SpringerLink
Log in

Psychometric properties of the psychopathic personality inventory: Application to high-functioning business population

  • Published:
Current Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) has been developed for use in assessing psychopathy in community samples. Recent research into so-called ‘successful psychopaths’ and ‘corporate psychopaths’ has highlighted the potential prevalence of psychopathy in the community at large, and more specifically psychopathy amongst business executives. In this paper we study high functioning business executives and focus on the measurement of psychopathy, specifically the viability of various factor structures of the PPI-R. We employed two large business associations’ databases and obtained a usable sample of 501 responses. The results support the second-order factor of Fearless Dominance (along with the first-order factors of Social Influence, Fearlessness, and Stress Immunity). In addition, the results indicate the second-order factor of Self-Centered Impulsivity with the first-order factors of Machiavellian Egocentricity, Blame Externalization, Rebellious Nonconformity, and Carefree Nonplanfulness. Our results also support previous studies which suggest that Coldheartedness as a latent trait did not seem to relate to Fearless Dominance or Self-Centered Impulsivity. In addition to discussing our results, we also explore limitations and future research in understanding how psychopathy manifests itself in the high-functioning business population.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (Canada)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party name] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. However, the data are available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of database owners (who remain confidential).

Notes

  1. We examined various EFA models, ranging from 1 through 3 factor models, and analyzed respective loadings and model fit. As the number of exploratory factors increased, the interpretability decreased, and thus, we aligned our exploratory analyses with the content-based literature on how the constructs were meant to be measured.

  2. In our discussion, we cover limitations and controversies of using model fit indices to evaluate model fit.

  3. Due to reasonable fit across individual subgroups, rather than the higher order models, we conducted DIF analyses separately for each subscale/subdomain.

References

  • Babiak, P., Neumann, C. S., & Hare, R. D. (2010). Corporate psychopathy: Talking the walk. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 28(2), 174–193. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.925.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benning, S. D., Patrick, C. J., Hicks, B. M., Blonigen, D. M., & Krueger, R. F. (2003). Factor structure of the psychopathic personality inventory: Validity and implications for clinical assessment. Psychological Assessment, 15(3), 340–350.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Benning, S. D., Venables, N. C., & Hall, J. R. (2018). Successful psychopathy. In C. J. Patrick (Ed.), Handbook of psychopathy (pp. 585–608). New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Board, B. J., & Fritzon, K. (2005). Disordered personalities at work. Psychology, Crime & Law, 11(1), 17–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boddy, C. (2012). The impact of corporate psychopaths on corporate reputation and marketing. The Marketing Review, 12(1), 79–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boddy, C. (2013). Corporate psychopaths. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 49, 8–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boddy, C. R. (2014). Corporate psychopaths, conflict, employee affective well-being and counterproductive work behaviour. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(1), 107–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, N., & Fritzon, K. (2020). The assessment of psychopathic personality across settings. In K. Fritzon, N. Brook, & S. Croom (Eds.), Corporate Psychopathy (pp. 107–149). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, T. A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Choi, S. W. (with contributions from Laura E. Gibbons and Paul K. Crane) (2016). lordif: Logistic Ordinal Regression Differential Item Functioning using IRT. R package version 0.3–3. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=lordif.

  • Cleckley, H. M. (1941). The mask of sanity: An attempt to reinterpret the so-called psychopathic personality. London: The C. V. Mosby Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colins, O., Andershed, H., Frogner, L., Lopez-Romero, L., Veen, V., & Andershed, A.-K. (2014). A new measure to assess psychopathic personality in children: The child problematic traits inventory. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 36(1), 4–21.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cooke, D. J., Hart, S. D., Logan, C., & Michie, C. (2012). Explicating the construct of psychopathy: Development and validation of a conceptual model, the comprehensive assessment of psychopathic personality (CAPP). International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 11(4), 242–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dutton, K. (2012). The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What saints, spies and serial killers Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

  • Edens, J. F., & McDermott, B. E. (2010). Examining the construct validity of the psychopathic personality inventory–revised: Preferential correlates of fearless dominance and self-centered impulsivity. Psychological Assessment, 22(1), 32–42.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Engel-Yeger, B., Muzio, C., Rinosi, G., Solano, P., Geoffroy, P. A., Pompili, M., Amore, M., & Serafini, G. (2016). Extreme sensory processing patterns and their relation with clinical conditions among individuals with major affective disorders. Psychiatry Research, 236, 112–118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.12.022.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fritzon, K., Bailey, C., Croom, S., & Brooks, N. (2016). Problem personalities in the workplace: Development of the corporate personality inventory. In Psychology and law in Europe: East meets west. Boca Raton: CRC Press Chapter 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritzon, K., J. Wilde & R. Searle, (2018). Why that difficult person you work with probably isn’t a psychopath. The Conversation, 29 January 2018.

  • Greene, A. L., Eaton, N. R., Li, K., Forbes, M. K., Krueger, R. F., Markon, K. E., Waldman, I. D., Cicero, D. C., Conway, C. C., Docherty, A. R., Fried, E. I., Ivanova, M. Y., Jonas, K. G., Latzman, R. D., Patrick, C. J., Reininghaus, U., Tackett, J. L., Wright, A. G. C., & Kotov, R. (2019). Are fit indices used to test psychopathology structure biased? A simulation study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 128, 740–764.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, J. R., & Benning, S. D. (2006). The “successful” psychopath: Adaptive and subclinical manifestations of psychopathy in the general population. In C. J. Patrick (Ed.), Handbook of Psychopathy (pp. 459–478). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, R. D. (2003). The Hare psychopathy checklist – Revised (2nd ed.). Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, M. A., Stout, J. C., & Dolan, M. C. (2013). Concurrent validity of the psychopathic personality inventory–revised and the psychopathy checklist: Screening version in an Australian offender sample. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 40(7), 802–813.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kastner, R. M., Sellbom, M., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2012). A comparison of the psychometric properties of the psychopathic personality inventory full-length and short-form versions. Psychological Assessment, 24(1), 261–267.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld, S., & Andrews, B. (1996). Development and preliminary validation of a self-report measure of psychopathic personality traits in noncriminal populations. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66, 488–524.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld, S., Latzman, R. D., Watts, A. L., Smith, S. F., & Dutton, K. (2014). Correlates of psychopathic personality traits in everyday life: Results from a large community survey. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 740.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld, S., & Widows, M. R. (2005). Psychopathic personality inventory-revised (PPI-R) professional manual. Lutz: Psychological Assessment Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNab, A., & Dutton, K. (2014). The Good Psychopath's Guide to Success. London: Bantam Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. D., Sleep, C. E., Crowe, M. L., & Lynam, D. R. (2020). Psychopathic boldness: Narcissism, self-esteem, or something in between? Personality and Individual Differences, 155, 109761.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, L., & Muthén, B. O. (1998). Mplus user’s guide (7th ed.). Los Angeles: Muthén & Muthén.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neo, B., Sellbom, M., Smith, S. F., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2018). Of boldness and badness: Insights into workplace malfeasance from a triarchic psychopathy model perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 149(1), 187–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, C. S., Malterer, M. B., & Newman, J. P. (2008). Factor structure of the psychopathic personality inventory (PPI): Findings from a large incarcerated sample. Psychological Assessment, 20(2), 169–174.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, C. S., Uzieblo, K., Crombez, G., & Hare, R. D. (2013). Understanding the psychopathic personality inventory (PPI) in terms of the unidimensionality, orthogonality, and construct validity of PPI-I and-II. Personality Disorder, 4(1), 77–79. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, C. J., Fowles, D. C., & Krueger, R. F. (2009). Triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy: Developmental origins of disinhibition, boldness, and meanness. Development and Psychopathology, 21(3), 913–938.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, C. J., & Zempolich, K. A. (1998). Emotion and aggression in the psychopathic personality. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 3(4), 303–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pegrum, J., & Pearce, O. (2015). A stressful job: Are surgeons psychopaths? The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 97(8), 331–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pompili, M., Innamorati, M., Lamis, D. A., Erbuto, D., Venturini, P., Ricci, F., Serafini, G., Amore, M., & Girardi, P. (2014). The associations among childhood maltreatment, "male depression" and suicide risk in psychiatric patients. Psychiatry Research, 220(1–2), 571–578. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2014.07.056.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2019). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/.

  • Ruchensky, J. R., Edens, J. F., Donnellan, M. B., & Witt, E. A. (2017). Examining the reliability and validity of an abbreviated psychopathic personality inventory—Revised (PPI-R) in four samples. Psychological Assessment, 29(2), 238–244.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sellbom, M., Cooke, D. J., & Hart, S. D. (2015). Construct validity of the comprehensive assessment of psychopathic personality (CAPP) concept map: Getting closer to the core of psychopathy. International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 14(3), 172–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skeem, J. L., Edens, J. F., Camp, J., & Colwell, L. H. (2004). Are there ethnic differences in levels of psychopathy? A meta-analysis. Law and Human Behavior, 28(5), 505–527.

  • Skeem, J. L., Polaschek, D. L. L., Patrick, C. J., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2011). Psychopathic personality: Bridging the gap between scientific evidence and public policy. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 12, 95–162.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S. F., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2013). Psychopathy in the workplace: The knowns and unknowns. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 18(2), 204–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uzieblo, K., Verschuere, B., Van den Bussche, E., & Crombez, G. (2010). The validity of the psychopathic personality inventory—Revised in a community sample. Assessment, 17(3), 334–346.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA

    Simon Croom & Marko Svetina

Authors
  1. Simon Croom
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marko Svetina
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon Croom.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

This study was funded by faculty research support from the University of San Diego. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of San Diego Institutional Review Board (#2013–09-020) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. No identifying information is included in this article.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 3 Wording of items for retained items on the brief version of the PPI-R measure
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Croom, S., Svetina, M. Psychometric properties of the psychopathic personality inventory: Application to high-functioning business population. Curr Psychol 42, 460–469 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01413-3

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01413-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation