Psychopathic Personality Disorder

Abstract

The diagnosis of psychopathic personality disorder has salience for forensic clinical practice. It influences decisions regarding risk, treatability and sentencing, indeed, in certain jurisdictions it serves as an aggravating factor that increases the likelihood of a capital sentence. The concatenation of symptom that is associated with modern conceptions of the disorder can be discerned in early writings, including the book of Psalms. Despite its forensic clinical importance and historical pedigree the concept remains elusive and controverted. In this paper I describe an attempt to map the concept of psychopathic personality disorder—the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP). I outline the processes used to create the concept map; I summarise evidence in support of the content validity of the map and describe different operations designed to operationalise the construct. It is only when conceptual clarity is achieved that valid operations and measures can be created. I end with a plea for more carefully considered application of statistical methods; applications that better fit the theoretical questions being posed.

Prototypicality analysis of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP): A cross‐cultural perspective

“…The validity of including the concept of PPD in CAPP has been evaluated in many languages using prototypicality analysis [4]. As discussed by Kreis et al [5], this approach is derived from prototype theory, which is a way of evaluating a construct's core characteristics.…”

“…As Cooke and Logan [24] and Cooke [4] suggested, the CAPP facilitates the idiographic assessment of PPD from a clinical perspective.…”

“…Moreover, the CAPP‐IRS may provide a reliable assessment, and later, well‐tailored management, which somewhat concurs with the risk–need–responsivity (RNR) model [36]. Finally, the CAPP‐IRS can provide in‐depth and pragmatic data on symptomatic fluctuations over time, allowing for examinations of the efficacy of, and potential modifications to, treatment program components [4, 29].…”

“…As Cooke and Logan [24] and Cooke [4] suggested, the CAPP facilitates the idiographic assessment of PPD from a clinical perspective. The CAPP model and the CAPP‐SRS (symptom rating scale) assist the clinical process of diagnostic and violence risk formulation by providing a clear, detailed, and systematic way to understand the nature of an offender's past, recent, and possible future problems regarding PPD symptomatology [1] as well as risk‐case formulation based on Structured Professional Judgment [29].…”

Increasing the Utility of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality–Lexical Rating Scale (CAPP-LRS): Instrument Adaptation and Simplification

“…As a research tool, the CAPP-LRS exhibits strict fidelity to the original CAPP-model and is operationalized as a brief self-rating symptom checklist directly mapping the original 33 primary CAPP symptoms (e.g., "Aggressive," "Inflexible"). The CAPP-LRS has now been successfully translated into more than 25 languages (Cooke, 2018), suggesting support for the conceptual strength of the model and attesting to the stability of its content across diverse cultures (Saucier & Goldberg, 2001). Furthermore, prototypicality research with the CAPP-LRS has allowed evaluation of the 33 primary CAPP symptoms with respect to their relevance and centrality for the psychopathy construct, with results suggesting that forensic mental health experts and community members alike rate the majority of CAPP symptoms as highly prototypical of psychopathy (Hoff et al, 2012;Kreis et al, 2012).…”