Elucidating the Construct Validity of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory Triarchic Scales

J Pers Assess. 2015;97(4):374-81. doi: 10.1080/00223891.2014.962654. Epub 2014 Oct 17.

Abstract

This study sought to replicate and extend Hall and colleagues' (2014) work on developing and validating scales from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) to index the triarchic psychopathy constructs of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. This study also extended Hall et al.'s initial findings by including the PPI Revised (PPI-R). A community sample (n = 240) weighted toward subclinical psychopathy traits and a male prison sample (n = 160) were used for this study. Results indicated that PPI-Boldness, PPI-Meanness, and PPI-Disinhibition converged with other psychopathy, personality, and behavioral criteria in ways conceptually expected from the perspective of the triarchic psychopathy model, including showing very strong convergent and discriminant validity with their Triarchic Psychopathy Measure counterparts. These findings further enhance the utility of the PPI and PPI-R in measuring these constructs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Alabama
  • Antisocial Personality Disorder / diagnosis*
  • Antisocial Personality Disorder / psychology*
  • Community Participation
  • Emotions*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Personality Assessment / standards*
  • Personality Inventory
  • Prisoners
  • Regression Analysis
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Young Adult