Agreeableness explains the factor structure of the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, Fourth Edition.

Abstract

The five-factor model (FFM) is a general personality model that has been frequently studied in its relation to psychopathy Widiger & Lynam, 1998) with ample evidence that Antagonism (low Agreeableness) plays a core role in the conceptualization of psychopathy. The present study examined the relations between the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, Fourth Edition (SRP-4;Paulhus et al., 2014), one of the most commonly used self-report measures of psychopathy and the FFM. Using a preregistered analytical approach, we found that all 4 subscales and the total score of the SRP-4 are positively correlated with all facets of Antagonism and that Antagonism accounts for the overlap between SRP-4 subscales, as introducing these facets to a hierarchical regression reduced the overlap between subscales by more than 50%. Adding Conscientious to the model did not account for further reduction in overlap between the factors. Finally, a structural equation model showed the latent correlation between Antagonism and psychopathy as captured by the SRP-4 to be effectively 1.0, again highlighting the role of Antagonism in the SRP-4's conceptualization of psychopathy. The results were consistent across 2 large samples (Ns of 627 and 628). This study suggests the SRP-4 is assessing Antagonism and showcases the primary role of Antagonism in psychopathy.

Psychopathy facets, perceived power, and forms of aggression.

“…Regarding the interpersonal facet, the bivariate correlations showed robust relationships between the interpersonal facet and all forms of aggression, similar to the pattern of bivariate relationships for the other psychopathy facets. The fact that all psychopathy facets correlated with aggression is consistent with the idea that antagonism explains interrelationships between different features of psychopathy (Sherman et al, 2014; Van Til et al, 2021). Indeed, the assessment of interpersonal features in the measures we used in this study capture antagonistic tendencies (e.g., manipulation, deceit, self-centeredness).…”