Comprehensive assessment of psychopathic personality

A central aim of research on psychopathic personality disturbance (PPD) involves identifying core features of the construct. This has been addressed primarily through prototypicality studies and research using item-response theory. More recently, the logic of social network analysis was extended to psychopathology research to examine which symptoms were most central to PPD networks. Such studies identified affective symptoms of the disorder as especially central among adult offenders. To build upon this prior research, the current study used data on male offenders from the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study to examine the network structure of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality - Institutional Rating Scale (CAPP-IRS; n = 224) and Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV; n = 445)...

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP; Cooke, Hart, Logan, & Michie, 2012) is a concept map that entails 33 personality traits; it integrates historical and contemporary conceptualizations and operationalizations of psychopathy. The current project sought to develop and validate a self-report inventory to operationalize this concept map. Study 1 reported on the development of a CAPP Self-Report (CAPP-SR) inventory using expert ratings to select items for an experimental version...

Despite the clear clinical and forensic importance of psychopathy, definitions of psychopathy and the optimal measurement of the disorder are issues of continued controversy. The present research provides an empirical examination of two self-report instruments indexing recent conceptualizations of psychopathy: the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality-Self-Rating Scale (CAPP-SR) and Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM). This study provides the first examination of the convergence between the two tools, and the first investigation into the criterion-related validity of the CAPP-SR within a self-identified offender population...

The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991, 2003) is widely used in clinical and forensic practice. Its latent factor structure has been subject to debate and controversy for almost 40 years. Various principal component and factor models have been proposed. It is argued that the use of independent cluster models has been questionable. The use of models that assume that symptoms will have zero loadings on all but one factor fails to reflect the clinical reality that symptoms of personality disorder are likely to be the consequence of multiple latent traits...

The assessment of psychopathy in (forensic) schizophrenia spectrum disorders is long-standing debate. In the present study, we investigated the psychometric properties of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality-Institutional Rating Scale (CAPP-IRS) in a sample of 72 male forensic patients with a primary diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. We compared the CAPP-IRS' psychometric properties to those of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). The CAPP-IRS showed good interrater reliability and internal consistency except for the CAPP-IRS Cognition and Emotional Domains...

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) is a concept map of psychopathic personality disorder (PPD). The CAPP- Institutional Rating Scale (IRS) is a tool designed to assess CAPP symptoms in institutional settings. The CAPP contains 33 personality traits organized in six domains: attachment, behavioural, cognitive, dominance, emotional and self. Until now, much of the CAPP research has been conducted out of clinical, forensic and correctional settings using self-ratings. In the current study, the psychometric properties and construct validity of the CAPP-IRS were evaluated in a non-convenience sample of 204 Spanish convicts...

OBJECTIVE: The triarchic model of psychopathy (Patrick, Fowles, & Krueger, 2009) posits that psychopathic personality comprises three domains: boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. The present study aimed to clarify conceptual overlap between contemporary definitions of psychopathy, with particular emphasis given to the relevance of boldness (i.e., social dominance, venturesomeness, emotional resiliency)-a topic of recent debate. METHOD: Undergraduate students (N = 439) compared the lexical similarity of triarchic domains with two contemporary models of psychopathy: the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP; Cooke, Hart, Logan, & Michie, 2012) and the Five-Factor Model of psychopathy (FFM; Widiger & Lynam, 1998)...

OBJECTIVE: Psychological adjustment following surgery for epilepsy has been assessed primarily with self-report measures. In the current work, we investigated pre- to postoperative changes in various dimensions of personality and behavior from the perspective of a well-known family member or friend for 27 patients operated on for medically intractable epilepsy. METHODS: For each patient, a close family member or friend ("informant") provided pre- and postoperative ratings on five dimensions of personality and behavior...

AIM: The study of group psychotherapy influence on the personality functioning of patients on treatment for neurotic disorders and selected personality disorders (F4-F6 under ICD-10). METHODS: The study concerned 82 patients (61 women and 21 men) who underwent intensive short-term group psychotherapy in a day ward. A comprehensive assessment of the patients' personality functioning was carried out at the outset and the end of the psychotherapy utilising the MMPI-2 questionnaire...

It is still not clear what the unique contribution of particular psychopathological factors is in explaining aggression in schizophrenia. The current study examined whether persecutory ideations, psychopathy and substance use are associated with different measures of aggressive behavior. We expected that persecutory ideations are associated with reactive aggression, and psychopathic traits are more associated with proactive aggression of inpatients. 59 inpatients with schizophrenia were included. Persecutory ideations we assessed using the Persecutory Ideation Questionnaire (PIQ), psychopathic traits with the revised version of Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI-R) and substance use was assessed using the Comprehensive Assessment of Symptoms and History (CASH)...

This study examines the structure of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) from a card sort perspective. The CAPP is a lexically based construct map of psychopathy comprising 33 symptoms organized by its developers into 6 broad functional domains of personality (i.e., Attachment, Behavioral, Cognitive; Dominance; Emotional, Self). Groups of mental health workers and students were asked to sort the CAPP symptoms into the model's 6 proposed domains. Overall, both mental health workers and students were able to categorize the symptoms speedily and intuitively according to model...

OBJECTIVE: The unprecedented incidence of armed robberies and the involvement of young people in these crimes necessitated - as part of a comprehensive study on homelessness and criminal behaviour in Nigeria - an assessmet and comparison of homeless youths incarcerated in prisons with a control group of non-prison and never-homeless youths from the general population using the Psychopathic Deviate Scale (PDS) and the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist hostility subscale (MAACL-H). METHOD: Through in-depth interviews using a questionnaire, data were collected from 100 randomly selected homeless inmates in three Nigerian medium-security prisons aged 15 to 26 (mean = 17...

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) is a newly developed, lexically based, conceptual model of psychopathy. The content validity of the Spanish language CAPP model was evaluated using prototypicality analysis. Prototypicality ratings were collected from 187 mental health experts and from samples of 143 health professionals and 282 community residents. Across the samples the majority of CAPP items were rated as highly prototypical of psychopathy. The Self, Dominance, and Attachment domains were evaluated as being more prototypical than the Behavioral and Cognitive domains...

This study surveyed over 400 individuals attending jury duty regarding various perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs they had concerning psychopathic personality (psychopathy). The protocol included (a) prototype ratings of what participants considered to be core features, using the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) prototype rating scale; (b) questions concerning knowledge and beliefs about psychopathy (e.g., prevalence in society); and (c) attitudinal scales concerning potential associated features (e...

Assessments of psychopathic traits are used on a routine basis in forensic evaluations across Westernized countries. Despite this, consensus has not yet emerged concerning what exactly are the "core" features of this construct. Moreover, relatively little is known about how practitioners in the field construe this disorder. This study explored perceptions and attitudes regarding psychopathy among individuals working in the forensic mental health system (N = 90) in Sweden. Participants provided prototype ratings of what they considered to be core psychopathy features based on the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP), a model that increasingly is the focus of research in North America and Europe...

This study is the first to our knowledge to examine the cross-language consistency across the original version of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathy (CAPP) and a translated version. The CAPP is a lexically based construct map of psychopathy comprising 33 symptoms from 6 broad domains of personality functioning. English-language CAPP prototypicality ratings from 124 mental health workers were compared with ratings from 211 Norwegian mental health workers using the Norwegian translation. High agreement was found across languages in regard to which symptoms where perceived as central to psychopathy or not...

The Elemental Psychopathy Assessment (EPA) is a self-report measure designed to assess the basic elements of psychopathy from a Five-Factor Model perspective. Using two large undergraduate samples, the aim of the current study was to further validate this new measure by examining its factor structure and the relations of the factors with established psychopathy measures and externalizing behaviors (Sample 2 only). Exploratory factor analytic results were highly consistent across the two samples and generated a four-factor structure characterized by Antagonism, Emotional Stability, Disinhibition, and Narcissism...

Recent studies suggest that psychopathy may be associated with dysfunction in the neural circuitry supporting both threat- and reward-related processes. However, these studies have involved small samples and often focused on extreme groups. Thus, it is unclear to what extent current findings may generalize to psychopathic traits in the general population. Furthermore, no studies have systematically and simultaneously assessed associations between distinct psychopathy facets and both threat- and reward-related brain function in the same sample of participants...

Cooke and colleagues recently developed the lexically based model of psychopathy named the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP, Cooke, Hart, Logan, & Michie, 2004). The current study was the first to evaluate aspects of the validity of a translated version of the CAPP model, which comprises 33 symptoms from six domains of personality functioning. Prototypicality ratings from 796 Norwegian community residents, forensic mental health professionals, and corrections professionals were obtained...

The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP; Cooke, Hart, Logan, & Michie, 2004) is a new personality-based model and clinical assessment of psychopathy. This study was the first to examine the content validity of the English-language CAPP. Content validation is a crucial part of the development and refinement of any new instrument. Prototypical analysis was used to evaluate the representativeness of CAPP symptoms to the psychopathy construct in adults. Symptoms were rated by international mental health professionals (N = 132)...