Validating latent profiles of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised with a large sample of incarcerated men.

Abstract

There is a long tradition of theory and research on putative variants of psychopathic and other antisocial clinical presentations. However, using different samples, psychopathy measures, terminologies, and analytic methods makes interpretation of the findings difficult. Emerging research suggests that the validated four-factor model of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) provides a consistent and empirically robust framework for identifying psychopathic variants and antisocial subtypes (Hare et al., 2018;Neumann et al., 2016). The current study employed latent profile analysis (LPA) of the full range of PCL-R scores in a large sample of incarcerated men (N = 2,570) to replicate and extend recent LPA research on PCL-R-based latent classes. Consistent with previous research, a four-class solution emerged as optimal, with the following antisocial subtypes: Prototypic Psychopathic (C1), Callous-Conning (C2), Externalizing (C3), and General Offender (C4). We validated the subtypes by examining their differential associations with theoretically meaningful external correlates: Child conduct disorder symptoms; adult nonviolent and violent offenses; Self-Report Psychopathy; Psychopathic Personality Inventory; Symptom Checklist-90 Revised; and behavioral activation system and behavioral inhibition system scores. The discussion focused on conceptions of the PCL-R-based subgroups and their potential application to risk assessment and treatment/management programs.