<p>An affective dimension of psychopathy, e.g., callousness, lack of empathy, unemotional responsiveness, is essential to the study and understanding of psychopathy. It may be advantageous to have available brief measures of the affective dimension that may be utilized with adults and/or youths. The current study aims to provide preliminary validation of a new, brief, self-report measure of the affective dimension of psychopathy that may be suitable in the study of both adults and adolescents. A pilot study of the Caring-Uncaring Emotional (CUE) Inventory was conducted with 155 men and women recruited from a community sample. The 23-item CUE Inventory was found to have high internal consistency reliability (α = .91) and was found to have high correlations with an expanded, 36-item version of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP; Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995), especially with the expanded LSRP Callous subscale (<em>r</em> = .85), thus supporting preliminary concurrent validity. The CUE was only modestly associated with the Antisocial subscale of the expanded LSRP, further supporting it as a measure of affective rather than behavioral traits. The CUE accounted for an additional 57% of the variance in LSRP total scores after controlling for demographic variables. An Exploratory Factor Analysis suggested a three-factor solution, with the first factor accounting for approximately 37% of the variance in scores and with high to very high loadings on this factor, which appears, tentatively, as a good measure of callousness. In conclusion, the CUE may function as an operational representative of callousness in adults in a community sample. Further study is needed to better clarify the latent structure of this scale and to determine its associations with other similar measures of the affective dimension of psychopathy and with other external correlates. The potential application of this measure in youths remains to be studied.</p>
Two studies were undertaken to examine preliminary construct validity of a newly developed, abbreviated measure of psychopathy. The Abbreviated Psychopathy Measure (APM) is a 33-item inventory that is closely modeled on the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM; Patrick, 2010), with a new and more parsimonious set of items. Analyses in Study 1 (N = 126) found that the Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition scales of the APM had high internal consistency reliabilities and were highly correlated with their counterpart scales on the TriPM. The APM Total score was very highly correlated with the TriPM Total score (r = .90). Each of the APM scales was also significantly correlated with a measure of Antisocial Intent. In Study 2 (N = 140), the APM was very highly correlated with the Total score of a 36-item version of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP; Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995). Additionally, the APM scales were associated differentially with normal range personality variables associated with psychopathy (e.g., Boldness was robustly associated with Extraversion, Meanness was highly and inversely associated with Agreeableness, Disinhibition was robustly and negatively associated with Conscientiousness). The APM appeared to differ most significantly from the TriPM in that APM Boldness was moderately correlated with Meanness and Disinhibition. APM Boldness may capture a more maladaptive quality of boldness relative to TriPM Boldness through a greater emphasis on low harm avoidance or fearlessness in comparison to TriPM Boldness. The APM is potentially a promising brief measure of psychopathy; however, further study is needed to determine whether the moderately inter-correlated APM scales can distinguish among conceptually relevant constructs. Directions for future research are discussed.
Affective-interpersonal features such as callousness, meanness, or interpersonal antagonism, are regarded as essential to psychopathy. It has been proposed that assessment of the affective dimension of psychopathy may be relevant for risk assessment purposes and for intervention and treatment purposes. It may be constructive to have available brief measures of the affective dimension of psychopathy in both youth and adult populations. The current study represents a second validation study of a new, brief, self-report measure of the affective dimension of psychopathy in adults and potentially in adolescents. A study of the Caring-Uncaring Emotional (CUE) Inventory was conducted with 121 men and women recruited from a community sample. The CUE was found to have high internal consistency reliability (α = .93), and was found to have high correlations with multiple subscale measures of callous affect from established psychopathy measures developed for adults and for youths. The CUE was found to have a high, inverse association with a measure of empathy. The CUE also was found to have a moderate, positive association with a measure of Antisocial Intent. An Exploratory Factor Analysis suggested a three-factor solution, with the first factor accounting for 36.3% of the variance in scores, with high to very high loadings on 15 items. The first factor appeared to represent a robust measure of callousness in adults in a community sample. The second and third factors may tap into lack of close attachment and indifference/emotional detachment as conceptualized in other psychopathy measures. Further study of the CUE is needed to better clarify the latent structure of this scale. The CUE should be further studied for its relationships with other psychopathy measures and personality and behavioral variables. The strong associations between the CUE and two youth psychopathy measures in the current study which included young adults warrants its study in youth samples, including juvenile offenders.
Forensic mental health practitioners who evaluate youths in a context of juvenile delinquency proceedings (e.g., for sentencing or disposition planning, assessment of risk of violence or reoffending, and identification of mental health and treatment needs) typically employ a multi-method, multiinformant assessment approach (
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