RFUMS Psychology Professor serves as Program Chair for International Conference on Psychopathy

Dave Kosson, Associate Professor in Psychology, recently served as Program Chair for the 2nd biannual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy (SSSP). The conference was held in St. Pete Beach, Florida from April 26th to April 28th. One hundred and twelve people attended the meeting, including attendees from countries as far away as Japan, Chile, and Argentina, and a large contingent from several European countries. This attendance represents a 32% increase in attendance from the number attending the previous SSSP meeting (approximately 85 people).

The three day program included oral presentations and poster sessions. Two of the talks were presented by RFUMS graduate students in Psychology. Mike Brook gave a talk entitled “Evidence for continuity and change in psychopathic personality dimensions in midlife: a behavior genetic investigation.” Zach Walsh gave a talk entitled “Psychopathy and terror management: Impact on perceptions of blue-collar and white-collar criminality.” Dr. Kosson also delivered a paper entitled “Preliminary evidence for negative affectivity and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in youth with psychopathic traits” coauthored by Lindsay Allen, and Cami K. McBride, a former RFUMS faculty member who is now at Roosevelt University.

At the conference, Dr. David Lykken, previously at the University of Minnesota, was honored posthumously with the Robert D. Hare Lifetime Achievement Award for his work on psychopathy. Dr. Joseph Newman, University of Wisconsin delivered the Presidential Address. A full copy of the conference program (including abstracts) is available for viewing or downloading at the SSSP website, www.psychopathysociety.org.