity indices. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 831-840.
• Davies, N. B., Krebs, J. R., & West, S. A. (2012). An introduction to behavioral ecology, fourth edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley- Blackwell.
• Deckel, A. W., Hesselbrock, V.,& Bauer, L. (1996). Antisocial personality disorder, childhood delinquency, and frontal brain functioning: EEG and neuropsychological findings. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 52, 639-650.[Crossref]
• Decuyper, M., De Pauw, S., De Fruyt, F., De Bolle, M.,& De Clercq, B. J. (2009). A meta-analysis of psychopath, antisocial PD and FFM associations. European Journal of Personality, 23, 531-565.[Crossref]
• Derefinko, K. J.& Lynam, D. R. (2006). Convergence and divergence among self-report psychopathy measures: a personality-based approach. Journal of Personality Disorders, 20, 261-280.[Crossref]
• Dugatkin, L. A. & Wilson, D. (1991). Rover: a strategy for exploiting cooperators in a patchy environment. American Naturalist, 138, 687-701
• Ellis, B. J., Figueredo, A., Brumbach, B. H., & Schlomer, G. L. (2009). Fundamental dimensions of environmental risk: The impact of harsh versus unpredictable environments on the evolution and development of life history strategies. Human Nature, 20, 204-268.[Crossref]
• Eskedal G. A. & Demitri, J. M. (2006). Etiology and treatment of cluster C personality disorders. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 28, 1-17.
• Figueredo, A. J., Vásquez, G., Hagenah Brumbach, B., Sefcek, J. A., Kirsner, B. R.,& Jacobs, W. J. (2005). The K-factor: individual differences in life history strategy. Personality and individual differences, 39, 1349-1360.
• Gay, P. (1989). The Freud reader. New York: Norton & Company.
• Gibbs Gallagher, N., South, S. C.,& Oltmanns, T. F. (2003). Attentional coping style in obsessive- compulsive personality disorder: A test of the intolerance of uncertainty hypothesis. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 41-57.[Crossref]
• Greve, K. W. & Adams, D. (2002). Treatment of features of obsessive- compulsive personality disorder using carbamazepine. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 56, 207-208.[Crossref]
• Gross, M. R. (1996). Alternative reproductive strategies andtactics: Diversity within sexes. Tree, 11, 92- 98.
• Haigler, E. D.& Widiger, T. A. (2001). Experimental manipulation of NEO PI-R items. Journal of Personality Assessment, 77, 339-358.[Crossref]
• Harpending, H. C. (1987). Sociopathy as an adaptation. Ethology and Sociobiology, 8, 63-72.[Crossref]
• Harpending H. C. & Sobus J. (1987). Sociopathy as an adaptation. Ethology and Sociobiology, 8, 63-72.[Crossref]
• Harpur, T. J., Hart, S. D.,& Hare, R. D. (1994). Personality of the psychopath. In P. T. Costa, Jr. & T. Widiger (Eds.) Personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.
• Harpur, T. J., Hart, S. D.,& Hare, R. D. (2002). Personality of the psychopath. In T. Costa &T. A. Widiger (Eds.), Personality disorders and the five factor model of personality (pp. 299-324). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Hertler, S. (2013). A review and critique of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder etiologies: Reckoning with heritability estimates. Accepted and in press: Europe’s Journal of Psychology.
• Hertler, S. (2013b). Ecological Opportunity and OCPD Etiology: Obsessive Character as an Adaptation to Seasonality. An unpublished manuscript..
• Horney, K. (1937). The neurotic personality of our time. New York: Norton and Company.
• Jonason, P. K., Koenig, B. L.,& Tost, J. (2010). Living a fast life: the dark triad and life history theory. Human Nature, 21, 428-442.[Crossref]
• Jonason, P. K., Webster, G. D., Schmitt, D. P., Li, N. P., & Crysel, L. (2012). The antihero in popular culture: Life history theory and the dark triad personality traits. Review of General Psychology, 16, 192-199.[Crossref]
• Joyce, P. R., Rogers, G. R., Miller, A. L., Mulder, R. T., Luty, S. E.,& Kennedy, M. A. (2003). Polymorphisms of DRD4 and DRD3 and risk avoidant and obsessive personality traits and disorders. Psychiatry Research, 119, 1-10.
• Kenrick, D.T., Dantchik, A., & MacFarlane, S. (1983). Personality, environment, and criminal behavior: An evolutionary perspective. In W.S. Laufer & J.M. Day (Eds.), Personality theory, moral development and criminal behavior. Lexington, Mass: D.C. Heath & Co.
• Kenrick, D. T., Maner, J. K., Butner, J., Norman, P. L.,& Becker, D. V. (2002). Dynamical evolutionary psychology: Mapping the domains of the new interactionist paradigm. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6, 347-356.[Crossref]
• Kofoed, L.& MacMillan, J. (1986). Alcoholism and antisocial personality: The sociobiology of an addiction. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174, 332-335.
• Lynam, D. R. (2002). Psychopathy from the perspective of the five-factor model of personality. In T. Costa &T. A. Widiger (Eds.), Personality disorders and the five factor model of personality (pp. 325-348). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• MacMillan, J. & Kofoed, L. (1984). Sociobiology and antisocial personality: An alternative perspective. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 172, 701-706.
• McCann, J. T. (2009). Obsessive-compulsive and negativistic personality disorders. In P. H. Blaney, & T. Millon (Eds.), Oxford text book of psychopathology (pp. 671-691). New York: Oxford University Press.
• McDonald, M. M., Donnellan, M. B., & Navarrete, C. D. (2012). A life history approach to understanding the dark triad. Personality and Individual Differences, 52, 601-605.[Crossref]
• Mealey, L. (1995). The sociobiology of sociopathy: An integrated evolutionary model. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 18, 523-599.[Crossref]
• Michalski, R. L. & Shackelford, T. K. (2010). Evolutionary personality psychology: Reconciling human nature and individual differences. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 509-516.[Crossref]
• Miller, J. D., Lynam, D., & Leukefeld, C. (2003). Examining antisocial behavior through the lens of the five factor model of personality. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 42, 405- 413.
• Miller, J. D., Lynam, D. R., Widiger, T. A., & Leukefeld, C. (2001). Personality Disorders as Extreme Variants of Common Personality Dimensions: Can the Five Factor Model Adequately Represent Psychopathy? Journal of Personality, 69, 253-276.
• Millon, T. & Davis, R. D. (1996). Disorders of personality DSM-IV and beyond. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Morey, L. C., Grilo, C. M., Zanarini, M. C.,& Gunderson, J. G. (2004). Temporal coherence of criteria for four personality disorders. Journal of Personality Disorders, 18, 394-398.[Crossref]
• Morgan, A. B. & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2000). A meta-analytic review of the relation between antisocial behavior and neuropsychological measures of executive function. Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 113-136.[PubMed][Crossref]
• Nelson, E. C., Cloninger, C. R., Przybeck, T. R.,& Csernansky, J. G. (1996). Platelet serotonergic markers and tridimensional personality questionnaire measures in a clinical sample. Biological Psychiatry, 40, 271-278.[Crossref]
• Nettle, D. (2006). The evolution of personality variation in humans and other animals. American Psychologist, 61, 622-631.[Crossref]
• Neumann, C. S., Johansson, P. T., & Hare, R. D. (2013). The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), low anxiety, and fearlessness: A structural equation modeling analysis. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 4, 129-137.
• Newman, J. P., Patterson, C., & Kosson, D. S. (1987). Response perseveration in psychopaths. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 145-148 [Crossref]
• North, D. C., Wallis, J. J.,& Weingast, B. R. (2009). Violence and social orders: A conceptual framework for interpreting recorded human history. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Ostaszewski, P. (1997). Temperament and the discounting of delayed and probabilistic rewards: conjoining European and American psychological traditions. European Psychologist, 2, 35-43.[Crossref]
• Penke, L., Denissen, J. A.,& Miller, G. F. (2007). The evolutionary genetics of personality. European Journal of Personality, 21, 549-587.[Crossref]
• Petry, N. M. (2002). Discounting of delayed rewards in substance abusers: relationship to antisocial personality disorder. Psychopharmacology, 162, 425-432.[PubMed][Crossref]
• Petry, N. M.& Pietrzak, R. H., (2006). Gambling and antisocialpersonalitydisorder: A reply to Wang. Addiction, 101, 748-749.
• Pfohl, B. & Blum, N. (1991). Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: A review of available data and recommendations for DSM-IV. Journal of Personality Disorders, 5, 363-375.[Crossref]
• Pollak, J. (1987). Obsessive-compulsive personality: Theoretical and clinical perspectives and recent research findings. Journal of Personality Disorders, 1, 248-262. Rosenwald, G. C. (1972). Effectiveness of defenses against anal impulse arousal. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 39, 292-298.[Crossref]
• Rushton, J. (1985). Differential K Theory: The sociobiology of individual and group differences. Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 441-452.[Crossref]
• Rushton, J. (1987). An evolutionary theory of health, longevity, and personality: Sociobiology and r/K reproductive strategies. Psychological Reports, 60, 539-549.[Crossref]
• Salzman, L. (1985). Treatment of the obsessive personality. New York: Jason Aronson.
• Samuel, D. B. & Widiger, T. A. (2011). Conscientiousness and obsessivecompulsive personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 2, 161-174.
• Samuels, J. &Costa, P. T. (2012). Obsessive-compulsive personality Disorder. In T. A. Widiger (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Personality Disorders (pp. 566-581). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Schneidera, F., Habela, U., Kesslera, C., Posseb, S., Grodd, W., &Müller-Gärtnerd, H. (2000). Functional imaging of conditioned aversive emotional responses in antisocial personality disorder. Neuropsychobiology, 42, 192-201.[Crossref]
• Sellbom, M. (2011). Elaborating on the construct validity of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale in incarcerated and non-incarcerated samples. Law and Human Behavior, 35, 440-451[Crossref]
• Sellbom, M., Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Graham, J. R. (2006). Correlates of the MMPI-2 restructured clinical (RC) scales in a college counseling setting. Journal of Personality Assessment, 86, 89-99.
• Shapiro, D. (1999). Neurotic styles. New York: Basic Books.
• Shapiro, S. K., Quay, H. C., Hogan, A. E., & Schwartz, K. P. (1988). Response perseveration and delayed responding in undersocialized aggressive conduct disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97, 371-373.[Crossref]
• Sher, K. J.& Trull, T. J. (1994). Personality and disinhibitory psychopathology: Alcoholism and antisocial personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 3, 92-102.[Crossref]
• Sherman, R. A., Figueredo, A., & Funder, D. C. (2013). The behavioral correlates of overall and distinctive life history strategy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105, 873-888.[Crossref]
• Slutske, W. S., Eisen, S., Xian, H., True, W. R., Lyons, M. J., Goldberg, J.,& Tsuang, M. (2001). A twin study of the association between pathological gambling and antisocial personality disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 297-308.[Crossref]
• Spinhoven, P., Bamelis, L., Molendijk, M, Haringsma, R.,& Arntz, A. (2009). Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory in cluster c personality disorders and the role of depression, worry and experiential avoidance. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 520-530.[Crossref]
• Stearns, S. C. (1992). The evolution of life histories. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Stearns, S. C. & Hoekstra, R. F. (2005). Evolution: an introduction, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Stoltenberg, S. F. (1997). Heritability estimates provide a crumbling foundation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 20, 525.
• Taylor, J., James, L. M., Bobadilla, L., & Reeves, M. D. (2008). Screening for disinhibited disorder cases in a college population: Performance of the SMAST, DAST, SCID-II-Q, and PDQ-4. Psychological Assessment, 20, 351-360.
• Torgersen, S., Lygren, S., Øien, P. A., Skre, I., Onstad, S., Edvardsen, J., Tambs, K., & Kringlen, E. (2000). A twin study of personality disorders. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 41, 416-425.[PubMed][Crossref]
• Travis, J. (2009). Phenotypic plasticity. In S. A. Levin (Ed.), The Princeton guide to ecology (pp. 65-71). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
• Trull, T. J. & McCrae, R. R. (2009). A five-factor perspective on personality disorder research. In P. T. Costa & T. A. Widiger (Eds.), Personality disorders and the five factor model of personality (pp. 45-58). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. van Oers, K. & Sinn, D. L. (2013). Quantitative and molecular genetics of animal personality. In C. Carere & D. Maestripieri (Eds.), Animal personalities: Behavior, physiology, and evolution (pp. 149-200). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
• Villemarette-Pittman, N. R., Stanford, M. S., Greve, K. W., Houston, R. J.,& Mathias, C. W. (2004). Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and behavioral disinhibition. The Journal of Psychology, 138, 5-22.
• Völlm, B., Richardson, P., Stirling, J., Elliott, J., Dolan, M., Chaudhry, I., Del Ben, C. Mckie, S., Anderson, I.,& Deakin, B. (2004). Neurobiological substrates of antisocial and borderline personality disorder: preliminary results of a functional fMRI study. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 14, 39-54.
• Wang, X. (2006). Antisocial personality disorder and gambling: Comments on Pietrzak & Petry (2005). Addiction, 101, 748-749.[PubMed]
• Warner, M. B., Morey, L. C., Finch, J. F., Skodol, A. E., Shea, M. T., Gunderson, J. G., Sanislow, C. A., McGlashan T. H.,& Grilo, C. M. (2004). The longitudinal relationship of personality traits and disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 217-227.
• Weiss, A. & Adams, M. J. (2013). Differential behavioral ecology: The structure, life history, and evolution of primate personality. In C. Carere & D. Maestripieri (Eds.), Animal personalities: Behavior, physiology, and evolution (pp. 96-123). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
• Wenner, C. J., Bianchi, J., Figueredo, A. J., Rushton, P.,& Jacobs, W. J. (2013). Life history theory and social deviance: The mediating role of executive function. Intelligence, 41, 102-113.[Crossref]
• Widiger, T. A. & Costa, P. T. (2002). Five-factor model personality disorder research: In P. T. Costa & T. A. Widiger (Eds.), Personality disorders and the five factor model of personality (pp. 59-88).
• Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Widiger, T. A., Costa, P. T. & McCrae, R. R. (2009). A proposal for axis II: Diagnosing personality disorders using the five-factor model. In P. T. Costa & T. A. Widiger (Eds.), Personality disorders and the five factor model of personality (pp. 431-456). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Widiger, T. A.& Lynam, D. R. (1998). Psychopathy and the five-factor model of personality. In T. Millon, E. Simonsen, M. & Birket-Smith, R. D. Davis (Eds.), Psychopathy: Antisocial, criminal, and violent behavior (pp. 171-187). New York: Guilford Press.
• Widiger, T. A.& Trull, T. J. (1997). Assessment of the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 68, 228-250.[Crossref]
• Widiger, T. A., Trull, T. J., Clarkin, J. F., Sanderson, C.,& Costa, P. T. (2002). A description of the DSM-IV personality disorders with the five-factor model of personality. In P. T. Costa & T. A. Widiger (Eds.), Personality disorders and the five factor model of personality (pp. 89-99). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Wilson, D. S., Near, D.,& Miller, R. R. (1996). Machiavellianism: A Synthesis of the Evolutionary and Psychological Literatures. Psychological Bulletin, 119, No. 2, 285-299.[Crossref][PubMed]
• Wilt, J., Schalet, B.,& Durbin, E. (2010). SNAP trait profiles as valid indicators of personality pathology in a non-clinical sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 742-746.[Crossref]
• Yom-Tov, Y. (2008). Intraspecific nest parasitism in birds. Biological Reviews, 55, 93-108.
• Zeier, J. D., Baskin-Sommers, A. R., Hiatt Racer, K. D., & Newman, J. P. (2012). Cognitive control deficits associated with antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 3, 283-293.

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/ppb-2014-0022