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Is Low Anxiety Part of the Psychopathy Construct?
Author(s) -
Visser Beth A.,
Ashton Michael C.,
Pozzebon Julie A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00745.x
Subject(s) - psychopathy , psychology , conceptualization , anxiety , temperament , construct (python library) , personality , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , artificial intelligence , computer science , programming language
Low anxiety has traditionally been considered a feature of psychopathy, but there has been mixed research support for this conceptualization. We investigated the PPI‐R‐SF S tress I mmunity subscale (a measure of low anxiety) in relation to 2 widely used self‐report psychopathy scales in a sample of 346 undergraduate students. Results indicated that PPI‐R‐SF S tress I mmunity was nearly unrelated to other indicators of psychopathy, showing a near‐zero loading on the common psychopathy factor defined jointly by the scales of the PPI‐R‐SF and SRP‐III . S tress I mmunity also showed a pattern of personality and temperament correlates much different from those of other psychopathy subscales. Finally, S tress I mmunity had a slight negative correlation with self‐reports of diverse antisocial acts. These results suggest that despite its historical importance in the conceptualization of psychopathy, low anxiety is likely not a core feature of psychopathy.