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Capturing the Psychopathic Female: A Prototypicality Analysis of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) Across Gender
Author(s) -
Kreis Mette K. F.,
Cooke David J.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.1003
Subject(s) - psychopathy , conceptualization , psychology , construct (python library) , personality , antisocial personality disorder , personality disorders , construct validity , dsm 5 , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , poison control , psychometrics , social psychology , injury prevention , medicine , computer science , environmental health , artificial intelligence , programming language
Psychopathy in women has been subject to little systematic investigation; no coherent conceptualization of the disorder in women exists. Previous research is constrained by the reliance both on a male conceptualization of psychopathy and on assessment instruments developed, and primarily validated, with men. This study utilized a newly developed, broad, personality‐based, and gender‐sensitive lexical model of psychopathy, the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP). Prototypical analysis was used to explore gender differences in the construct and the content validity of the CAPP model across gender. Symptoms were rated by international mental health professionals ( N = 132). The findings support the content validity of the CAPP across gender and suggest that – at symptom and domain levels – psychopathic men and women have key similarities, but also that important gender differences exists. This has implications for the assessment of psychopathy in women, and has relevance for the proposed revision of diagnostic criteria for personality disorders. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.