title: Construct validity of psychopathy in a community sample: a nomological net approach.
abstract: The construct validity of psychopathy was examined within a sample of 326 male and female university students. The interpersonal circumplex served as a nomological net for the examination of convergences between psychopathy measures and convergent and discriminant validity with a measure of personality disorders was examined using a matrix approach. Measures included: (a) Antisocial scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory (Morey, 1991); (b) Self-Report Psychopathy scale (Hare, 1991); (c) Psychopathic Personality Inventory (Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996); (d) Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 (Hyler, 1994); and (e) Interpersonal Adjective Scales Revised-Big 5 (Trapnell & Wiggins, 1991). Results indicated (a) substantial convergence between psychopathy measures; (b) high convergent validity between psychopathy measures and antisocial personality disorder; and (c) high discriminant validity from other personality disorders. The prevalence of psychopathy within this non-forensic sample is also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Box 870348, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. rsalekin@bama.ua.edu
authors.forename: R T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Salekin
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Trobst
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krioukova
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index