Psychopathy in a noninstitutional sample: Differences in primary and secondary subtypes.

Early theoretical conceptualizations suggest psychopathy is a heterogeneous construct whereby psychopathic individuals are found in diverse populations. The current study examined male and female psychopathy subtypes in a large sample of undergraduate students (n = 1229). Model-based cluster analysis of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Short Form (PPI-SF) revealed two clusters in both male and female students. In males, the primary subtype evidenced greater psychopathic personality traits (i.e., Social Potency, Fearlessness, and Impulsive Nonconformity) and lower anxiety (i.e., higher Stress Immunity), whereas the secondary subtype displayed fewer psychopathic personality traits (i.e., Machiavellian Egocentricity and Blame Externalization) and higher anxiety (i.e., lower Stress Immunity). In females, the primary subtype exhibited higher scores across all PPI-SF subscales and lower anxiety whereas the secondary subtype reported lower PPI-SF subscale scores and higher anxiety. Across a diverse array of personality, affective, and behavioral external correlates, differences between the subtypes and with nonpsychopaths emerged. Implications for psychopathy in noninstitutional populations with respect to theory, research, and gender are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Taxometric Analysis of Psychopathic Personality.

Although a common assumption throughout much of the professional and popular literature is that psychopaths are qualitatively different from others, very few studies have examined the latent structure of psychopathy. Whether psychopathy is a discrete category or a continuous dimension may have implications for research on the assessment, etiology, and treatment of this disorder. This study examined the latent structure of psychopathy in a sample of 309 jail and prison inmates. Three taxometric procedures were used to analyze indicators drawn from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (S. O. Lilienfeld & B. P. Andrews, 1996), a self-report instrument. Consistent with prior studies that used other measures of psychopathy, none of the analyses was consistent with a taxonic solution, suggesting that psychopathic personality may be best understood as existing on a continuum. (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)     

An examination of the structure of self-report psychopathy measures and their relations with general traits and externalizing behaviors.

Self-report assessment of psychopathy is plagued by inconsistencies among the relations of the various psychopathy factors. We examined the factor structure of 3 prominent self-report measures of psychopathy—the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale–III (SRP–III; Williams, Paulhus, & Hare, 2007), the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP; Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995), and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory–R (PPI–R; Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005). A coherent 4-factor structure resulted from conducting an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the psychopathy subscales along with the domains from the five-factor model. Two of these factors were consistent with traditional conceptualizations of a 2-factor structure of psychopathy (i.e., Factor 1, which loaded negatively with Agreeableness; Factor 2, which loaded negatively with Conscientiousness), while 2 additional factors emerged, 1 of which emphasized low Neuroticism and 1 of which emphasized traits related to novelty/reward-seeking and dominance-related personality traits (high Extraversion). We also investigated the relations of these factors with a variety of externalizing behaviors (EB). The psychopathy scales indicative of interpersonal antagonism (i.e., Factor 1) were most consistently and strongly related to EB. Our findings are discussed in terms of the importance of a trait-based perspective in the assessment of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us.

Reviews the book, Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us by Robert D. Hare (see record 2001-00418-000). Too often we hear about adults, and now more than ever, adolescents, who perpetrate violence so horrific and seemingly meaningless that their actions defy the understanding of professionals, let alone of the perpetrators' families. The republication of Robert Hare's popular work on the psychopathic personality is a testament to the success and importance of this book. Hare paints an intriguing yet scary portrait of this, the most dangerous type of personality disorder. His colourful, but accurate portrayal of the psychopath makes this book equally important alike for parents and clinicians. Without conscience is based on more than 30 years of the author's research on psychopathy. The book is written in a sincere and easily readable fashion for a general audience. The research and clinical literature is described in nontechnical terms with a minimum of jargon, making the work accessible to a wide audience. Much of Hare's research has been devoted to the reliable identification of psychopaths. His development of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL) may represent the single, most important advancement to date toward what hopefully will become our ultimate understanding of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathic personality traits associated with abnormal selective attention and impaired cognitive control.

The current study investigated how mechanisms of attention that have been well-characterized in the cognitive psychology literature (Lavie, Hirst, De Fockert, & Viding, 2004; Maylor & Lavie, 1998) may be differentially associated with psychopathic traits in nonincarcerated men. Previous research on cognition and psychopathy indicated that primary psychopathic traits were associated with overfocused attention and/or reduced processing of information peripheral to the focus of attention. Conversely, deficits in executive functioning, such as working memory and cognitive control, were implicated in secondary psychopathic traits. Results revealed a significant relationship between traits typically associated with primary psychopathy (e.g., low anxiety, social dominance, fearlessness, callousness) and reduced processing of task-irrelevant distractors, suggesting diminished basic attentional capacity among individuals high on these traits. In contrast, some characteristics linked to secondary psychopathy (e.g., social alienation, cynicism) showed a positive relationship with impaired working memory functioning, indicative of deficits in cognitive control, whereas other traits (i.e., self-centeredness, antagonism) did not. These results suggest that psychopathic traits are differentially related to selective impairments in attentional functioning, which may help explain the observed heterogeneity in psychopathic manifestations. (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 Comorbidity in a Young Offender Sample: Taking A Closer Look At Psychopathy's Potential Importance Over Disruptive Behavior Disorders.

The authors examined the construct of psychopathy as applied to 130 adolescent offenders using 3 psychopathy measures and a broad range of DSM-TV Axis I diagnoses and psychosocial problems. Measures used in the study included the following: (a) Psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version (PCL- PCLYV; A. E. Forth, D. S. Kosson, & R. D. Hare, 2003), (b) Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD; YV; P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, 2002), (c) a modified version of the Self-Report Psychopathy-II scale (SRP-II; R. D. Hare, 1991b), and (d) the Adolescent Psychopathology Scale (APS; W. M. Reynolds, 1998). Results from this study offer incremental support for the construct validity of psychopathy in youth. Psychopathy evidenced better convergent and discriminant validity results than did the disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) such as oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). Despite this finding, psychopathy scales nonetheless correlated with other forms of psychopathology at a higher rate than was expected, suggesting that comorbidity is high even when psychopathy is used as a classification scheme. Also, hierarchical multiple regression was used to determine whether psychopathy offered an improvement in the prediction of previous violent and nonviolent offenses. The results for the current study were mixed, with only the PCL-YV significantly predicting previous violent and nonviolent offenses beyond the DBDs. The findings indicate that psychopathy may offer incremental improvement over DBDs with regard to level of comorbidity and perhaps even prediction. However, simply extending the adult construct of psychopathy to youth without considering the array of psychopathology that may accompany adolescent psychopathy could be misleading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validating female psychopathy subtypes: Differences in personality, antisocial and violent behavior, substance abuse, trauma, and mental health.

Recent empirical investigations utilizing male prisoners have begun to validate clinical conceptualizations of primary and secondary psychopathy subtypes. We extended this literature by identifying similar psychopathic subtypes in female prisoners on the basis of personality structure using model-based cluster analysis. Secondary psychopaths (n = 39) were characterized by personality traits of negative emotionality and low behavioral constraint, an early onset of antisocial and criminal behavior, greater substance use and abuse, more violent behavior and institutional misconduct, and more mental health problems, including symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and suicide attempts. Primary psychopaths (n = 31) exhibited few distinguishing personality features but were prolific criminals especially in regards to nonviolent crime, and exhibited relatively few mental health problems despite substantial exposure to traumatic events. The results support alternative etiological pathways to antisocial and criminal behavior that are evident in personality structure as well as gender similarities and differences in the manifestation of psychopathic personalities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy and Suicidality in Female Offenders: Mediating Influences of Personality and Abuse.

The influence of personality and childhood abuse on suicidal behaviors and psychopathy was examined among female prisoners. Scores on the affective/interpersonal component (Factor 1; F1) and the antisocial deviance (Factor 2; F2) component of psychopathy were obtained from the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (R. D. Hare, 1991). Suicide attempt and childhood physical and sexual abuse history were coded from interviews and prison files, and personality was assessed using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (A. Tellegen, in press). Suicide attempts were positively associated with F2 and negatively associated with F1, and each factor accounted for unique variance in suicidality. Path analyses demonstrated that personality mediated the effects of physical abuse on F2, but sexual abuse accounted for unique variance in both suicide attempts and F2. Abuse and personality accounted for minimal variance in F1. These results are discussed in relation to the identification of individuals at risk for both self- and other-harm behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Associations among early abuse, dissociation, and psychopathy in an offender sample.

Theorists have postulated that some variants of psychopathy result from childhood abuse and neglect. Dissociative symptoms are also thought to arise from abuse. To date, the conjoint associations among abuse, dissociation, and psychopathy have not been examined systematically. Some have hypothesized that abuse relates primarily to the affective symptoms of psychopathy, with dissociative experiences mediating this relationship. Others have suggested that abuse more directly affects the impulsive lifestyle features of psychopathy. The authors used structural equation modeling to examine these hypotheses in a sample of 615 male offenders who had completed a retrospective self-report measure of childhood abuse, the Dissociative Experiences Scale, and R. D. Hare's (2003) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. Abuse exerted no direct or indirect effect on the core interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy but was directly related to the facet of psychopathy associated with an impulsive and irresponsible lifestyle. Implications for psychopathy subtypes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Detecting psychopathy from thin slices of behavior.

This study is the first to demonstrate that features of psychopathy can be reliably and validly detected by lay raters from “thin slices” (i.e., small samples) of behavior. Brief excerpts (5 s, 10 s, and 20 s) from interviews with 96 maximum-security inmates were presented in video or audio form or in both modalities combined. Forty raters used these excerpts to complete assessments of overall psychopathy and its Factor 1 and Factor 2 components, various personality disorders, violence proneness, and attractiveness. Thin-slice ratings of psychopathy correlated moderately and significantly with psychopathy criterion measures, especially those related to interpersonal features of psychopathy, particularly in the 5- and 10-s excerpt conditions and in the video and combined channel conditions. These findings demonstrate that first impressions of psychopathy and related constructs, particularly those pertaining to interpersonal functioning, can be reasonably reliable and valid. They also raise intriguing questions regarding how individuals form first impressions and about the extent to which first impressions may influence the assessment of personality disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validating the factor structure of the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale in a community sample.

Currently, there is no standard self-report measure of psychopathy in community-dwelling samples that parallels the most commonly used measure of psychopathy in forensic and clinical samples, the Psychopathy Checklist. A promising instrument is the Self-Report Psychopathy scale (SRP), which was derived from the original version the Psychopathy Checklist. The most recent version of the SRP (SRP-III; D. L. Paulhus, C. S. Neumann, & R. D. Hare, in press) has shown good convergent and discriminate validity and a factor structure similar to the current version of the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991, 2003). The analyses in the current study further investigated the viability of the SRP-III as a PCL-R-analogous measure of psychopathy in nonforensic and nonclinical samples by extending the validation process to a community sample. Using confirmatory factor analyses and logistic regressions, the results revealed that a four-factor oblique model for the SRP-III was most tenable, congruent with the PCL-R factor structure of psychopathy and previous research in which the SRP-III was administered to a student sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continuity and change in psychopathic traits as measured via normal-range personality: A longitudinal-biometric study.

The discriminant validity of the interpersonal-affective and social deviance traits of psychopathy has been well documented. However, few studies have explored whether these traits follow distinct or comparable developmental paths. The present study used the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (A. Tellegen, in press) to examine the development of the psychopathic traits of Fearless Dominance (i.e., interpersonal-affective) and Impulsive Antisociality (i.e., social deviance) from late adolescence to early adulthood in a longitudinal- epidemiological sample of male and female twins. Results from mean- and individual-level analyses revealed stability in Fearless Dominance from late adolescence to early adulthood, whereas Impulsive Antisociality declined over this developmental period. In addition, biometric findings indicated greater genetic contributions to stability in these traits and greater nonshared environmental contributions to their change over time. Collectively, these findings suggest distinct developmental trends for psychopathic traits from late adolescence to early adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of comorbid psychopathy on criminal offending and emotion processing in male offenders with antisocial personality disorder.

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and psychopathy are two syndromes with substantial construct validity. To clarify relations between these syndromes, the authors evaluated 3 possibilities: (a) that ASPD with psychopathy and ASPD without psychopathy reflect a common underlying pathophysiology; (b) that ASPD with psychopathy and ASPD without psychopathy identify 2 distinct syndromes, similar in some respects; and (c) that most correlates of ASPD reflect its comorbidity with psychopathy. Participants were 472 incarcerated European American men who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (4th ed., American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria for ASPD and Psychopathy Checklist criteria for psychopathy, who met the criteria for ASPD but not for psychopathy, or who did not meet diagnostic criteria for either ASPD or psychopathy (controls). Both individuals with ASPD only and those with ASPD and psychopathy were characterized by more criminal activity than were controls. In addition, ASPD with psychopathy was associated with more severe criminal behavior and weaker emotion facilitation than ASPD alone. Group differences in the association between emotion dysfunction and criminal behavior suggest tentatively that ASPD with and ASPD without prominent psychopathic features may be distinct syndromes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dual temperamental risk factors for psychopathic personality: Evidence from self-report and skin conductance.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder consisting of dysfunctional affective interpersonal features (Factor 1) and impulsive-antisocial behavior (Factor 2) that exhibit differential associations with palmar skin conductance (SC) reactivity. The goal of this study was to determine whether the distinct SC reactivity observed in incarcerated psychopaths generalizes to university students who score high on personality dimensions hypothesized to be the risk factors for these psychopathy factors. Lilienfeld's Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) was used to compute scores on 2 factor-analytically derived dimensions that have been the focus of recent research in psychopathy. PPI-1 is hypothesized to relate to the low-fear temperamental risk factor, whereas PPI-2 is hypothesized to relate to regulatory dysfunction. SC reactivity was measured during tasks previously used in studies of diagnosed psychopaths. Results indicated that PPI-1 was associated with reduced SC during anticipation of an aversive noise and PPI-2 was associated with enhanced SC reactivity during presentation of a speech about one's faults. Additional analyses explored an 8-factor solution of the PPI and 3 temperament dimensions derived from factor analysis of several personality measures. Together, the SC results suggest that the Factor 1 pathway, best captured with refined assessments of behavioral fearlessness, related to reduced SC reactivity to an aversive noise—consistent with a weak defense system. The Factor 2 pathway, best captured by higher order dimensions reflecting externalizing, disinhibited forms of negative temperament, related to enhanced SC reactivity to a speech stressor—consistent with high stress reactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 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)     

Psychopathy and community violence among civil psychiatric patients: Results from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study.

Although psychopathy is recognized as a relatively strong risk factor for violence among inmates and mentally disordered offenders, few studies have examined the extent to which its predictive power generalizes to civil psychiatric samples. Using data on 1,136 patients from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment project, this study examined whether the 2 scales that underlie the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) measure a unique personality construct that predicts violence among civil patients. The results indicate that the PCL:SV is a relatively strong predictor of violence. The PCL:SV's predictive power is substantially reduced, but remains significant, after controlling for a host of covariates that reflect antisocial behavior and personality disorders other than psychopathy. However, the predictive power of the PCL:SV is not based on its assessment of the core traits of psychopathy, as traditionally construed. Implications for the 2-factor model that underlies the PCL measures and for risk assessment practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy in female inmates: The SCID-II Personality Questionnaire and the PCL-R.

The authors examined the relationship between personality disorders, as measured by a self-report screening instrument, and psychopathy as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991) in female inmates. Participants included 136 women from a maximum security state prison. There was a positive relationship between the Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) scale, which measures conduct disorder before age 15, and the Factor 2 scale of the PCL-R; no other significant relationships with other personality scales were obtained, and there were no evident relationships between any of the personality scales and the Factor 1 scale of the PCL-R. A discriminant function analysis and follow-up receiver operating characteristics analysis indicated that the use of a criterion of 3 endorsed conduct disorder items from the 15-item APD scale was sufficient to correctly identify 71.9% of the women who had been identified as meeting the criterion for psychopathy using the PCL-R interview. However, the scale evidenced poor prediction of nonpsychopaths (specificity = 52.8%). Results indicate the value of using the self-report of conduct disorder items as part of a screening procedure in concert with other measures to select inmates who require further assessment of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)