Dimensions of sensation seeking.

Tested 63 new items for the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) in an attempt to develop new scales representative of hypothesized dimensions of sensation seeking. An experimental form was given to 332 and 92 undergraduates at 2 universities. Data from the 1st university was factor analyzed separately for males and females. Besides the general factor running through diverse items, 4 factors were extracted from the rotated factor loadings: thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility. The 1st 3 factors showed good factor and internal scale reliability in both sexes and samples. Since boredom susceptibility was not well defined in females and was of minimal reliability, it was retained as a subscale for males only. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing the basic traits associated with psychopathy: Development and validation of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment.

A new self-report assessment of the basic traits of psychopathy was developed with a general trait model of personality (five-factor model [FFM]) as a framework. Scales were written to assess maladaptive variants of the 18 FFM traits that are robustly related to psychopathy across a variety of perspectives including empirical correlations, expert ratings, and translations of extant assessments. Across 3 independent undergraduate samples (N = 210–354), the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment (EPA) scales proved to be internally consistent and unidimensional, and were strongly related to the original FFM scales from which they were derived (mean convergent r = .66). The EPA scales also demonstrated substantial incremental validity in the prediction of existing psychopathy measures over their FFM counterparts. When summed to form a psychopathy total score, the EPA was substantially correlated with 3 commonly used psychopathy measures (mean r = .81). Finally, in a small male forensic sample (N = 70), the EPA was significantly correlated with scores on a widely used self-report psychopathy measure, disciplinary infractions, alcohol use, and antisocial behavior. The EPA provides an opportunity to examine psychopathy and its nomological network through smaller, more basic units of personality rather than by scales or factors that blend these elements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do core interpersonal and affective traits of PCL-R psychopathy interact with antisocial behavior and disinhibition to predict violence?

The utility of psychopathy measures in predicting violence is largely explained by their assessment of social deviance (e.g., antisocial behavior; disinhibition). A key question is whether social deviance interacts with the core interpersonal-affective traits of psychopathy to predict violence. Do core psychopathic traits multiply the (already high) risk of violence among disinhibited individuals with a dense history of misbehavior? This meta-analysis of 32 effect sizes (N = 10,555) tested whether an interaction between the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) Interpersonal-Affective and Social Deviance scales predicted violence beyond the simple additive effects of each scale. Results indicate that Social Deviance is more uniquely predictive of violence (d = .40) than Interpersonal-Affective traits (d = .11), and these two scales do not interact (d = .00) to increase power in predicting violence. In fact, Social Deviance alone would predict better than the Interpersonal-Affective scale and any interaction in 81% and 96% of studies, respectively. These findings have fundamental practical implications for risk assessment and theoretical implications for some conceptualizations of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reliability and validity of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) in nonincarcerated adolescent males.

Current knowledge about the validity of the psychopathy syndrome in youth is limited largely to studies relying on parent-teacher rating scales or slight modifications of adult measures. Recently, the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) was designed for use with adolescents. However, most studies that have used this measure examined incarcerated mates and addressed only validity criteria related to antisocial behavior. We investigated the generality and construct validity of the psychopathy syndrome in an adolescent sample by assessing 115 adolescent males on probation with the PCL:YV. Reliability of measurement was high. PCL:YV ratings predicted not only antisocial behavior but also other indices of childhood psychopathology, interpersonal behaviors associated with adult psychopathy, and a lack of attachment to parents. These findings suggest that the PCL:YV identifies a syndrome in adolescence consistent with theory and research on adult males. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discriminant validity of the Psychopathy Checklist in a forensic psychiatric population.

The association between psychopathy and other mental disorders was investigated in 80 male forensic patients. Psychopathy was assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL; R. D. Hare [see PA, Vol 67:2477]). Diagnoses of other mental disorders were based on Axis I and Axis II criteria listed in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) and on two standardized psychiatric rating scales. PCL diagnoses were significantly related only to antisocial and histrionic personality disorder (PD) and to nonalcohol substance abuse disorders. PCL ratings were also positively correlated with prototypicality ratings of antisocial, histrionic, and narcissistic PD and negatively correlated with ratings of avoidant PD. The results provide evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of the PCL and are consistent with the view that psychopathy is a distinct clinical syndrome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing a Four-Factor Model of Psychopathy and Its Association With Ethnicity, Gender, Intelligence, and Violence.

Although a 2-factor model has advanced research on the psychopathy construct, a 3-factor model was recently developed that emphasized pathological personality and eliminated antisocial behavior. However, dropping antisocial behavior from the psychopathy construct may not be advantageous. Using a large sample of psychiatric patients from the MacArthur Risk Assessment Study (J. Monahan & H. J. Steadman, 1994), the authors used confirmatory factor analysis to test a 4-factor model of psychopathy, which included interpersonal, affective, and behavioral impulsivity dimensions and an antisocial behavior dimension. Model fit was good for this 4-factor model, even when ethnicity, gender, and intelligence variables were included in the model. Structural equation modeling was used to compare the 3- and 4-factor models in predicting proximal (violence) and distal (intelligence) correlates of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sensation Seeking Scales and consumer satisfaction with a substance abuse treatment program

Satisfaction of 119 addicts with an addiction treatment program was measured by an 11 item satisfaction scale. The scale's internal consistency was acceptable (Cronbach's alpha = .75). The total satisfaction score was weakly but significantly correlated with Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking scales: Those with higher scores on the Boredom Susceptibility scale (i.e., those easily bored) reported less satisfaction, whereas those with higher scores on Thrill and Adventure Seeking scale (i.e., risk, adventure, and thrill seekers) reported higher levels of treatment satisfaction. Older patients were more satisfied with the feedback they received from their psychological tests and also with staff's respect for their rights.     

Assessment of psychopathy as a function of age.

The assessment of psychopathy was examined as a function of age in 889 male prison inmates between the ages of 16 and 69. Ratings of psychopathy were made with the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL), which measures 2 correlated factors. Factor 1 describes a cluster of affective-interpersonal traits central to psychopathy. Factor 2 describes traits and behaviors associated with an unstable, unsocialized lifestyle, or social deviance. Cross-sectional analyses revealed that mean scores on Factor 1 were stable across the age-span; mean scores on Factor 2 declined with age. The prevalence of antisocial personality disorder, and, to a lesser extent of PCL-defined psychopathy, also declined with age. The results are consistent with a conceptualization of psychopathy as encompassing 2 correlated but distinct constructs. They also suggest that age-related differences in traits related to impulsivity, social deviance, and antisocial behavior are not necessarily paralleled by differences in the egocentric, manipulative, and callous traits fundamental to psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy and violence: The importance of factor level interactions.

The power of scales based on the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL; R. D. Hare, 1980) for prediction of violent behavior is well established. Although evidence suggests that this relationship is chiefly due to the impulsive and antisocial lifestyle component (Factor 2), the predictive power of psychopathy for violence may also reflect the multiplicative effects of this component with interpersonal and unemotional traits (Factor 1). The determination of the extent to which psychopathy subcomponents interact to predict violence has theoretical and practical implications for PCL-assessed psychopathy. However, the relationship between violence and the interactive effects of psychopathy subcomponents remains largely undetermined. The authors used prospective and cross-sectional designs to examine the independent and interactive effects of the factors of PCL-assessed psychopathy in 2 samples: (a) 199 county jail inmates and (b) 863 civil psychiatric patients. The Factor 1 × Factor 2 interaction predicted violence in both samples, such that the predictive power of Factor 2 was attenuated at lower levels of Factor 1. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy and conduct problems in children.

Factor analysis of a measure of psychopathy was conducted in a sample of 95 clinic-referred children between the ages of 6 and 13 yrs. These analyses revealed 2 dimensions of behavior, one associated with impulsivity and conduct problems (I/CP) and one associated with the interpersonal and motivational aspects of psychopathy (callous/unemotional: CU). In a subset of this sample (n?=?64), analyses indicated that scores on the I/CP factor were highly associated with traditional measures of conduct problems. In contrast, scores derived from the CU factor were only moderately associated with measures of conduct problems and exhibited a different pattern of associations on several criteria that have been associated with psychopathy (e.g., sensation seeking) or childhood antisocial behavior (e.g., low intelligence, poor school achievement, and anxiety). These analyses suggest that psychopathic personality features and conduct problems are independent, yet interacting, constructs in children, analogous to findings in the adult literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two subtypes of psychopathic violent offenders that parallel primary and secondary variants.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 116(4) of Journal of Abnormal Psychology (see record 2007-17062-019). The headings "Primary (n = 74)" and "Secondary (n = 49)" should be reversed in Table 1 on p. 401. In addition, the means for the Psychic Anxiety scale of the Karolinska Scales of Personality should be 0.52 (rather than -0.52) and -0.34 (rather than 0.34).] Although psychopathy usually is treated as a unitary construct, a seminal theory posits that there are 2 variants: Primary psychopathy is underpinned by an inherited affective deficit, whereas secondary psychopathy reflects an acquired affective disturbance. The authors investigated whether psychopathy phenotypically may be disaggregated into such types in a sample of 367 prison inmates convicted of violent crimes. Model-based cluster analysis of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) and trait anxiety scores in the psychopathic subgroup (n = 123; PCL-R ≥ 29) revealed 2 clusters. Relative to primary psychopaths, secondary psychopaths had greater trait anxiety, fewer psychopathic traits, and comparable levels of antisocial behavior. Across validation variables, secondary psychopaths manifested more borderline personality features, poorer interpersonal functioning (e.g., irritability, withdrawal, poor assertiveness), and more symptoms of major mental disorder than primary psychopaths. When compared with the nonpsychopathic subgroup (n = 243), the 2 psychopathic variants manifested a theoretically coherent pattern of differences. Implications for etiological research and violence prevention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy and recidivism from mid-adolescence to young adulthood: Cumulating legal problems and limiting life opportunities.

This study examined the ability of psychopathy as indexed by the following 4 scales: Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (A. E. Forth, D. S. Kosson, & R. D. Hare, 1996/2003), Antisocial Process Screening Device (P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, 2001), Hare Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-II (R. D. Hare, 1991), and Personality Assessment Inventory-Antisocial Scale (L. C. Morey, 1991, 2007) to prospectively predict antisocial outcomes including general and violent recidivism across a 3- to 4-year time span. Results indicated that psychopathy was predictive of both general and violent recidivism from mid-adolescence to young adulthood even after accounting for 14 variables theoretically linked to offending. These findings add to the recent research showing stability in the psychopathy traits across time by also demonstrating that psychopathy in adolescents also has a real-world effect, including a cost to society with higher rates of offending in the community and a cost to youth with cumulating legal records that are likely to narrow their potential for prosocial growth in the community. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clarifying the role of defensive reactivity deficits in psychopathy and antisocial personality using startle reflex methodology.

Prior research has demonstrated deficits in defensive reactivity (indexed by potentiation of the startle blink reflex) in psychopathic individuals. However, the basis of this association remains unclear, as diagnostic criteria for psychopathy encompass two distinct phenotypic components that may reflect differing neurobiological mechanisms—an affective–interpersonal component and an antisocial deviance component. Likewise, the role of defensive response deficits in antisocial personality disorder (APD), a related but distinct syndrome, remains to be clarified. In the current study, the authors examined affective priming deficits in relation to factors of psychopathy and symptoms of APD using startle reflex methods in 108 adult male prisoners. Deficits in blink reflex potentiation during aversive picture viewing were found in relation to the affective–interpersonal (Factor 1) component of psychopathy, and to a lesser extent in relation to the antisocial deviance (Factor 2) component of psychopathy and symptoms of APD—but only as a function of their overlap with affective–interpersonal features of psychopathy. These findings provide clear evidence that deficits in defensive reactivity are linked specifically to the affective–interpersonal features of psychopathy and not to the antisocial deviance features represented most strongly in APD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Machiavellianism and psychopathy.

An integration of the Machiavellianism (MACH) and psychopathy constructs based on a dimensional view of personality and personality disorders and a recognition of B. Karpman's (1941, 1948) conceptual distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy is presented. Positive associations between MACH and both primary and secondary psychopathy were found. It is concluded that the Mach-lV is a global measure of psychopathy in noninstitutionalized populations (i.e., one that assesses but confounds both primary and secondary psychopathy) and that the primary differences between MACH and psychopathy are not traceable to substantive theoretical issues but to the different professional affiliations they are associated with: personality and social psychology and clinical psychology, respectively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pursuing the psychopath: Capturing the fledgling psychopath in a nomological net.

The present article reports on an attempt to import the concept of psychopathy at the childhood level. Childhood psychopathy was assessed in 430 boys ages 12 and 13 years by using caretaker reports on a translation of an adult psychopathy assessment instrument. A systematic construct validation approach revealed that childhood psychopathy fits into the nomological network surrounding adult psychopathy. Children with psychopathic personalities, like their adult counterparts, were serious and stable offenders, impulsive, and more prone to externalizing than internalizing disorders. Childhood psychopathy also provided incremental validity in predicting serious stable antisocial behavior in adolescence over and above other known predictors and one other classification approach. These results suggest that psychopathy has a childhood manifestation that can be measured reliably. Implications and future directions are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Two subtypes of psychopathic violent offenders that parallel primary and secondary variants." Correction to Skeem et al. (2007).

Reports an error in "Two subtypes of psychopathic violent offenders that parallel primary and secondary variants" by Jennifer Skeem, Peter Johansson, Henrik Andershed, Margaret Kerr and Jennifer Eno Louden (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2007[May], Vol 116[2], 395-409). The headings "Primary (n = 74)" and "Secondary (n = 49)" should be reversed in Table 1 on p. 401. In addition, the means for the Psychic Anxiety scale of the Karolinska Scales of Personality should be 0.52 (rather than -0.52) and -0.34 (rather than 0.34). (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2007-06673-015.) Although psychopathy usually is treated as a unitary construct, a seminal theory posits that there are 2 variants: Primary psychopathy is underpinned by an inherited affective deficit, whereas secondary psychopathy reflects an acquired affective disturbance. The authors investigated whether psychopathy phenotypically may be disaggregated into such types in a sample of 367 prison inmates convicted of violent crimes. Model-based cluster analysis of the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 2003) and trait anxiety scores in the psychopathic subgroup (n = 123; PCL-R ≥ 29) revealed 2 clusters. Relative to primary psychopaths, secondary psychopaths had greater trait anxiety, fewer psychopathic traits, and comparable levels of antisocial behavior. Across validation variables, secondary psychopaths manifested more borderline personality features, poorer interpersonal functioning (e.g., irritability, withdrawal, poor assertiveness), and more symptoms of major mental disorder than primary psychopaths. When compared with the nonpsychopathic subgroup (n = 243), the 2 psychopathic variants manifested a theoretically coherent pattern of differences. Implications for etiological research and violence prevention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The MMPI—2 Antisocial Practices Content Scale: Construct validity and comparison with the Psychopathic Deviate Scale.

Little is known regarding the construct validity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—2 Antisocial Practices (ASP) content scale or its differences from the Psychopathic Deviate (Pd) scale. In 3 studies with undergraduates (Ns?=?95, 110, and 100), the ASP scale exhibited convergent and discriminant validity with self-report, interview, family history, and observer measures of psychopathy, personality disorders, and personality traits. The ASP and Pd scales had many similar correlates, but the ASP scale correlated more positively with measures of Machiavellianism and more negatively with interviewer-rated honesty than the Pd scale. The ASP scale demonstrated incremental validity over and above the Pd scale for global indexes of psychopathy and antisocial behavior. Neither scale related highly to the absence of stress and interpersonal anxiety characteristic of psychopathy. The ASP and Pd scales, although overlapping in content, appear to measure somewhat different facets of the psychopathy construct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A taxometric analysis of the latent structure of psychopathy: Evidence for dimensionality.

The taxonomic status of psychopathy is controversial. Whereas some studies have found evidence that psychopathy, at least its antisocial component, is distributed as a taxon, others have found that both major components of psychopathy-callousness/unemotionality and impulsivity/antisocial behavior-appear to distribute as dimensions and show little evidence of taxonicity. In the present study, recent advances in taxometric analysis were added to P. Meehl's (1995) multiple consistency tests strategy for assessing taxonicity, and they were applied to Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. D. Hare, 2003) ratings of 4,865 offenders sampled from multiple forensic settings. The results indicated that both the individual components of psychopathy and their interface are distributed dimensionally. Both the implications of these results for research in psychopathy and the integration of these findings with previous taxometric studies of psychopathy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)