Citation

Lanciano T, Curci A, Guglielmi F, Soleti E, Grattagliano I. J. Forensic Sci. 2018; 63(3): 906-910.

Affiliation

Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70121, Bari, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.13612

PMID

28810074

Abstract

This short report presents preliminary data on the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in moderating the relationship between psychopathy and aggression in a nonforensic sample. A sample of 109 volunteer men was administered the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R), the Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire, and the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso emotional intelligence Test in individual sessions. Correlation and moderation analyzes showed that, at low levels of EI (in terms of strategic ability to understand and manage one's own and others' emotions), people scoring high on the total PPI-R and impulsivity dimension seemed to be both reactively and proactively aggressive. By contrast, at high levels of strategic ability, the relationships between psychopathy and aggression were no longer significant. These preliminary results encourage further investigation into the role of EI ability in mitigating aggressive outcomes in psychopathic subjects.

© 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

emotional intelligence; forensic psychology; forensic science; impulsiveness; psychopathy; reactive-proactive aggression; strategic emotional ability