Further Validation of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment – Short Form (EPA-SF) in a Large University Sample

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to provide further validation of the short form of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment (EPA-SF), which was developed on the basis of a general personality model, the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. This study evaluated the internal structure of the EPA-SF trait scales, and examined the EPA-SF scales against two other psychopathy measures, the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM) and the Expanded Leveson Self-Report Psychopathy Scales (E-LSRP), as well as a general FFM measure, in a sample of 924 university students. Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling generally supported internal structure for EPA-SF scales, in that the 18 EPA-SF traits generally loaded onto their four respective domain scales: Antagonism, Emotional Stability, Inhibition and Narcissism. Tucker’s congruence coefficients (.95-.99) indicated excellent replicability of the original structure. The EPA-SF total and domain scale scores also showed moderate to large correlations with TriPM, E-LSRP and FFM domain scales in a manner mostly consistent with conceptual expectations. Finally, EPA-SF trait scales were also mostly associated with their corresponding FFM trait scale counterparts. Overall, the EPA-SF scale scores showed evidence for good convergent and discriminant validity.

Notes

1 Individuals were excluded if they scored in the invalid range on Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008) validity scales, missed attention checks (e.g., If you are reading this statement, please respond “mostly true”), and/or endorsed items with highly improbable content (e.g., I am allergic to water; I am close friends with the Prime Minister of Zanzibar).

Additional information

Funding

Portions of this research was funded by a grant from the University of Minnesota Press.