Agreeableness explains the factor structure of the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, Fourth Edition.

Abstract

The five-factor model (FFM) is a general personality model that has been frequently studied in its relation to psychopathy (Lynam & Miller, 2015; Widiger & Lynam, 1998) with ample evidence that Antagonism (low Agreeableness) plays a core role in the conceptualization of psychopathy. The present study examined the relations between the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, Fourth Edition (SRP-4; Paulhus et al., 2014), one of the most commonly used self-report measures of psychopathy and the FFM. Using a preregistered analytical approach, we found that all 4 subscales and the total score of the SRP-4 are positively correlated with all facets of Antagonism and that Antagonism accounts for the overlap between SRP-4 subscales, as introducing these facets to a hierarchical regression reduced the overlap between subscales by more than 50%. Adding Conscientious to the model did not account for further reduction in overlap between the factors. Finally, a structural equation model showed the latent correlation between Antagonism and psychopathy as captured by the SRP-4 to be effectively 1.0, again highlighting the role of Antagonism in the SRP-4's conceptualization of psychopathy. The results were consistent across 2 large samples (Ns of 627 and 628). This study suggests the SRP-4 is assessing Antagonism and showcases the primary role of Antagonism in psychopathy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).