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The Perception-Action Model of empathy and psychopathic “cold-heartedness”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2003

Linda Mealey
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, MN 56374 lmealey@csbsju.edu http://employees.csbsju.edu/lmealey School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072 Australiastuart@psy.uq.edu.au http://www.psy.uq.edu.au/~stuart
Stuart Kinner
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072 Australiastuart@psy.uq.edu.au http://www.psy.uq.edu.au/~stuart

Abstract

The Perception-Action Model of empathy (PAM) is both sufficiently broad and sufficiently detailed to be able to describe and accommodate a wide range of phenomena – including the apparent “cold-heartedness” or lack of empathy of psychopaths. We show how the physiological, cognitive, and emotional elements of the PAM map onto known and hypothesized attributes of the psychopathic personality.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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