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Unmasking Cleckley's psychopath: assessing historical case studies
Author(s) -
DeShong Hilary L.,
Helle Ashley C.,
MullinsSweatt Stephanie N.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
personality and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.193
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 1932-863X
pISSN - 1932-8621
DOI - 10.1002/pmh.1333
Subject(s) - psychopathy , psychology , agreeableness , neuroticism , conscientiousness , personality , big five personality traits , facet (psychology) , trait , dark triad , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , extraversion and introversion , computer science , programming language
The current study investigated original case descriptions of psychopathy (Cleckley, 1941) in relation to current conceptualizations and general personality traits. Attorneys, forensic psychologists and clinical faculty members completed ratings of psychopathy and personality after reading vignettes based on Cleckley's descriptions of a psychopath. The results suggest that professionals' ratings are consistent with current conceptualizations of psychopathy. Furthermore, the five‐factor model (FFM) personality traits of the vignettes aligned with the current literature on the FFM and psychopathy (i.e. low neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness). The results further supported that a general trait model, like the FFM, may be well suited to describe the underlying personality traits of psychopathy. Gender differences were also examined.