The quest for excitement: A missing link between personality disorder and violence?

Abstract

Despite its relative neglect by most emotion theorists, excitement has been found to be an important motive for criminal, and particularly violent, offending in young men. Exceptionally, reversal theory (Apter, M.J. (2007b). Reversal theory: The dynamics of motivation, emotion and personality (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oneworld Publications.) regards the quest for excitement as a powerful motive for human behaviour, including antisocial behaviour. The quest for excitement, manifesting as a desire to inflict harm and suffering on others, is prevalent in the dissocial domain of personality disorders and is arguably most prominent in those showing traits of 'meanness' and 'disinhibition' (Patrick, C. (2010). Conceptualizing the psychopathic personality: Disinhibited, bold... or just plain mean? In D.R. Lynam & R.J. Salekin (Eds.), Handbook of child and adolescent psychopathy (pp. 15-48). New York: Guilford Press.). Violence motivated by the desire for excitement is often facilitated by drug or alcohol use, overrides whatever feelings of empathy individuals might have for their victims, and represents a failure of emotion regulation characterised by an inability to down-regulate positive emotional states such as excitement and exhilaration. A quadripartite typology of violence is described which is intended as a working hypothesis and a framework to guide future research focusing on motivations for violent offending. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.