Using MMPI–2–RF Correlates to Elucidate the PCL–R and Its Four Facets in a Sample of Male Forensic Psychiatric Patients

ABSTRACT

This study documents the associations between the MMPI–2–RF (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008) scale scores and the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL–R; Hare, 2003) facet scores in a forensic psychiatric sample. Objectives were to determine how the MMPI–2–RF scales might enhance substantive understanding of the nature of the 4 PCL–R facets and to discern possible implications for the treatment of psychopathic patients. A sample of 127 male forensic psychiatric offenders admitted to a Dutch forensic psychiatric hospital completed the PCL–R and the MMPI–2. Exploratory stepwise regression analyses assessed the prediction of the PCL–R total and its facet scores from MMPI–2–RF scales at its 3 hierarchical levels. Conceptually meaningful results emerged at each level of the MMPI–2–RF hierarchy, including several consistent differences between predictor sets across the facets. Interestingly, ideas of persecution (RC6) was a specific predictor of PCL–R Facet 2, a facet noted for its association with treatment failure. Results are compared and contrasted to the extant body of empirical work to date, and some tentative clinical implications are offered.