Hare Psychopathy Checklist Reviewed

7/26/2019 Hare Psychopathy Checklist Reviewed

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In contemporary research and clinical practice, Robert D. Hare's Psychopathy

Checklist-Revised(PCL-R) is the psycho-diagnostic tool most commonly used to

assess psychopathy. Because an individual's score may have important conseuences !or

his or her !uture, and because the potential !or harm i! the test is used or administered

incorrectly is considerable, Hare argues that the test should only be considered valid i!

administered by a suitably uali!ied and e"perienced clinician under controlled and

licensed conditions. Hare receives a royalty on licensed use o! the test.

#$%-R model o! psychopathy

&he #$%-R is a clinical rating scale (rated by a psychologist or other pro!essional) o!

items. ach o! the items in the #$%-R is scored on a three-point scale according tospeci!ic criteria through !ile in!ormation and a semi-structured intervie*. + value o! is

assigned i! the item does not apply, i! it applies some*hat, and i! it !ully applies. In

addition to li!estyle and criminal behavior the checlist assesses glib and super!icial

charm, grandiosity, need !or stimulation, pathological lying, conning and manipulating,

lac o! remorse, callousness, poor behavioral controls, impulsivity, irresponsibility,

!ailure to accept responsibility !or one's o*n actions and so !orth. &he scores are used to

predict ris !or criminal re-o!!ence and probability o! rehabilitation.

&he current edition o! the #$%-R o!!icially lists !our !actors (.a, .b, .a, and .b), *hich

summarie the assessed areas via !actor analysis. &he previous edition o! the #$%-R

listed t*o !actors. /actor is labelled 0sel!ish, callous and remorseless use o! others0.

/actor is labelled as 0chronically unstable, antisocial and socially deviant li!estyle0.

&here is a high ris o! recidivism and currently small lielihood o! rehabilitation !or

those *ho are labelled as having 0psychopathy0 on the basis o! the #$%-R ratings in the

manual !or the test, although treatment research is ongoing.

#$%-R /actors a and b are correlated *ith narcissistic personality disorder and

histrionic personality disorder. &hey are associated *ith e"traversion and positive a!!ect.

/actor , the so-called core personality traits o! psychopathy, may even be bene!icial !or

the psychopath (in terms o! nondeviant social !unctioning).


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#$%-R /actors a and b are particularly strongly correlated to antisocial personality

disorder and criminality and are associated *ith reactive anger, criminality, and

impulsive violence. &he target group !or the #$%-R is convicted criminals. &he uality o!

ratings may depend on ho* much bacground in!ormation is available and *hether the

person rated is honest and !orthright.

&he t*o !actors

Factor 1: Personality "Aggressive narcissism"

1libness2super!icial charm

1randiose sense o! sel!-*orth

#athological lying

$unning2manipulative

%ac o! remorse or guilt

3hallo* a!!ect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric)

$allousness4 lac o! empathy

/ailure to accept responsibility !or o*n actions

Factor 2: Case history "Socially deviant liestyle"!

5eed !or stimulation2proneness to boredom

#arasitic li!estyle

#oor behavioral control

%ac o! realistic long-term goals

Impulsivity


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Irresponsibility

6uvenile delinuency

arly behavior problems

Revocation o! conditional release

raits not correlated #ith either actor

#romiscuous se"ual behavior

7any short-term marital relationships

$riminal versatility

+cuired behavioural sociopathy2sociological conditioning (Item 8 a ne*ly

identi!ied trait i.e. a person relying on sociological strategies and trics to

deceive)

arly !actor analysis o! thePCL-Rindicated it consisted o! t*o !actors. /actor captures

traits dealing *ith the interpersonal and a!!ective de!icits o! psychopathy (e.g. shallo*

a!!ect, super!icial charm, manipulativeness, lac o! empathy) *hereas /actor dealt

*ith symptoms relating to antisocial behaviour (e.g. criminal versatility, impulsiveness,

irresponsibility, poor behaviour controls, 9uvenile delinuency).

&he t*o !actors have been !ound by those !ollo*ing this theory to display di!!erent

correlates. /actor has been correlated *ith narcissistic personality disorder, lo*

an"iety, lo* empathy, lo* stress reaction and lo* suicide ris but high scores on scales

o! achievement and *ell-being. In addition, the use o! item response theory analysis o!

!emale o!!ender #$%-R scores indicates !actor items are more important in measuring

and generaliing the construct o! psychopathy in *omen than !actor items.

In contrast, /actor *as !ound to be related to antisocial personality disorder, social

deviance, sensation seeing, lo* socio-economic status and high ris o! suicide. &he t*o


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!actors are nonetheless highly correlated and there are strong indications they do result

!rom a single underlying disorder. Ho*ever, research has !ailed to replicate the t*o-

!actor model in !emale samples.

Recent statistical analysis using con!irmatory !actor analysis by $ooe and 7ichie

indicated a three-!actor structure, *ith those items !rom !actor strictly relating to

antisocial behaviour (criminal versatility, 9uvenile delinuency, revocation o!

conditional release, early behavioural problems and poor behavioural controls) removed

!rom the !inal model. &he remaining items are divided into three !actors8 +rrogant and

Deceit!ul Interpersonal 3tyle, De!icient +!!ective "perience and Impulsive and

Irresponsible Behavioural 3tyle.

In the most recent edition o! thePCL-R, Hare adds a !ourth antisocial behaviour !actor,

consisting o! those /actor items e"cluded in the previous model. +gain, these models

are presumed to be hierarchical *ith a single uni!ied psychopathy disorder underlying

the distinct but correlated !actors.

&he $ooe : 7ichie hierarchical ;three


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psychopath (in terms o! nondeviant social !unctioning). + psychopath *ill score high on

both !actors, *hereas someone *ith +#D *ill score high only on /actor .

Both case history and a semi-structured intervie* are used in the analysis.

>ther mental disorders

#sychopathy, as measured on the #$%-R, is negatively correlated *ith all D37-I? +"is I

disorders e"cept substance abuse disorders. #sychopathy is most strongly correlated

*ith D37-I? antisocial personality disorder.

&he o!!icial stance o! the +merican #sychiatric +ssociation as presented in the D37-I?-

&R is that psychopathy and sociopathy are misnomers. &he @orld Health >rganiationtaes a di!!erent stance in its I$D- by re!erring to psychopathy, antisocial personality,

asocial personality, and amoral personality as synonyms !or dissocial personality

disorder.

+mong laypersons and pro!essionals, there is much con!usion about the meanings and

di!!erences bet*een psychopathy, sociopathy, antisocial personality disorder, and the

I$D- diagnosis, dissocial personality disorder. Hare taes the stance that psychopathy

as a syndrome should be considered distinct !rom the D37-I?'s antisocial personalitydisorder construct, even though +3#D and psychopathy *ere intended to be euivalent

in the D37-I?. Ho*ever, those *ho created the D37-I? !elt that there *as too much

room !or sub9ectivity on the part o! clinicians *hen identi!ying things lie remorse and

guilt4 there!ore, the D37-I? panel decided to stic to observable behaviour, namely

socially deviant behaviours.

+s a result, the diagnosis o! +3#D is something that the 0ma9ority o! criminals easily

meet.0 Hare goes !urther to say that the percentage o! incarcerated criminals that meetthe reuirements o! +3#D is some*here bet*een A to A percent, *hereas only about

C o! these criminals *ould uali!y !or a diagnosis o! *hat Hare's scale considers to be

a psychopath. &his t*enty percent, according to Hare, accounts !or percent o! all the

most serious crimes committed, including hal! o! all serial and repeat rapists. +ccording


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to /BI reports, percent o! all police o!!icer murders in EE *ere committed by

psychopaths.

+nother study using the #$%-R to e"amine the relationship bet*een antisocial

behaviour and suicide !ound that suicide history *as strongly correlated to #$%-R

/actor (re!lecting antisocial deviance) and *as not correlated to #$%-R !actor

(re!lecting a!!ective !unctioning). 1iven that +3#D relates to /actor , *hereas

psychopathy relates to both !actors, this *ould con!irm Hervey $lecley's assertion that

psychopaths are relatively immune to suicide. #eople *ith +3#D, on the other hand,

have a relatively high suicide rate.

3ince psychopaths !reuently cause harm through their actions, it is assumed that they

are not emotionally attached to the people they harm4 ho*ever, according to the #$%-R

$heclist, psychopaths are also careless in the *ay they treat themselves. &hey

!reuently !ail to alter their behavior in a *ay that *ould prevent them !rom enduring

!uture discom!ort.

In practice, mental health pro!essionals rarely treat psychopathic personality disorders

as they are considered untreatable and no interventions have proved to be e!!ective. In

ngland and @ales the diagnosis o! dissocial personality disorder is grounds !or

detention in secure psychiatric hospitals under the 7ental Health +ct i! they have

committed serious crimes, but since such individuals are disruptive !or other patients

and not responsive to treatment this alternative to prison is not o!ten used.

Because an individual's scores may have important conseuences !or his or her !uture,

the potential !or harm i! the test is used or administered incorrectly is considerable. &he

test can only be considered valid i! administered by a suitably uali!ied and e"perienced

clinician under controlled conditions.

Hare *ants theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disordersto list

psychopathy as a uniue disorder, saying psychopathy has no precise euivalent in

either theDSM-IV-TR, *here it is most strongly correlated *ith the diagnosis o!

antisocial personality disorder, or theICD-10, *hich has a partly similar condition

called dissocial personality disorder. Both organiations vie* the terms as synonymous.


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But only a minority o! *hat Hare and his !ollo*ers *ould diagnose as psychopaths *ho

are in institutions are violent o!!enders.

&he manipulative sills o! some o! the others are valued !or providing audacious

leadership. It is argued psychopathy is adaptive in a highly competitive environment,

because it gets results !or both the individual and the corporations or, o!ten small

political sects they represent. Ho*ever, these individuals *ill o!ten cause long-term

harm, both to their co-*orers and the organiation as a *hole, due to their

manipulative, deceit!ul, abusive, and o!ten !raudulent behaviour.

Hare describes people he calls psychopaths as 0intraspecies predators *ho use charm,

manipulation, intimidation, se" and violence to control others and to satis!y their o*n

sel!ish needs. %acing in conscience and empathy, they tae *hat they *ant and do as

they please, violating social norms and e"pectations *ithout guilt or remorse0. 0@hat is

missing, in other *ords, are the very ualities that allo* a human being to live in social

harmony.0

Read

more8http822***.minddisorders.com2no*ledge2HareF#sychopathyF$heclist.htmlG

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Hare Psychopathy Checklist Reviewed