Affective considerations in antisocial behavior: An examination of negative urgency in primary and secondary psychopathy

Prior work on psychopathy has indicated a two-factor model consisting of callous and unemotional personality traits (primary psychopathy) and impulsive, destructive behaviors (secondary psychopathy: e.g., Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick. 1995). We sought to examine the relationship between both primary and secondary psychopathy and negative urgency in a sample of undergraduates (n = 156) in order to elucidate emotional components in psychopathy and clarify a previous finding contradictory to our hypotheses (Miller, Flory, Lynam, & Leukefeld, 2003). Results supported our hypotheses. Negative urgency predicted secondary psychopathy. The correlation between negative urgency and secondary psychopathy was significantly higher than the correlation between negative urgency and primary psychopathy. These findings indicate that negative urgency may serve as a robust correlate of secondary psychopathy, and that it may be pivotal to separate components of psychopathy when considering potential relationships to affect-relevant variables. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.