A professor from the UA psychology department was recently awarded the 2013 Saleem Shah Award for Early Career Development for his research of psychopaths and the psychopathic personality.

Martin Sellbom, an assistant professor of psychology and law, received the award from the American Psychology-Law Society for his research on psychopathy. Sellbom has been working at The University of Alabama since 2009.

“Part of my work that probably led to this award is my contribution to the study of the psychopathic personality,” Sellbom said. “I also study personality disorders more broadly, especially how well psychologists assess personality disorders.”

The award was given by the AP-LS in conjunction with the American Academy of Forensic Psychology and recognizes early career excellence and contributions to the field of psychology and law. Sellbom will be giving the Saleem Shah Address at the AP-LS Annual Conference in Portland, Ore., on March 9.

Sellbom described psychopathy as a personality disorder in which individuals have few moral or social ties.

“The best way to describe psychopaths is as societal predators that manipulate and exploit other people in order to serve their own selfish goals. They’re calloused, cold-hearted and they lack remorse for their actions,” Sellbom said. “They abuse people in order to achieve the goals they have in front of them.”

Psychopathy also has societal implications. The personality disorder can make individuals a danger to themselves and others.

“Psychopathy tends to be associated with high-crime rates. When psychopaths are let out of prison, they have much higher re-offense rates than non-psychopathic offenders, especially violent re-offense rates. They also have higher rates of addictions, like substance abuse or alcohol abuse,” Sellbom said. “In relationships, psychopaths don’t really form close attachments, but they’re very good at mimicking emotions and essentially exploit other individuals in relationships.”

Because of its extreme nature, psychopathy is sometimes portrayed in the movies and television shows.

“One of my favorite examples of psychopathy in movies is Daniel Craig’s portrayal of James Bond. There you have someone who has a long list of psychopathic characteristics,” Sellbom said. “He’s fearless and doesn’t work very well in relationships. He’s not necessarily out to hurt others, but he inevitably does because of his personality style.”

Jaime Anderson, a second-year graduate student in the psychology department, said she believes the media portrayal of psychopathy can lead to a skewed idea of it and other mental disorders.

“I think that the media portrayal of media psychopathy can give a wrong impression to society. I think that particularly in the legal system, when jurors already [see] these impressions that are not correct, it’s hard to get away from that,” Anderson said. “So any mental illness where the media portrayal is not particularly accurate, skews people’s impressions.”

Sellbom also runs the University’s Personality, Psychopathology, and Measurement Lab.

Rachel Rock, a third-year graduate student in the psychology department, works in the lab and said she came to the University specifically to work with Sellbom.

“Applying to clinical psychology Ph.D programs is a little bit different than applying to law school or other types of graduate programs, in that you apply to work with a professor whose research interests are similar to your own,” Rock said.

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