Self-report Measures Of Psychopathy Research Articles

Construct validity of a psychopathy measure

The present investigation utilizes some of the measures currently being used by the DSM-IV Field Trial work group in their effort to simplify the criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder and at the same time include more traditional items, typical of psychopathy. One hundred and forty-nine students (48 male, 101 female) completed self-report measures of psychopathy, empathy, anxiety, narcissism, untruthfulness and social desirability. It was found that there was an overlap between psychopathy and narcissism, and that overall, those scoring higher on a measure of psychopathy scored lower on a measure of empathy and anxiety. Sex differences were found; for example, males were more likely to score higher on a measure of psychopathy. Interestingly, it was also found that higher lying correlated with psychopathic traits and not social deviance. The results are discissed in terms of these relationships, with the notion of impulsiveness proposed as a possible contributor to the patterns that emerged.

Reduced lateralization in verbal dichotic listening in adolescent psychopaths.

One possible explanation for previous findings of abnormal linguistic processing in psychopaths is that they are less lateralized for verbal processes. This study tests the hypothesis that adolescent psychopaths show evidence of reduced lateralization on a verbal dichotic listening task. Four self-report and behavioral measures of psychopathy were used to define psychopathy using cluster analytic techniques in 40 juvenile offenders aged 13 to 18 years. Psychopaths were found to have reduced ear asymmetries relative to nonpsychopaths, a result indicating reduced lateralization for verbal material. The effect does not appear to be mediated by group differences in age, ethnic background, IQ, overall performance, left-handedness, selective attention to one ear, or interhemispheric transfer deficits. This result suggests that the previous finding by Hare and McPherson is robust, provides some preliminary validity for the assessment of psychopathy before age 18, and indicates initial support for the utility of cluster analytic techniques in the assessment of psychopathy.