The Self-Report Psychopathy Scale and Passive Avoidance Learning

Abstract

The reliability and validity of the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRPS) was examined in a noninstitutionalized offender sample of mixed gender and race. Adequate alpha coefficients were obtained for the total sample and across gender and race. The SRPS was compared to measures of trait anxiety and passive avoidance errors. SRPS total, primary, and secondary scores were positively and significantly correlated with trait anxiety and passive avoidance (commission) errors, but not omission errors. Employing hierarchical regression models, no anxiety, gender, or ethnic effects were found. Intelligence confounded the relationship between psychopathic traits and passive avoidance errors. Findings provide tentative support of the SRPS as a valid measure of psychopathy.

Reward: Empirical Contribution: Temporal Discounting and Conduct Disorder in Adolescents

“…They clearly are (K. S. Blair, Morton, Leonard, & Blair, 2006; Epstein, Poythress, & Brandon, 2006; Newman & Kosson, 1986; Newman, Widom, & Nathan, 1985), and youths with CD and psychopathic traits show profound impairment in the representation of reinforcement information within caudate and vmPFC (Finger et al, 2008, 2011; White et al, 2013). Instead, we would suggest that these deficits might also be present in other populations engaged in externalizing behaviors, such as CD with low callous-unemotional traits and substance abuse.…”

Effects of psychopathy traits on unprovoked aggression

“…Second, the LSRP is distinct from other existing self-report measures of psychopathy which only measure the social deviance component of psychopathy, because it is designed to assess both social deviance and callous shallow affect . Third, this measure has been validated in the assessment of psychopathy in non-forensic undergraduate populations [Lynam et al, 1999;Parrott and Zeichner, 2006] and offending populations [Epstein et al, 2006]. It has also been shown to correlate with psychopathy in forensic population [Brinkley et al, 2001].…”

“…The Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale [LSRP; Levenson et al, 1995] was patterned after the Hare [1990] Psychopathy Checklist but was designed for use in nonforensic settings to assess behavioral features of individuals not identified as criminals [Epstein et al, 2006]. This 26-item Likert-type scale comprises two subscales that assess two domains of the psychopathic personality.…”

Taxometric Analysis of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale

“…When both the LSRP and PCL-R were administered to a group of minimum security state inmates, the two measures correlated reasonably well with one another and displayed similar patterns of correlation with criminal versatility, substance misuse, and passive avoidance learning (Brinkley et al, 2001). Passive avoidance errors, generally considered a behavioral marker of psychopathy (Patterson & Newman, 1993), were also found to correlate with the LSRP in a sample of noninstitutionalized misdemeanor offenders (Epstein, Poythress, & Brandon, 2006).…”