Construct Validity of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) Concept Map: Getting Closer to the Core of Psychopathy

Abstract

Psychopathy is an important clinical and forensic psychopathology construct; however, its optimal conceptualization continues to be a source of significant controversy. The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP; Cooke, Hart, Logan, & Michie, 2012) considers 33 personality traits that integrate historical and contemporary conceptualizations of the disorder. The current study examined the internal structure of self-ratings the CAPP traits in a large international sample of community-dwelling participants (N = 719; 52% women). Results indicated that a bi-factor (one general factor, three residual bi-factors) model representing global psychopathy, as well as residual factors of boldness/emotional stability, emotional detachment, and disinhibition, best fit the data. Associations with nine additional self-rated items revealed a generally expected pattern of convergent and discriminant validity. Finally, a Spearman rank-order correlation between CAPP item loadings on the global psychopathy factor and prototypicality ratings by experts (Kreis, Cooke, Michie, Hoff, & Logan, 2012) was .76, reflecting substantial content validity as well as agreement about relative importance of psychopathy traits using widely different conceptual and empirical procedures.