title: Variants of psychopathy in adult male offenders: A latent profile analysis.
abstract: As measured with the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), psychopathy is a dimensional construct underpinned by 4 correlated factors: Interpersonal, Affective, Lifestyle, and Antisocial. Theorists and clinicians (e.g., Karpman and Arieti) have posited 2 variants of "primary" or "true" psychopathy, both distinct from so-called "secondary" or "pseudopsychopathy." We used latent profile analysis to determine if homogeneous classes exist within a sample of 1,451 male offenders with high PCL-R scores (≥ 27). The 4 PCL-R factors were the dependent variables for clustering. A solution with 3 latent classes showed a better fit to the data than did a unitary model without latent classes. Tentative labels for the latent classes are Manipulative (Latent Class 1 [LC1]), Aggressive (Latent Class 2 [LC2]), and Sociopathic (Latent Class 3 [LC3]). The latter class represented an antisocial group that lacked the emotional detachment observed in the other 2 groups. We propose that LC1 and LC2 reflect phenotypic variations on a theme of the traditional construct of psychopathy, and that LC3 is consistent with conceptions of antisocial personality disorder and sociopathy. Replication and external classification with an independent data set of 497 adult male offenders again yielded clearly separable clusters, as well as meaningful differences or trends among latent classes on education, intelligence, symptoms of antisocial personality disorder, and self-reported psychopathic traits and negative affect. The conceptualization of psychopathy in terms of manipulative and aggressive variants is consistent with clinical theory and is empirically grounded.
authors: Department for Forensic Psychiatry, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich.
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Mokros
authors: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.
authors: Robert D
authors: RD
authors: Hare
authors: Department of Psychology, University of North Texas.
authors: Craig S
authors: CS
authors: Neumann
authors: Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Abo Akademi University.
authors: Pekka
authors: P
authors: Santtila
authors: Department for Forensic Psychiatry, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich.
authors: Elmar
authors: E
authors: Habermeyer
authors: Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Ansbach District Hospital.
authors: Joachim
authors: J
authors: Nitschke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009656:North America; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*