Study III (Chapter 6)

There is some theory to suggest that those exhibiting a preponderance of psychopathic traits are more inclined towards sadism and sadistic tendencies (Mokros et al. 2011) however, there currently is little empirical evidence to support this relationship. Rather, there is an assumption that those that engage in what are deemed to be crimes of a sadistic nature are also psychopathic and because these two constructs share some similar features, such as a lack of empathy, this reinforces the perceived relationship. This notion has been extended to consensual sadomasochism despite the fact that BDSM shares very little in common with sadism of a criminal nature. There is scant research that examines such a relationship; however, the assumption persists despite many within the BDSM community indicating that is simply not how sadomasochism of a consensual nature is arranged. Further, the emotion disgust is said to modify behaviour, including that of sexual nature, and as a consequence those who engage in more atypical sexual practices have lower levels of disgust sensitivity. Similarly those who are psychopathic, might also have attenuated levels of disgust sensitivity not unlike other negative emotions they seem to have an attenuated experience of. It is therefore necessary to explore the perceived relationship between these constructs to determine if there is, as suggested a relationship between psychopathy, BDSM and

Page | 3-67 attenuated disgust sensitivity. There are two research hypotheses under consideration for this study.

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3.4 Study IV (Chapter 7)

Study 4 examines the relationship between atypical fantasy with a focus on BDSM fantasy, disgust sensitivity, and psychopathic traits. Sexual fantasy is not necessarily an arbiter of behaviour, however, some research suggests that there is a relationship between atypical sexual fantasy, in particular, BDSM fantasy, and psychopathy. As disgust sensitivity is believed to be a moderator of sexual interest and behaviour, it is being included to determine if disgust sensitivity and/or psychopathy are related to atypical sexual fantasy in individuals that do not identify themselves as involved in BDSM.

While BDSM fantasy and behaviour may not be directly related; that is, there may be many who engage in BDSM fantasy but never the actual behaviour, there will be a cross comparison between groups that explores psychopathy and disgust sensitivity and the types of interests, at least shared by both groups.

3.5 Methodologies

3.5.1 Internet-based research

For some of the data collection online ‘survey’ style websites were implemented to facilitate data collection for the self-report measures. The studies in Chapter 6 and 7 were conducted online using Questionpro.com, an internet based survey hosting

Page | 3-68 website for the purposes of conducting this research. This was done in an effort to obtain as diverse a sample as possible to ensure that the results could be generalised more widely than is often the case with this type of research. Frequently psychopathy research that focuses on subclinical samples relies heavily on University students (Lilienfeld and Widows 2005) and, rather than use the same types of sampling strategy throughout it would be useful to obtain a sample that better reflected the general population, when possible. Special considerations were given to the BPS guidelines to ensure that protocols were put in place to avoid anyone under age 18 or other vulnerable populations participating in this research. This included restricting where the links were displayed, i.e. websites for individuals aged 18 and older, as well as age being provided before participants could proceed to the research. Password protection was also used to restrict access in an effort to ensure participants were within the age range they stipulated.

Also, as the PPI-R is copy-written, special permissions were obtained via PAR, Inc. who provides the PPI-R. This meant that the PPI-R questions could be administered online; however, it restricted access to one question at a time and required the use of password protection, as well to prevent individuals from illegally copying and using the questions elsewhere.

3.5.2 Sampling strategies

For the purposes studies II, III, IV, participants had been asked to self-select themselves based on the specific exclusion criteria for each study. More detail of these criteria is provided in the appropriate chapters. For Studies II and IV, convenience samples were employed along with the self-exclusion process. Study three snowball sampling along with the self-exclusion process proved necessary as the BDSM community can be quite insular and unwilling to participate in research. This required gaining trust and acceptance on the part of a key member within the BDSM community. Once assured

Page | 3-69 that this research was intended to explore BDSM objectively access was granted to the community. Also, self-identified members of the BDSM community were used exclusively in Study 3. There is no criteria/system/assessment for determining who is or is not active in the BDSM community (Nordling et al. 2006) and BDSM is not a disorder so it is necessary to rely upon individual’s self-identification with this particular group for research purposes. This is consistent with other research conducted with the BDSM community (Nordling et al. 2006).

3.5.3 Exclusion criteria

Participants were asked to self-select themselves for participation in the research. This included a set of exclusion criteria that was either applicable to all studies, or specific to the particularly research paradigm under investigation.

As study II explores participants responses to emotionally valenced words via typed text on a screen, self-selection /exclusion criteria was set for participants with Dyslexia or other reading related learning difficulties so as not to skew the results as according to Price,(2011), reading ability is often not controlled for in Stroop studies, and this can create a confounding variable. Also, as those with English was a second language would process the stimuli slightly differently than those with English as a first language, individuals with English as a second language have been excluded from participation (Price 2011).

To ensure that participants who may have been victims of sex crimes previously are not re-traumatised by partaking in research that examines atypical sexuality including rape fantasies, participants had been asked to exclude them from participating in studies III or IV if they had been a victim of a sex crime.

Page | 3-70 3.5.4 Self-report assessments

Self-report assessments were used throughout the research While this can result in inflated correlations between data sets (Field, 2013) affect and sexual fantasy are internal processes that cannot be measured directly therefore require self-report. Further, the only prescribed method for assessing psychopathic traits in non –offenders is the use of self-report (Ray, et al. 2012) consequently, these studies required the use of self-report measures.

All the assessments measured these constructs using a Likert scale. In research, Likert scales are typically treated as ordinal level data, however, when Likert scales are summed for the purposes of obtaining an overall score and sub scores, the data may be treated as a latent variable known as a plastic interval (Gavin, 2008) and may be treated as interval data. For the purposes of this research all data obtained via these questionnaires that has been analysed statistically has been treated as a plastic interval for this reason.