Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to develop a new scale on the MMPI-2 to identify individuals with global psychopathy, as measured by the PCL-R. The study consisted of four smaller studies, including 1) derivation of the scale 2) cross-validation 3) external validation, 4) factor analysis. The derivation sample consisted of male prison inmates (N = 170) and a second sample of male prison inmates (N = 126) was utilized for cross-validation. A third sample of male and female college students (N = 308) was utilized for the purpose of correlating the developed scale with existing measures of personality disorders and an emotion recognition task. Using empirical keying methods, 32 items were identified for the resulting scale, Psychopathic Attitudes and Behaviors ( PAB ). Results of study 1 demonstrated PAB to have adequate internal consistency and the strongest correlation to PCL-R total scores when compared to extant MMPI-2 scales. Further, PAB was found to adequately predict group membership. These results were replicated in Study 2 and PAB appeared to successfully cross-validate in an alternative sample. Results of Study 3 examining the relationship between PAB elevations and errors on an emotion recognition task indicated no significant relationship between scores on PAB and deficits in the ability to recognize facial expressions of emotions. However, results examining the relationship between mean scores for those above the cutoff and those below the cutoff on PAB and the PDQ-4 narcissistic, antisocial, and conduct disorder scales were significant, providing some support for external validation. Finally, the exploratory factor analysis in Study 4 yielded a three-factor solution, which did not parallel the PCL-R factors. Overall, the study was successful in developing a more efficient MMPI-2 scale to measure psychopathic traits, as it outperformed the theoretically-related scales already existing on the MMPI-2. However, the item content was not representative of the full range of interpersonal and affective traits associated with primary psychopathy and the scale was more significantly related to the social deviance factor of the PCL-R, which suggests PAB may be more representative of the secondary variant of psychopathy.

Download

Share

COinS