Psychopathic Traits in Adolescence and the Five Factor Model of Personality (original) (raw)
Related papers
Agreeableness Accounts for the Factor Structure of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory
Journal of Personality Disorders, 2014
The present study investigated the relationship between the Five-Factor Model (FFM) and the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI; Andershed, Ker, Stattin, & Levander, 2002) in an undergraduate sample. It was hypothesized that Agreeableness would saturate the lower-and higher-order scales of the YPI, and that taking Agreeableness into account would reduce the intercorrelations among the three factors of the YPI. These hypotheses were explored in a sample of 466 undergraduates who completed the YPI and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992). Results demonstrated that Agreeableness was the strongest, most consistent correlate of the lowerorder scales and three higher-order factors of the YPI. Additionally, analyses showed that Agreeableness accounted for large portions of the three YPI factors, as well as the overlap among factors, helping explain their intercorrelations. Current results underscore the centrality of Agreeableness to the assessment and understanding of psychopathy, particularly as measured by the YPI.
Factors of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory
Assessment, 2008
Psychopathy is a personality disorder that includes interpersonal-affective and antisocial deviance features. The Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) contains two underlying factors (fearless dominance and impulsive antisociality) that may differentially tap these two sets of features. In a mixed-gender sample of undergraduates and prisoners, we found that PPI fearless dominance was related to low Behavioral Inhibition System activity, high Behavioral Activation System (BAS) activity, expert prototype psychopathy scores, and primary psychopathy. Impulsive antisociality was related to high BAS activity and all psychopathy measures. High Extraversion and Openness and low Neuroticism and Agreeableness predicted fearless dominance, whereas high Neuroticism and low Agreeableness and Conscientiousness predicted impulsive antisociality. Although low levels of Agreeableness predicted both PPI factors, their differential relations with other five-factor model traits highlight difference...
Psychopathic Traits in Youth and Associations with Temperamental Features
Journal of Individual Differences, 2013
The present study aims to disentangle motivational and self-regulatory pathways to psychopathic traits in youth with severe antisocial behavior. The associations between self-reported psychopathic traits and indices derived from a laboratory measure assessing fear sensitivity and self-regulation were evaluated. Low scores on fear sensitivity and self-regulation were related to high scores on the self-reported Callous/Unemotional factor of psychopathic traits and the Callousness dimension in particular. The present study provides at least partial evidence for both motivational (low-fear hypothesis; Lykken, 1995 ) and self-regulatory (response modulation hypothesis; Patterson & Newman, 1993 ) accounts of psychopathic traits in youth.
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 2012
The Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory-Short Version (YPI-S;) is a selfreport measure to assess psychopathic-like traits in adolescents. The aim of the present study is to investigate the factor structure, the internal consistency, and the criterion validity of the YPI-S in 768 Belgian community adolescents (45.4 % males). In general, our study supported the YPI three factor structure while relevant indices showed that the instrument is internally consistent. In addition, relations between the YPI-S total score and dimension scores on the one hand and external criterion measures (e.g. conduct problems and self-reported offending) on the other hand were generally in line with predictions. The present study replicated and substantially extended previous findings of the YPI-S in a sample of community youth. Future studies are needed to test whether findings from community samples can be replicated in clinical-referred and justiceinvolved boys and adolescents.
Temperament and character differences in psychopathic and non-psychopathic antisocial adolescents
Primenjena psihologija
The present study tested the possibility of distinguishing between different types of antisocial adolescents based on psychopathic characteristics, and the differences between antisocial adolescents of different ages and subtypes in relation to the Cloninger's personality dimension. The sample included 101 antisocial male adolescents, divided into two age groups (71 respondents in the 13-17 age group and 30 in the 18-25 age group). After conducting model-based cluster analyses, non-psychopathic type (without pronounced signs of psychopathy) and psychopathic type (with pronounced antisocial, lifestyle and interpersonal facet) (Hare’s model) were singled out in the whole sample. Within the psychopathic type, in comparison with juveniles, older adolescents showed a significantly lower expression of character dimensions of Self-directedness and Cooperativeness, which are key in determining all personality disorders. Within the group of juvenile offenders, members of the two subtypes...
Psychiatry Research
Previous research on the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI; Andershed et al., 2002) has identified a three-factor structure: Interpersonal, Affective, and Behavioral. The present study sought to test this three-factor structure and broader psychometric properties of the YPI in a sample of 328 adolescents undergoing inpatient psychiatric care. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test the hypothesized three-factor structure of the YPI previously documented in community samples. Exploratory analyses reported on modification indices, gender invariance, and fit of a bifactor model. Additionally, the clinical utility of the YPI was examined by examined the relation between the YPI and the antisocial personality scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI-A-ANT; Morey, 2007). Confirmatory Factor Analysis results did not replicate the previously documented three-factor structure in the inpatient sample; a bifactor model continued to display poor (albeit improved) fit. Still, there was a strong association between the YPI (total and factor scores) and PAI-A-ANT, as such the YPI accurately identified adolescents with clinically significant antisocial traits. A cutoff score is presented for the YPI total score.
Factor Structure of Psychopathy in Youth: Testing the Applicability of the New Four-Factor Model
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 2006
Psychopathy has traditionally been viewed as a two-factor construct composed of core personality and antisocial features. This two-factor model was called into question by Cooke and Michie. Specifically, Cooke and Michie proposed a three-factor model that divided the original first factor into interpersonal and affective factors. The traditional second factor was reduced to only including irresponsible and impulsive behaviors, thereby deemphasizing antisocial characteristics. Recently, Hare found evidence of a four-factor model that reincorporates antisocial items. The current study examined two-, three-, and four-factor structures in adolescent offenders (N = 130) via confirmatory factor analyses. The results suggest that the two-factor model was a poor fit; however, three-and four-factor models evidenced good fit and were justifiable. These findings have important implications for the construct validity of the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version. Implications for potential developmental trajectories, dangerousness, and treatment are discussed.
Psychopathy and the Five-Factor Model of Personality: A Replication and Extension
Journal of Personality Assessment, 2003
It has recently been argued that psychopathy can be understood and represented using common dimensions of personality taken from the Five-factor model (FFM). In this research, we examined this possibility by using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) to assess psychopathy in an undergraduate sample. Specifically, we matched individuals' NEO-PI-R profiles with an expert-generated psychopathy prototype to yield a psychopathy score. These scores were correlated with self-reports of drug use, delinquency, risky sex, aggression, and several laboratory tasks. FFM psychopathy was significantly related to all forms of deviance, although the effects tended to be small in size. Moreover, individuals who more closely resembled the prototypic FFM psychopath were more aggressive in a laboratory aggression task, less willing to delay gratification in a time discounting task, and demonstrated a preference for aggressive responses in a social information-processing paradigm.
Understanding Psychopathy Using the Basic Elements of Personality
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2015
Psychopathy is a form of personality disorder characterized by arrogance, self-absorption, callousness, exploitation, and impulsivity that is also strongly associated with antisocial behavior. The present paper argues that psychopathy can and should be understood as a configuration of personality traits from a general model of personality functioningthe five-factor model (FFM). In this paper, we demonstrate that previous theoretical conceptualizations of psychopathy and current empirical ones converge on a general FFM profile characterized by very low scores on agreeableness and conscientiousness and mixed relations to aspects of neuroticism and extraversion. Further, we articulate the advantages to understanding psychopathy in this way. The FFM provides an assay of extant inventories, explains the factor structure of various inventories, accounts for the epidemiology of psychopathy, and makes sense of the litany of putative psychopathic deficits. Perhaps most importantly, the FFM provides a connection to basic research in personality.
Psychopathy from a Basic Trait Perspective: The Utility of a Five-Factor Model Approach
Journal of personality, 2014
The present article argues that psychopathy is best understood as a collection of traits from the Five-Factor Model of personality (FFM). We demonstrate that specific FFM traits involved in psychopathy are well delineated; the same personality profile emerges across methods. We review research demonstrating that this FFM profile can be used to assess psychopathy, including the development of a psychopathy-specific FFM assessment that appears to do an even better job of assessing psychopathy than the NEO PI-R while remaining true to the basic structural model. We demonstrate the advantages to understanding psychopathy in this way. The FFM provides an assay of extant inventories, accounts for the epidemiology of psychopathy, and explains the factor structure of various inventories. The elemental view of psychopathy allows psychopathy to be built from the ground up, trait by trait. Perhaps most importantly, the FFM is unique in providing a connection to basic research in personality.