Reliability and Construct Validity of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised in a Swedish Non-Criminal Sample - A Multimethod Approach including Psychophysiological Correlates of Empathy for Pain.
Cross-cultural investigation of psychopathy measures is important for clarifying the nomological network surrounding the psychopathy construct. The Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) is one of the most extensively researched self-report measures of psychopathic traits in adults. To date however, it has been examined primarily in North American criminal or student samples. To address this gap in the literature, we examined PPI-R's reliability, construct validity and factor structure in non-criminal individuals (N = 227) in Sweden, using a multimethod approach including psychophysiological correlates of empathy for pain. PPI-R construct validity was investigated in subgroups of participants by exploring its degree of overlap with (i) the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV), (ii) self-rated empathy and behavioral and physiological responses in an experiment on empathy for pain, and (iii) additional self-report measures of alexithymia and trait anxiety. The PPI-R total score was significantly associated with PCL:SV total and factor scores. The PPI-R Coldheartedness scale demonstrated significant negative associations with all empathy subscales and with rated unpleasantness and skin conductance responses in the empathy experiment. The PPI-R higher order Self-Centered Impulsivity and Fearless Dominance dimensions were associated with trait anxiety in opposite directions (positively and negatively, respectively). Overall, the results demonstrated solid reliability (test-retest and internal consistency) and promising but somewhat mixed construct validity for the Swedish translation of the PPI-R.
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
Karolina
K
Sörman
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.|Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.
Gustav
G
Nilsonne
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
Katarina
K
Howner
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.|Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.
Sandra
S
Tamm
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
Shilan
S
Caman
Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, SE-113 30, Stockholm, Sweden.
Hui-Xin
HX
Wang
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
Martin
M
Ingvar
Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, United States of America.
John F
JF
Edens
Department of Psychology, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
Petter
P
Gustavsson
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, United States of America.
Scott O
SO
Lilienfeld
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
Predrag
P
Petrovic
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden.
Håkan
H
Fischer
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.
Marianne
M
Kristiansson
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult