- Library Home /
- Search Collections /
- Open Collections /
- Browse Collections /
- UBC Theses and Dissertations /
- Interpersonal assessment of psychopathy
Open Collections
UBC Theses and Dissertations
UBC Theses and Dissertations
Interpersonal assessment of psychopathy Foreman, Michael Ernest
Abstract
This study was concerned with the relations between representations of psychopathy and interpersonal perceptions. From 147 inmates seen in a federal medium security prison, 79 of the men provided complete data for comparisons. Groups were defined under criteria from (1) the Psychopathy Checklist (PC) (Hare, 1985b), or (2) American Psychiatric Association (1980, 1987) outlines for Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). Measures were derived from the Interpersonal Adjective Scales-Revised (IAS-R) (Wiggins, Trapnell, and Phillips, 1988 ) which relate interpersonally defined perceptions of personality as locations within a circumplex space--Interpersonal Circle (Wiggins, 1979, 1980). Self-ratings were obtained as descriptive of (1) self, (2) ideal self, (3) self as thought seen by a friends, and (4) self as thought seen by a specific member of the institutional staff. A rating was also obtained from the specific staff members as descriptive of the particular inmates. Comparisons were also made with respect to the specificity and sensitivity of MMPI profiles considered relevant to psychopathy. Supplementary comparisons used selected scales from the Adjective Checklist (ACL) (Gough and Heilbrun, 1980) and Rosenberg's (1965) Self- esteem Scale. These comparisons provided manipulation checks of the consistency of the data and contributed to the interpretive generalizability of the results. The primary hypotheses were that a group of individuals defined as psychopathic would show differences in representations obtained from self-rated and other-rated descriptions, with respect to circumplex location and derived difference scores from the IAS-R, in comparison to groups considered non-psychopathic. Results indicated differential perceptions, particularly by staff members, which provided good discriminations of groups based on the PC but not for groups defined by APD. Circumplex locations of psychopaths defined by the PC were consistent with expectations for the Interpersonal Circle. The discriminative utility of group differences was much higher for the PC-defined groups than for APD relative to the base rates for these different categorizations. The results are discussed in terms of (1) their contribution to the nomological network for the concept of psychopathy as represented by the PC, (2) specific limitations of the study, and (3) the evident confusion which can result from the use of measures assumed to to relate to the 'psychopath,' but that rely on primarily behavioural descriptions.
Item Metadata
Title |
Interpersonal assessment of psychopathy
|
Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
|
Date Issued |
1988
|
Description |
This study was concerned with the relations between
representations of psychopathy and interpersonal
perceptions. From 147 inmates seen in a federal medium security
prison, 79 of the men provided complete data for
comparisons. Groups were defined under criteria from (1)
the Psychopathy Checklist (PC) (Hare, 1985b), or (2)
American Psychiatric Association (1980, 1987) outlines
for Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). Measures were
derived from the Interpersonal Adjective Scales-Revised
(IAS-R) (Wiggins, Trapnell, and Phillips, 1988 ) which
relate interpersonally defined perceptions of personality
as locations within a circumplex space--Interpersonal
Circle (Wiggins, 1979, 1980). Self-ratings were obtained
as descriptive of (1) self, (2) ideal self, (3) self as
thought seen by a friends, and (4) self as thought seen
by a specific member of the institutional staff. A rating
was also obtained from the specific staff members as
descriptive of the particular inmates.
Comparisons were also made with respect to the
specificity and sensitivity of MMPI profiles considered
relevant to psychopathy. Supplementary comparisons
used selected scales from the Adjective Checklist (ACL)
(Gough and Heilbrun, 1980) and Rosenberg's (1965) Self- esteem Scale. These comparisons provided manipulation
checks of the consistency of the data and contributed to
the interpretive generalizability of the results.
The primary hypotheses were that a group of
individuals defined as psychopathic would show differences
in representations obtained from self-rated and other-rated
descriptions, with respect to circumplex location
and derived difference scores from the IAS-R, in
comparison to groups considered non-psychopathic.
Results indicated differential perceptions,
particularly by staff members, which provided good
discriminations of groups based on the PC but not for
groups defined by APD. Circumplex locations of
psychopaths defined by the PC were consistent with
expectations for the Interpersonal Circle. The
discriminative utility of group differences was much
higher for the PC-defined groups than for APD relative
to the base rates for these different categorizations.
The results are discussed in terms of (1) their
contribution to the nomological network for the concept
of psychopathy as represented by the PC, (2) specific
limitations of the study, and (3) the evident confusion
which can result from the use of measures assumed to
to relate to the 'psychopath,' but that rely on primarily
behavioural descriptions.
|
Genre | |
Type | |
Language |
eng
|
Date Available |
2012-06-18
|
Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
|
Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
|
DOI |
10.14288/1.0107157
|
URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
|
Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
|
Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
|
Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.