Comprehensive Assessment Of Psychopathic Personality Research Articles

Prototypical Validity and Factor Structure of the French Version of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) Model

In a study undertaken to examine the content validity of the French-language version of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP), a lexically-based conceptual model and clinical assessment of psychopathy, 204 French-speaking mental health professionals rated the symptoms covered by the CAPP for prototypicality. The majority of the symptoms were deemed to be “moderately” to “highly” prototypical of psychopathy. Of the model’s six domains, Dominance, Attachment and Self were considered more prototypical than Emotional, Behavioral and Cognitive. Results were consistent with those of other prototypicality studies. Descriptives analyses suggested that the ratings of English-speaking mental health professionals were higher than their French-speaking counterparts. However, the effect sizes were small according to the Cohen’s d analyses. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that Attachment was the only unidimensional domain. Finally, exploratory factor analysis yielded three factors—Egotism, Interpersonal rigidity, and Lack of responsibility. These factors were primarily underpinned by symptoms that entailed interpersonal and social cognitive traits.

Prototypicality analysis of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP): A cross-cultural perspective.

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) model is a new lexically based concept of psychopathy that has potential clinical utility. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the generalizability of the CAPP conceptual model in South Korea. In the current study, 88 experts and 1727 laypeople in South Korea were asked to evaluate the prototypicality of the symptoms of psychopathy (CAPP items) by using a Korean translation of the CAPP model (K-CAPP). In addition, 11 international prototypicality studies were systematically compared to the ratings by experts in the present study. As a result, it indicated that Korean experts and laypeople, on average, rated K-CAPP symptoms as moderately to highly prototypical of psychopathy, and more prototypical of psychopathy than symptoms theoretically unrelated to psychopathy (foils). Also, prototypicality ratings of K-CAPP symptoms made by those two groups were similar to each other as well as to ratings by experts and laypeople using the CAPP in other 11 countries. In conclusion, these results clearly show that both experts and laypeople in the current study conceptualized PPD in almost the same way as experts and laypeople from previous studies using the CAPP model.

Psychopathy in Iran: Developing and Validating a Persian Version of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality- Self-Report (CAPP-SR)

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality-Self-Report (CAPP-SR) is the most recent operationalization of the CAPP model which uses 33 symptoms to conceptualize psychopathic personality disorder. In the current study, we sought to examine the cross-cultural utility of the CAPP-SR in an Iranian sample. In Study 1, we translated the CAPP-SR into Persian and assessed the linguistic convergence between the Persian and original English versions using a sample of Persian–English bilingual university students in New Zealand. In Study 2, we examined the reliability and validity of the Persian CAPP-SR using a sample of university students in Iran. Our results showed that the Persian CAPP-SR has a promising pattern of convergent and incremental validity in terms of their associations with conceptually-relevant criterion measures, including those designed for the Iranian cultural context. Overall, the findings from the current study support the use of the Persian CAPP-SR as well as having implications for the cross-cultural utility of the CAPP model.

The role of gender expectations, stereotypes, and self-identification in rating psychopathy using the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP)

This study aimed to assess the role of gender expectations, stereotypes, and self-identification when rating psychopathy using the 33-item Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP). Firstly, we established how laypersons conceptualize psychopathy at a general level using gender prototypicality ratings with a sample of 1054 participants. As expected, most of the CAPP items and domains were rated significantly more prototypical of male than female psychopathy. Secondly, the potential for gender bias was explored by examining if rater characteristics or differences in client presentation influenced symptom severity ratings. A sample of 596 participants was randomly assigned to one of six conditions where they read a brief vignette and completed symptom severity ratings. Two one-way MANCOVAs were performed; no main effects or interaction effects were significant after controlling for the effects of the covariates. Each vignette was rated similarly, suggesting that client presentation does not influence symptom ratings for psychopathy. Therefore, laypersons consider the symptoms of psychopathy to be more prototypical of males, but these gender expectations did not translate into bias when rating symptom severity. Self-identification as belonging to an underrepresented racial group and a greater acceptance of male gender role stereotypes were found to influence symptom ratings.

The Influence of Psychopathy on Incarcerated Inmates' Cognitive Empathy.

(1) Background: there is an ongoing debate about whether psychopathic traits increase or decrease cognitive empathy/Theory of Mind. (2) Methods: using a representative sample of 204 Spanish convicted inmates incarcerated at the Pereiro de Aguiar Penitentiary in Ourense, Spain, we investigated the relationship between two tools for the assessment of psychopathy, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP), and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), a well-known measure of cognitive empathy. (3) Results: The results showed no clear connection between the scores on the psychopathy assessment tools and RMET performance. This lack of association was stronger when the age variable was included in the multivariate analysis. (4) Conclusions: the results of this study failed to detect any clear link between psychopathy and cognitive empathy performance. Accordingly, our results indicate that psychopathy neither improves nor worsens cognitive empathy.

Personality-based assessment of psychopathy: Comparison of the comprehensive assessment of psychopathic personality and the elemental psychopathy assessment.

Psychopathic personality disorder (PPD) is a widely researched construct characterized by severe dysfunction in affective, interpersonal and behavioral domains. Inconsistencies across different theoretical formulations and operationalizations have major implications for research and practice. Two separate personality-based perspectives of psychopathy have been proposed, one anchored within the influential five factor model (FFM) of personality and the comprehensive assessment of psychopathic personality (CAPP) model, which was specifically designed as an inclusive concept map of PPD. The current study evaluated the empirical overlap between the CAPP and the FFM-based models of psychopathy to determine the convergences and divergences in providing a personality-based perspective on psychopathy. Participants were undergraduate students (n = 924) who completed the CAPP-Self-Report (CAPP-SR) and the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment-Short Form (EPA-SF). Results indicated significant convergent validity associations between CAPP-SR scales and conceptually relevant EPA-SF scales (range = .30-.74; median discriminant associations range = .10-.36). Furthermore, an exploratory factor analysis supported the conceptual overlap between the CAPP-SR and EPA-SF scales as representing personality-based models of psychopathy, yielding a 4-factor structure that reflected antagonism, disinhibition, emotional stability, and narcissism. Overall, the findings support the convergence of the CAPP and FFM-based PPD models, at both a basic trait and higher order level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Circumstances Leading to and Characteristics of Belgian Forensic Patients Remitted to Prison

In Belgium, when forensic patients infringe their conditional release, they are remitted to prison. Given the poor conditions of detention and the current lack of alternatives, revoking conditional releases has a high impact. However, little is known about which patients are remitted to prison and why. In this article, we compared a sample of remitted patients (n = 50) to a matched control group (n = 48). We found that patients with high actuarial risk factors (as assessed by the Violent Risk Appraisal Guide, VRAG), antisocial personality disorder traits (measured by the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality, CAPP), and substance abuse disorder were more likely to be remitted. New acts of violence and substance abuse are the most prevalent reasons for revoking a conditional release, at 71% and 65%, respectively. The current results are independent of living conditions, and highlight the need for future research regarding this subgroup of forensic patients, who are more likely to be set back in their rehabilitative processes.

Supplemental Material for Personality-Based Assessment of Psychopathy: Comparison of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality and the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment

Supplemental Material for Personality-Based Assessment of Psychopathy: Comparison of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality and the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment

Content Validation of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality-Basic Version (CAPP-Basic) Using Prototypical Analysis.

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) is a lexically based conceptual model of psychopathy. Despite widespread use in research settings, the Lexical Rating Scale for the CAPP (CAPP-LRS) requires an advanced reading level for completion. The present study is the first to evaluate the content validity of the CAPP-Basic, a lexically simplified version of the CAPP-LRS designed for use with individuals possessing lower verbal skills. Symptoms were rated by mental health professionals (N = 121). Findings were largely in line with results of previous studies, indicating good content validity of the CAPP-Basic at the domain and symptom level.

Developing and validating a Chinese version of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality-Self-Report.

Studies have shown that previous psychopathy models may only address limited aspects of interpersonal and emotional deficits when being applied to the Chinese cultural context. Understanding cultural differences in the manifestation of the psychopathic personality requires a more comprehensive conceptual map that allows for examination of more detailed or nuanced aspects of psychopathy. The present study aimed to apply the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) framework to the Chinese cultural context and developed a Chinese version of the Self-Report Inventory of CAPP (CAPP-SR). An initial pool of 231 items was developed in Study 1, and then was tested and validated in 2 large community-based samples reported in Study 2 (N = 478) and Study 3 (N = 450). The Chinese version of the CAPP-SR was developed based on item response theory and content evaluation, with the aim of maximizing the psychometric quality, comprehensiveness, and similarity of scales with the standard CAPP-SR that was developed in English-speaking samples. The Chinese version of the CAPP-SR showed promising psychometric properties, with convergent validity that was similar to that demonstrated in English-speaking samples. The results also highlighted that the CAPP-SR can address the aforementioned issue in earlier psychopathy measures by covering various symptoms of emotional and interpersonal deficits. Furthermore, the results revealed that the associations among the various interpersonal and emotional deficits may differ between Chinese and Western populations. The CAPP-SR allows for future research that will deepen our understanding of the links among characteristics of psychopathy for Chinese populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Structured Professional Judgment (SPJ) Violence Risk Case Formulation and Psychopathic Personality Disorder

The bivariate, empirical association between psychopathic personality disorder (PPD) and violence has been well established. Yet, questions remain about how to explain why this association occurs. To address this conceptual gap, we presented a review of theories of violence related to PPD. Next a conceptual analysis of how psychopathic traits may influence violent decisions was conducted. Specifically, we systematically analyzed how Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP; Cooke et al., International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 11(4), 242–252, 2012) traits influence violence from a structured professional judgment (SPJ) theory of violence known as SPJ decision theory. This conceptual analysis clarifies how various CAPP traits may motivate, disinhibit, or destabilize violence. Implications include the role of causality and clinical applications of violence risk case formulations.

Psychopathy, addictions and female gender: Comparative study using the Psychopathy Checklist Revised and the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality.

Traditionally, psychopathy research has focused on assessing men with the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R). Research on women with other assessment tools is scarce. The objective of this study is to evaluate psychopathy, using various tools, in a sample with both women and men. The study involved 204 inmates (mean age (DS) = 40.93 (11.8)), 28 women (13.7%), in the Pereiro de Aguiar penitentiary (Ourense). Sociodemographic, substance use, and criminal variables were collected, and all were evaluated with the following tools: PCL-R, Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP), and the International Personality Disorder Examination. In this sample, when assessed with the PCL-R, males obtained significantly higher scores on facet 4, which measures antisocial behaviour. Women obtained significantly higher scores on the Self domain in the CAPP, measuring narcissism. No symptom or item was able to clearly discriminate psychopathic women from psychopathic men in a Support Vector Machine model. The construct of psychopathy is similar for women and men in this representative penitentiary sample. Women showed higher scores for narcissism and men for antisociality. It is better to combine the PCL-R with another tool such as the CAPP to assess these psychopathological differences. No symptom or item has a score that can be recommended as a method for discriminating psychopathic women from psychopathic men.

Construct validity of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) Lexical Rating Scale.

The current study investigated the internal structure and validity of a self-rating form for the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) model in a large sample consisting of American (n = 463) and Australian (n = 94) undergraduates along with a U.S. community sample (n = 182). More specifically, we explored the factor structure of the CAPP Lexical Rating Scale and examined its associations with measures of psychopathy, antisocial behavior, and broad pathological personality traits. Neither exploratory factor analysis nor bass-ackward analyses supported the six proposed domains. Exploratory factor analysis supported a three-factor structure, generally representing the behavioral, interpersonal, and affective domains of psychopathy. Correlations with conceptually relevant external criteria demonstrated the identified three-factor structure was not superior to the six proposed rational domains with respect to construct validity. Symptom-level analyses supported the use of CAPP symptom as measures of individual symptoms with good convergent validity. Overall, the current study supports the construct validity of the CAPP model, and the Lexical Rating Scale in particular, but more research is needed to further explore the optimal structure of the model. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Can the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality Be Used to Measure the Triarchic Model Constructs of Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition? A Scale Derivation Study.

Can the components of the triarchic model of psychopathy (i.e., boldness, meanness, disinhibition) be operationalized using the item pool comprising the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) model? To address this question, the authors first derived CAPP-based triarchic scales using standard item-selection procedures and then examined the external correlates of these provisional scales in three archival data sets: (a) U.S. jail inmates administered the institutional rating scale version of the CAPP and (b and c) prototypicality ratings of the CAPP traits provided by Swedish forensic mental health professionals and U.S. probation officers. Although most research on triarchic constructs has relied exclusively on self-report inventories, the results suggest that the CAPP model can be reorganized to reflect boldness, meanness, and disinhibition and that its institutional rating scale items can effectively quantify these constructs using interview and file review data. Implications for future research on the measurement and assessment of psychopathic traits are discussed.

Supplemental Material for Developing and Validating a Chinese Version of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality–Self-Report

Supplemental Material for Developing and Validating a Chinese Version of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality–Self-Report

Construct Validity of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP): Examining the Internal Structure and Generalizability of CAPP Self-Ratings Across Gender and Ethnicity.

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) is a recently developed conceptual model of psychopathy designed to index the disorder across 33 personality traits. Although recent research has evidenced support for the CAPP model with respect to the convergent, criterion, and predictive validity of CAPP instruments, little work has examined the optimal internal structure and generalizability of the model and associated measures. The present study sought to elaborate on the construct validity and psychometric properties of the CAPP Lexical Self Rating Scale and determine the utility of the instrument across men and women, and individuals of Caucasian and East Asian descent. Within a large sample of self-identified offenders (N = 1,414), we found strong support for a three-factor model comprising domains reflecting interpersonal dominance, behavioral disinhibition, and deficient emotional attachment. Analyses examining the generalizability of the model provide further insight into its applicability for diverse populations.

Are Psychopathic Traits Associated with Core Social Networks? An Exploratory Study in University Students

In a sample of 480 university students, we examined associations between self-ratings of psychopathic traits, made using the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP), the Psychopathic Personality Inventory: Short Form (PPI: SF), and self-ratings of the structure of their core social networks (i.e., best friends, intimates). Results indicated that higher self-ratings of domains (CAPP) and subscales (PPI: SF) related to interpersonal dominance, manipulation, poor attachment, and emotional regulation were associated with less connected core networks. We interpret the dominance and manipulation domain and subscale findings as preliminary evidence of a deliberate strategy to provide a more influential position within one’s social network. As for the associations with the attachment and emotional regulation domain and subscale findings, we suggest this could be reflective of deficits or a lack of desire both in establishing and maintaining long-term relationships.

Further Validation of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality-Self-Report (CAPP-SR) in Lithuanian Offender and Nonoffender Samples.

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) is an emerging integrative model that makes use of 33 symptoms to characterize psychopathic personality disorder, but operationalizations of this model have not endured extensive validation to date. The current study sought to validate the recently published CAPP-Self-Report (CAPP-SR). Participants derived from two Lithuanian offender (n = 231) and nonoffender (n = 312) samples. They were administered the CAPP-SR, Triarchic Psychopathy Measure, Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, and a subsample of offenders also had Offender Assessment System risk assessment scores available. The results showed that CAPP-SR total, domain, and symptom scores were associated with TriPM and Aggression Questionnaire scores in a manner consistent with conceptual expectations. CAPP-SR symptoms specifically reflective of aggression, anger, and antagonism were most strongly associated with Offender Assessment System risk scores. The findings provide support for construct validity of CAPP-SR scores as well as have implications for the CAPP model more broadly, which are discussed.

Supplemental Material for Construct Validity of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) Lexical Rating Scale

Supplemental Material for Construct Validity of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) Lexical Rating Scale

L’apport de l’analyse prototypique dans le concept de psychopathie

ObjectivesThe aim of the study is to analyze mean degree of prototypicality of the symptoms composing the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) model evaluated by non-specialized populations in the field of psychopathy. The other aim is to compare these degrees with another study among Norwegian participants (Hoff et al., 2012). This model is atheoritical. It is composed by 33 symptoms regrouped into six domains (Attachment, Behavioral, Cognitive, Dominance, Emotional, Self). This comparison is qualitative. MethodIn this study, students were interviewed with a French survey composed of demographic variables and 42 symptoms (33 CAPP symptoms and 9 foils) among undergraduated students (n=139). These students are largely from psychological sciences faculty in Belgium. The mean age is 19 years (SD=1.37; Min–Max=18–28). Participants are majority female (77.7%; n=108). A large part is Belgian (81.2%). We provided a glossary describing the symptoms of the CAPP and foils. Students were asked to assess the prototypicality of the 42 symptoms relative to the best example of a psychopathic client with a 7-point Likert scale (1=Low prototypical; 7=Highly prototypical). We performed descriptive analyses to extract the mean of the symptoms. In order to analyze them, we create categories based on previous research on the CAPP (Cooke et al., 2012). The categories are highly prototypical (>5); moderately prototypical (between 4 and 4.99); low prototypical (between 3 and 3.99); very low prototypical (<3). We used these categories in order to compare previous international study among Norwegian participants (Hoff et al., 2012). ResultsConcerning the Attachment domain, only Unempathic symptom is highly prototypical among both populations. The students evaluate others symptoms between low and moderately prototypical. Concerning the Behavioral domain, only the Aggressive symptom is highly prototypical for both populations. The symptom Lacks perseverance is very low prototypical for both populations. The students evaluate other symptoms between low and moderately prototypical. Concerning the Cognitive domain, no symptom was evaluated highly prototypical by the students. The symptom Lack of planfulness is very low prototypical for both populations. Concerning the Dominance domain, the symptoms Domineering, Deceitful and Manipulative are highly prototypical for both populations. Concerning the Emotional domain, the symptoms Lacks emotional depth, Lacks emotional stability and Lacks remorse are highly prototypical for both populations. Concerning the Self-domain, the Self-centered symptom is highly prototypical for both populations. The symptoms Self-aggrandizing, Sense of uniqueness, Sense of entitlement, Sense of invulnerability and Self-justifying are evaluate moderately prototypical by the students and highly prototypical by the Norwegian population. In summary, nine symptoms are highly prototypical (>5). Sixteen symptoms are moderately prototypical (between 4 and 4.99). Six symptoms are low prototypical (between 3 and 3.99). Finally, two symptoms are very low prototypical (<3). Most of the symptoms assessed by students are lower than those assessed by the Norwegian population. On the other hand, distractors assessed by students have higher averages than those assessed by the Norwegian population. ConclusionsThe students have a different vision than the Norwegian population. The differences can be cultural. However, the student results cannot be generalized because there are mainly students from only one faculty. Furthermore, psychopathy is often mentionned in the television series. People watch a lot a series actually. So, it is possible that people are biased by the examples in the media. Other participants from different faculties and jobs have to be interviewed. In the future, it could be interesting if the prototype needs all the symptoms or only some of them. In case of partial need, it is useful to construct sub-categories for people with a non-prototypical profile but with symptoms corresponding to psychopathy. The prototypical analysis could be extended to other personality or mental disorders.