A psychometric investigation of the Assessment of Sadistic Personality (original) (raw)
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The Assessment of Sadistic Personality: Preliminary psychometric evidence for a new measure
Recent research suggests that subclinical sadism should be included in the Dark Triad. However, research on the assessment of sadism as a trait is lacking. To address this, we developed a new self-report measure, the Assessment of Sadistic Personality (ASP). In Study 1, 199 university students completed a preliminary 20-item version of the ASP, measures of the Dark Triad, agreeableness, honesty-humility, emotional intelligence, and sadistic tendencies. Internal consistency was acceptable and convergent validity was supported. After reducing the ASP to nine items, 202 university students completed a replication of Study 1. Internal consistency and convergent validity were again supported. When ASP items were combined with Dark Triad items, exploratory factor analysis supported the anticipated four-factor structure. These results provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the ASP as a new measure of subclinical sadism appropriate for use in conjunction with existing measures of the Dark Triad.
Sadism and psychopathy in violent and sexually violent offenders
PubMed, 1999
A nonrandom sample (N = 41) of inmates from a maximum security prison were classified as either psychopathic or nonpsychopathic (using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)) and violent or sexually violent. Sadism was measured using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) Scale 6B, the Personality Disorder Examination (PDE) items for sadistic personality disorder, and the sexual sadism criteria of DSM-IV. Psychopaths were found to be significantly more sadistic than nonpsychopaths (MCMI-II and PDE). Overall power was relatively high. Sadism did not differentiate the violent and sexually violent groups. A diagnosis of sexual sadism was too infrequent (n = 3) for meaningful statistical analysis. The trait measures of sadism and psychopathy measures (PCL-R, Factor 1 and Factor 2) significantly and positively correlated. Results provide further empirical validity for the theoretically proposed and clinically observed relationship between sadistic traits and psychopathic personality.
Behavioral Confirmation of Everyday Sadism
Psychological Science, 2013
Past research on socially aversive personalities has focused on subclinical psychopathy, subclinical narcissism, and Machiavellianism-the "Dark Triad" of personality. In the research reported here, we evaluated whether an everyday form of sadism should be added to that list. Acts of apparent cruelty were captured using two laboratory procedures, and we showed that such behavior could be predicted with two measures of sadistic personality. Study 1 featured a bug-killing paradigm. As expected, sadists volunteered to kill bugs at greater rates than did nonsadists. Study 2 examined willingness to harm an innocent victim. When aggression was easy, sadism and Dark Triad measures predicted unprovoked aggression. However, only sadists were willing to work for the opportunity to hurt an innocent person. In both studies, sadism emerged as an independent predictor of behavior reflecting an appetite for cruelty. Together, these findings support the construct validity of everyday sadism and its incorporation into a new "Dark Tetrad" of personality.
A Functional Perspective on Everyday Sadism
2019
Everyday sadism is thus far a poorly operationalized personality trait. In its current conceptualization it offers predictive value for aggressive behavior over and above the effects of other antisocial personality traits. To improve the utility of this potentially critical predictor of socially undesirable behavior I conducted an exploratory study that more precisely examines its psychometric structure and informs its evolutionary significance. Due to the scarcity of research on everyday sadism (which is additionally limited by the trait’s poor operationalization) I suggest a functional hypothesis for its evolution based largely on theoretical reasoning. I propose this hypothesis for everyday sadism with the goal of providing useful direction to a field that has otherwise been exploring disjointed questions with various unjustified measures. This hypothesis conceptualizes everyday sadism as one manifestation of aggression enjoyment and proposes a second manifestation I here call “p...
Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 2010
Clinicians and legal practitioners have often assumed uncritically, that sensational interests are predictive of sadistic personality disorder (SADPD). This association has never been empirically tested in a nonpathological sample. Using a sample of adults (N ¼ 219) from two countries, a four-factor SADPD structure was identified. A latent variable model was used to test the hypothesis that sensational interests questionnaire (SIQ) scores would be associated with SADPD scores, after the separation of general and specific variance. The general association was not significant, but a direct pathway from SIQ Criminal Identity to SADPD Antisocial was required, to improve model fit. SADPD was predicted largely by normal personality traits. Sensational interests are therefore not a simple signifier of deviance or sadism, in clinical and legal contexts. However, Criminal Identity may emerge as a risk factor for certain forms of antisocial behaviour, and should be investigated further.
Conceptualization of hostile psychopathy and sadism: Drive theory and object relations perspectives
A distinct formulation of hostile psychopathy is presented, based on analytic clinical experience with psychopathic youth and adults. Two psychodynamic conceptualizations of aggression are presented Á one connoting a basic destructive drive, the other portraying aggression as a means of ensuring gratification and countering frustration. Following analysis of psychopathy as a combination of a deficient object relational capacity to bond and high levels of instinctual aggression, hostile psychopathy in general, and sadism specifically, are conceptualized from these two perspectives. Sadism, which features re-enacted events of violence, is posited as a distinct manifestation of hostile psychopathy with ritualized features attributable to object relations disturbances. Other variants of hostile psychopathy are analyzed as derivatives of more direct aggressive instinctual expressions that are not relational in their intent or function, in which destructiveness is an end in itself. Hostile psychopathy is presented as entailing elements of an instinctual propensity toward aggressive discharge. In addition, a more elaborate motif is posited in which the pain and suffering of others is the key factor in sadism. In the latter facet, there is an actual enjoyment of the others' suffering, and unresolved relationships are re-enacted with a reparative intent. A psychosexual developmental hypothesis is suggested, in which drive-based aggressive discharge is linked to the oral sadistic stage, while sadistic relational dynamics are posited to reflect the power-control battles of the anal sadistic stage. As a limitation, it is noted that the sociopolitical aspects of psychopathy are not addressed in this clinical analysis. Moreover, since the data presented are oriented toward the intrapsychic (in contrast to social) aspects of psychopathy, the countertransference aspects of relationships that psychopaths tend to engender are not addressed specifically.
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2019
Background and Objectives: Sadistic pleasure-the enjoyment of harm-infliction to others-can have devastating interpersonal and societal consequences. The current knowledge on non-sexual, subclinical forms of sadistic pleasure is poor. The present study therefore focussed on the personality correlates of sadistic pleasure and investigated the relationship between the different subcomponents of psychopathy and both dispositional and state-level sadistic pleasure. Method: N=120 males drawn from a community sample filled out questionnaires to assess their level of psychopathy and dispositional sadism. Then, participants engaged in a bug-grinder procedure in which they were led to believe that they were killing pill bugs. The positive affect they reported after ostensibly killing the bugs served as measures of sadistic pleasure. The buggrinding task was repeated a second time after installing either a positive victim attitude combined with giving human names to the bugs, or a negative victim attitude combined with labeling the bugs with numbers. Results: Although the Self-centred Impulsivity component of psychopathy had some relevance to sadism, it was the Coldheartedness subscale that showed the strongest relationship to sadistic pleasure. Specifically, increased Coldheartedness was uniquely related to more positive affect, along with less guilt after bug grinding. Limitations: Drawbacks of the study include the unique reliance on a male, community sample, and the potential impact of demand characteristics, including a suggestion that the participant put at least some bugs into the grinder.