Psychosocial precursors of psychopathy in a psychiatric sample: A structural equation model analysis

The clinical construct of psychopathy has a long and contentious history. Psychopathy has been identified anecdotally for centuries, but the ability to accurately define this construct continues to challenge researchers and clinicians. Theoretical conceptualizations of psychopathy have changed over the past 65 years. Psychopathy as a clinical construct has received a marked increase in attention in the research literature over the past 2 decades due to the validation and standardization of assessment tools designed to measure this construct, particularly the Psychopathy-measures (Hare, 1991/2003; Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995; and Forth, Kosson, & Hare, 2003). The Psychopathy Checklist (PCL)-measures have provided the field of psychopathy research with consistent measurement tools resulting in an increase of research. The majority of this research focuses on the validation of this measurement tool and its psychometric properties. Over this period of time, the psychopathy construct has been identified as the best single predictor of violence among adult offenders (Hart, 1998). Such findings have led some to conclude that "psychopathy is the most important psychological construct for policy and practice in the criminal justice system" (Harris, Skilling, & Rice, 2001). Despite the overwhelming evidence of substantial societal and individual costs attributable to this disorder, little is known about psychosocial precursors of psychopathy.;There is considerable research examining the effects of early childhood abuse, and results indicate that such early life stress is a risk factor for later criminal offending, particularly violence and aggression (Widom, 1989). However, there remains little research studying early life stress as it relates to the development of psychopathy. This dissertation will examine risk factors that may be related to the development of psychopathy in a sample of psychiatric patients using structural equation modeling.;The literature review will discuss the evolution of the psychopathy construct, and the contribution this construct has made in the area of violence risk assessment. As there have been very few studies examining psychosocial risk factors for psychopathy since the validation of the PCL-measures, longitudinal research of risk factors found predictive of antisocial and criminal behavior will also be reviewed. This will lead into a discussion of etiological theories and research of risk factors in the development of psychopathy. Based on this review, 21 variables found predictive of psychopathy or criminal behavior were chosen from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment dataset. Theoretically, these variables are associated with (1) Abuse; (2) Parental Antisocial Behavior; and (3) Cognitive Ability. As a method of data reduction, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using these predictor variables to form empirically derived factors.;Based on these results, the final SEM includes five predictor variables measuring these constructs. Two of these are latent variables measuring moderate physical abuse and severe physical abuse. Three predictor variables are observed variables and measure biological father's alcohol abuse history, biological father's arrest history, and the subject's cognitive ability. The outcome variable is psychopathy as measured by the PCL:SV. Of the 5 predictor variables, 4 were found predictive of psychopathy in the final SEM. Physical abuse was not found to be predictive of psychopathy, but severe abuse (beta = 0.17, p = .043), biological father's alcohol abuse history (beta = .16, p =.004), biological father's arrest history (beta = 0.13, p = .02), and the subject's cognitive ability (beta = -0.18, p < .001) were all found predictive of psychopathy. Based on these results, intervention strategies and directions for future research are reviewed. Post hoc analyses comparing male and female subjects, and black and white subjects, indicate different causal pathways in the development of psychopathy among these groups. Areas of future research designed to measure these potentially different causal pathways are recommended.