An Examination of Triarchic Psychopathy Constructs in Female Offenders

Abstract

This study sought to expand scientific knowledge on psychopathic personality traits in female offenders by evaluating the relationship between MMPI-2-RF triarchic scales and self-reported external variables in a sample of 205 female offenders. Results indicated that boldness was inversely related to internalizing dysfunction, including suicidal behavior, psychosis, youth conduct problems, problems stemming from alcohol use, and a history of outpatient mental health treatment. Meanness was positively related to internalizing dysfunction as well as youth conduct problems, anger, prison disciplinary reports, and psychosis. Disinhibition was associated with a history of abuse in childhood, suicidal behavior, internalizing dysfunction, problems associated with alcohol and drug use, family history of mental illness, prison disciplinary reports for violence, number of previous criminal charges, and anger. Consistent with views of psychopathy as a configural condition, interactive effects of boldness with disinhibition and meanness were observed for multiple key external variables (e.g., conduct problems, substance use, nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior). This study provides further evidence for the triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy in female offenders and lends additional support for the validity of MMPI-2-RF triarchic psychopathy scales.

Examining the Association Between the MMPI-2-RF Triarchic Psychopathy Scales and Suicidality in a Criminal Defendant Sample

“…Higher boldness scores were significantly predictive of lower suicidality scores regardless of sex, whereas the opposite was true for disinhibition. These findings were consistent with our hypotheses and previous research (Anestis et al, 2018;Gottfried et al, 2019;Heirigs et al, 2019;Sellbom, 2015;Venables et al, 2015). Neither psychopathy domain was associated with sex-based moderation effects in these relations.…”

“…Gottfried, Harrop, Anestis, Venables, and Sellbom (2019) reported a similar interaction effect for the prediction of non-suicidal self-injury in a sample of female offenders. Other studies showed that boldness was negatively associated with suicidality indicators (i.e., suicidal ideation, previous suicide attempts, history of self-injurious behaviors) and a measure of perceived alienation, whereas disinhibition was positively related to previous suicide attempts and an indicator of self-hatred in samples of female offenders (Gottfried et al, 2019) and undergraduate students (Harrop et al, 2017). Anestis and colleagues (2018) also found that the strengths of the relationship between triarchic scales and suicide risk factors were similar across male and female Amazon Mechanical Turk participants.…”

“…The MMPI-2-RF (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008/2011) was scored from MMPI-2 (Butcher et al, 2001) administrations, which has been supported empirically in this context (Tarescavage, Alosco, Ben-Porath, Wood, & Luna-Jones, 2015). To operationalize the triarchic model, we used the MMPI-2-RF Triarchic scales (Sellbom et al, 2016), which have been well validated in a range of university, community, and correctional samples (Anestis et al, 2018;Gottfried et al, 2019;Kutchen et al, 2017;Sellbom et al, 2016). Cronbach's alphas were .78 (male) and .81 (female) for Boldness, .80 and .81 for Meanness, and .72 and .68 for Disinhibition.…”

“…We also hypothesized that among those scoring higher on disinhibition, women would express more suicidal ideation and report more suicide attempts, in light of prior findings that underlying genetic influences on impulsive antisocial traits increased women's, not men's, vulnerability to internalizing psychopathology, including suicidality (Blonigen, Hicks, Krueger, Patrick, & Iacono, 2005;Gottfried et al, 2018;Verona et al, 2005). We finally examined the interaction between disinhibition and boldness to replicate past research findings that boldness provides a protective effect across a range of disinhibition levels (Anestis et al, 2018;Gottfried et al, 2019;Heirigs et al, 2019;Sellbom, 2015;Venables et al, 2015). We focused solely on the boldnessdisinhibition interaction, given that prior studies consistently found the interaction as a significant predictor particularly within the context of suicidality, compared to other triarchic scale interactions, as well as because meanness has not figured prominently as a predictor of suicidality in previous research (Anestis et al, 2018;Gottfried et al, 2018).…”

“…From this perspective, risk factors for suicidal behaviors and ideation included a combination of high levels of disinhibition and low levels of boldness among American outpatients and participants from a Finnish male military cohort (Venables et al, 2015). Gottfried, Harrop, Anestis, Venables, and Sellbom (2019) reported a similar interaction effect for the prediction of non-suicidal self-injury in a sample of female offenders. Other studies showed that boldness was negatively associated with suicidality indicators (i.e., suicidal ideation, previous suicide attempts, history of self-injurious behaviors) and a measure of perceived alienation, whereas disinhibition was positively related to previous suicide attempts and an indicator of self-hatred in samples of female offenders (Gottfried et al, 2019) and undergraduate students (Harrop et al, 2017).…”