Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Identifying Dysfunction In Persistent Social Deviance: Perspective Taking As A Mediator Of The Relationship Between Psychopathy And Social Aggression, Olga Vadymovna Berkout

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Psychopathy has been associated with social aggression in a number of studies. Perspective taking (e.g. theory of mind and empathy) has been inversely associated with both psychopathy and social aggression, suggesting that it may serve as a potential mediator of this relationship. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to assess perspective taking as a potential partial mediator of the relationship between psychopathy and social aggression in a sample of 439 undergraduates. Although bivariate correlations produced the expected negative relationships between perspective taking and psychopathy and social aggression, perspective taking did not function as a mediator in the SEM analysis. Implications …