Dimensions of Psychopathy: A Factor Analytic Study of the MMPI Antisocial Personality Disorder Scale

Abstract

We reviewed the current models of psychopathy that include both diagnostic systems (DSM-II, DSM-III, DSM-III-R, PCL) and psychometric methods (MCMI-II and MMPI). We focused on the recently developed ANT scale (Morey, Waugh, & Blashfield, 1985) and its importance to the assessment of psychopathy. We conducted two separate principal components analyses on samples of 289 nonforensic and 242 forensic patients. Two factor solutions evidenced moderate correspondence in factor loadings. For the nonforensic sample, the two factors (26.0% of the variance) were delinquency and dishonesty/dissatisfaction. For the forensic sample, the two factors (30.6% of the variance) were delinquency/substance abuse and dishonesty/contumacy. We discussed these findings in terms of larger conceptual issues posed by the DMS-I V revisions and offer recommendations for forensic evaluations.