Identifying Psychopathy Subtypes Using a Broader Model of Personality: An Investigation of the Five Factor Model Using Model-Based Cluster Analysis.

The field of psychopathy research largely argues that the disorder is a heterogeneous concept with two predominant subtypes: primary psychopathy and secondary psychopathy. Early research examined psychopathy subtypes in terms of traits specific to psychopathy. However, recent research suggests that psychopathy may be conceptualized more dimensionally as an extreme variation in normative personality traits.

From theoretical to empirical: Considering reflections of psychopathy across the thin blue line.

The majority of psychopathy research has focused on negative outcomes in criminal populations. However, psychopathy encompasses a variety of traits, and recent research suggests that certain features of psychopathy, such as a fearless temperament, may be related to psychological resiliency, "successful" functioning, and even heroic behavior (Hall & Benning, 2006; Lykken, 1995). Despite anecdotal discussion, little is known about the possible "successful" or adaptive reflections of psychopathic personality traits in ostensible heroes.

Psychopathy and Victim Selection: Does Nonverbal Decoding or Empathy Impact Vulnerability Ratings?

This research examined the role of psychopathic traits in perceptions of victimization and vulnerability. Community-member participants viewed video clips of victims, nonvictims, and victims who studied self-defense, then rated them on vulnerability and perceived history of victimization. Participants were most proficient at identifying nonvictims as nonvictims.

Hostile Attribution Bias as a Mediator of the Relationships of Psychopathy and Narcissism With Aggression.

Hostile attribution bias (HAB), the tendency to perceive hostility in ambiguous situations, has been linked to aggressive outcomes, such as reactive aggression. HAB has been connected to personality types involving hostile beliefs and reactive aggression, including narcissism and psychopathy. Specifically, secondary psychopathy is associated with HAB and reactive aggression.

Sexual Abuse Within Employment Settings: A Comparison of Work-Related, Intra- and Extra-Familial Child Molesters.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a serious problem not only in the community but also in institutional settings such as youth-serving organizations, churches, and schools. Although research has started to examine the problem of abuse in institutional settings, there remains a dearth of information about the nature and context of CSA in different employment settings, including those that do not specifically cater to children. In addition, research on the similarities and differences between perpetrators who work with children and other sex offenders is scarce.

Psychopathy variants: empirical evidence supporting a subtyping model in a community sample.

Psychopathy is a personality construct typically related to deficits in interpersonal and affective functioning and antisocial behavior. Currently, the majority of research focuses on the omnibus construct of psychopathy as it applies to criminal populations. However, theories of psychopathy and empirical evidence suggest that there may be different variants of psychopathy and diverse expressions of psychopathic traits across individuals.

Psychopathy and malingering of psychiatric disorder in criminal defendants.

Because the use of deception is an important clinical characteristic of psychopathy, there is intuitive appeal to the idea that psychopathy and malingering are associated. There is, however, very little research showing that psychopaths are more likely to malinger. We classified a sample of criminal defendants as high, moderate, or low in psychopathy, based on PCL-R scores, and compared their scores on indices typically used to detect malingering on the MMPI-2, the PAI and the SIRS.

Psychopathic features in a juvenile diversion population: reliability and predictive validity of two self-report measures.

The reliability and predictive validity of two experimental self-report versions of two measures of psychopathic features in youth, the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD: Frick & Hare, 2001) and a modified version of the Child Psychopathy Scale (CPS: Lynam, 1997) were examined in a sample of 69 arrested youth (M age = 14.4 years) referred to a juvenile diversion program. Parents or legal guardians completed parent-rating versions of the same measures.