Lynam and colleagues recently developed a new self-report inventory for the assessment of psychopathy, the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment (EPA). Using a sample of undergraduates (N = 227), the authors examined the construct validity of the EPA by examining its correlations with self and stranger ratings on the Five-Factor Model, as well as self-reported ratings of personality disorders, social cognition, and love styles. The EPA psychopathy scores manifested expected correlations with both self and stranger ratings of the Five-Factor Model, particularly with the domains of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and were significantly related to various forms of personality pathology such as narcissism and antisocial personality disorders. The EPA also manifested expected relations with aggressive social cognitions. Finally, the EPA psychopathy scores were correlated with romantic love styles indicative of game playing and infidelity. The current results provide further evidence of the construct validity of the EPA as it manifests relations consistent with the nomological network of psychopathy.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (text revision). Washington, DC: Author.
2.
Benning, S.D., Patrick, C.J., Hicks, B.M., Blonigen, D.M., & Krueger, R.F. ( 2003). Factor structure of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory: Validity and implications for clinical assessment. Psychological Assessment, 15, 340-350.
3.
Campbell, W.K., Foster, C.A., & Finkel, E.J. ( 2002). Does self-love lead to love for others? A story of narcissistic game playing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 83, 340-354.
Costa, P.T., & Widiger, T.A. ( 2002). Personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
6.
Derefinko, K.J., & Lynam, D.R. ( 2006). Convergence and divergence among self-report psychopathy measures: A personality-based approach. Journal of Personality Disorders, 20, 261-280.
7.
Falkenbach, D., Poythress, N., Falki, M., & Manchak, S. ( 2007). Reliability and validity of two self-report measures of psychopathy. Assessment, 14, 341-350.
8.
First, M.B., Gibbon, M., Spitzer, R.L., Williams, J.B.W., & Benjamin, L.S. (1997). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II personality disorders (SCID-II). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
9.
Fowler, K.A., Lilienfeld, S.O., & Patrick, C.J. ( 2009). Detecting psychopathy from thin slices of behavior. Psychological Assessment, 21, 68-78.
10.
Grello, C.M., Welsh, D.P., & Harper, M.S. ( 2006). No strings attached: The nature of casual sex in college students. Journal of Sex Research, 43, 255-267.
11.
Guay, J.-P., Ruscio, J., Knight, R.A., & Hare, R.D. ( 2007). A taxometric analysis of the latent structure of psychopathy: Evidence for dimensionality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology , 116, 701-716.
12.
Hare, R.D. ( 1980). A research scale for the assessment of psychopathy in criminal populations. Personality and Individual Differences , 1, 111-119.
13.
Hare, R.D. ( 2003). Manual for the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Multi-Health Systems.
14.
Hare, R.D., Harpur, T.J., & Hemphill, J.D. (1989). Scoring pamphlet for the Self-Report Psychopathy scale: SRP-II (Unpublished document). Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia , Canada.
15.
Hart, S.D., Cox, D.N., & Hare, R.D. ( 1995). Manual for the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening version . Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Multi-Health Systems.
16.
Hendrick, C., & Hendrick, S.S. (1986). A theory and method of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 392-402.
17.
Hildebrand, J., & de Ruiter, C. ( 2004). PCL-R psychopathy and its relation to DSM-IV Axis I and II disorders in a sample of male forensic psychiatric patients in the Netherlands . International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 27, 233-248.
18.
Levenson, M., Kiehl, K., & Fitzpatrick, C. (1995). Assessing psychopathic attributes in a non-institutionalized population. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 151-158.
Lynam, D.R. ( 2002). Psychopathy from the perspective of the Five Factor Model . In P. T. Costa & T. A. Widiger (Eds.), Personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality (2nd ed., pp. 325-350). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
21.
Lynam, D.R., & Derefinko, K. ( 2006). Psychopathy and personality. In C. J. Patrick (Ed.), Handbook of psychopathy (pp. 133-155). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
22.
Lynam, D.R., Gaughan, E.T., Miller, J.D., Miller, D.J., Mullins-Sweatt, S., & Widiger, T.A. (IN PRESS). Assessing the basic traits associated with psychopathy: Development and validation of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment. Psychological Assessment.
23.
Lynam, D.R., & Widiger, T.A. ( 2007). Using a general model of personality to identify the basic elements of psychopathy. Journal of Personality Disorders , 21, 160-178.
24.
Miller, J.D., & Campbell, W.K. (2008). Comparing clinical and social-personality conceptualizations of narcissism. Journal of Personality, 76, 449-476.
25.
Miller, J.D., & Lynam, D.R. ( 2003). Psychopathy and the five-factor model of personality: A replication and extension. Journal of Personality Assessment , 81, 168-178.
26.
Miller, J.D., Lynam, D., Widiger, T., & Leukefeld, C. ( 2001). Personality disorders as an extreme variant of common personality dimensions: Can the Five Factor Model represent psychopathy. Journal of Personality, 69, 253-276.
27.
Oltmanns, T.F., Friedman, J.N.W., Fiedler, E.R., & Turkheimer, E. (2004). Perceptions of people with personality disorders based on thin slices of behaviors. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 216-229.
28.
Raskin, R., & Terry, H. ( 1988). A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 890-902.
29.
Ross, S.R., Lutz, C.J., & Bailley, S.E. ( 2004). Psychopathy and the five-factor model in a noninstitutionalized sample: A domain and facet level analysis. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26, 213-223.
30.
Skeem, J.L., Miller, J.D., Mulvey, E., Tiemann, J., & Monahan, J. ( 2005). Using a five factor lens to explore the relation between personality traits and violence in psychiatric patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 454-465.
31.
Smith, G.T., McCarthy, D.M., & Zapolski, T.C. (2009). On the value of homogenous constructs for construct validation, theory testing, and the description of psychopathology. Psychological Assessment, 21, 272-284.
32.
Tremblay, P.F., & Blechevski, M. (2004). Did the instigator intend to provoke? A key moderator in the relation between trait aggression and aggressive behavior. Aggressive Behavior, 30, 409-424.
33.
Walton, K.E., Roberts, B.W., Krueger, R.F., Blonigen, D.M., & Hicks, B.M. ( 2008). Capturing abnormal personality with normal personality inventories: An item response theory approach. Journal of Personality, 76, 1623-1647.
34.
White, J.K., Hendrick, S.S., & Hendrick, C. ( 2004). Big five personality variables and relationship constructs . Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 1519-1530.
35.
Widiger, T., & Lynam, D. ( 1998). Psychopathy and the five-factor model of personality . In T. Millon, E. Simonsen, M. Birket-Smith, & R. D. Davis (Eds.), Psychopathy: Antisocial, criminal, and violent behaviors (pp. 171-187). New York, NY: Guilford.
36.
Wilson, L., Miller, J.D., Zeichner, A., Lynam, D.R., & Widiger, T.A. (IN PRESS). Testing the validity of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment: Relations with other psychopathy measures, aggression, and externalizing behaviors . Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment.
37.
Williams, K., Paulhus, D., & Hare, R. ( 2007). Capturing the four-factor structure of psychopathy in college students via self-report. Journal of Personality Assessment , 88, 205-219.
