title: The problems of internal validation without a theoretical context: the different conceptual underpinnings of psychopathy and the disruptive behavior disorder criteria.
abstract: G. L. Burns (2000) has concluded that the Psychopathy Screening Device's content is limited because it contains items that overlap with criteria for several disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The problem with G. L. Burns's analysis is that it was conducted without an adequate understanding or specification of the conceptual underpinnings of either the construct of psychopathy or the constructs assessed by the DSM criteria. This reply attempts to clarify these conceptual frameworks to illustrate that to judge the adequacy of the content of a measure of psychopathy by comparing it with DSM criteria is inconsistent with the differing theoretical frameworks underlying these classification systems. Forcing measures of psychopathy to be designed around DSM criteria leads to inadequate measures of psychopathy and can limit advances both in our understanding of developmental precursors to psychopathy and in the classification of DSM disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Orleans, 2001 Geology and Psychology Building, New Orleans, Louisiana 70148, USA. pfrick@uno.edu
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Frick
mesh_terms: D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results