Boldness Explains a Key Difference Between Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder

Abstract

Although antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) has represented the current operationalization of psychopathy since DSM‑III, it has long been recognized as failing to capture the full range of the construct. The current study examined the degree to which Boldness, a trait domain within the triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy that captures fearlessness, dominance and low stress reactivity, represents a distinct difference between psychopathy and ASPD. Utilizing a sample of 152 male prison inmates, the current study examined the extent to which Boldness, relative to Meanness and Disinhibition (indexed by the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure [TriPM]), accounted for incremental variance beyond ASPD symptom counts (indexed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM‑IV Axis II Disorders ASPD module) in predicting psychopathy (as indexed by Psychopathy Checklist-Revised [PCL‑R] total, factor and facets scores). TriPM Boldness added to the incremental prediction of PCL‑R Factor 1 (Interpersonal/Affective) and Facet 1 (Interpersonal) scores above and beyond ASPD scores.

Key words:

• antisocial personality disorder
• boldness
• DSM-5
• psychopathy
• triarchic

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Kathryn Applegate, Adam Crighton, Cody Ison, Jessica Jacobs, Jennifer Stanley, Katara West, and Christopher Wiggins for their assistance in data collection. We would also like to thank the Kentucky Department of Corrections and the staff at Northpoint Training Center for allowing the research to take place in their facility. None of the opinions or conclusions expressed in this article reflects any official policy or position of the Kentucky Department of Corrections. This project was funded by a Major Project Award from the University Research Committee at Eastern Kentucky University.

Notes

1. Although Section III of the DSM‑5 (Emerging Measures and Models) does provide a Psychopathy Specifier for ASPD, the American Psychiatric Association maintained the same criterion set from the DSM‑IV personality disorders. Unless noted otherwise, we are referencing the DSM‑5 Section II criteria of ASPD (which are the same as DSM‑IV).

2. Although the ASPD symptom count is technically a count variable, it is normally distributed in this sample (e.g., skewness = –.403, kurtosis = –.559) and general assumptions for linear regressions were met. As such, to keep consistent with the PCL‑R analyses, we chose to conduct hierarchical linear regression rather than estimating a count regression model.

3. In support of this assertion, we calculated correlations between the TriPM Boldness scale and the individual items from Facet 3 (Lifestyle) of the PCL‑R. Item 3 (Need for Stimulation/Proneness to Boredom) was the only item significantly correlated with Boldness, Spearman's rho = .25 (p = .002).