Development and Validation of MMPI-2-RF Scales for Indexing Triarchic Psychopathy Constructs

Abstract

The triarchic model characterizes psychopathy in terms of three distinct dispositional constructs of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. The model can be operationalized through scales designed specifically to index these domains or by using items from other inventories that provide coverage of related constructs. The present study sought to develop and validate scales for assessing the triarchic model domains using items from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF). A consensus rating approach was used to identify items relevant to each triarchic domain, and following psychometric refinement, the resulting MMPI-2-RF-based triarchic scales were evaluated for convergent and discriminant validity in relation to multiple psychopathy-relevant criterion variables in offender and nonoffender samples. Expected convergent and discriminant associations were evident very clearly for the Boldness and Disinhibition scales and somewhat less clearly for the Meanness scale. Moreover, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that all MMPI-2-RF triarchic scales incremented standard MMPI-2-RF scale scores in predicting extant triarchic model scale scores. The widespread use of MMPI-2-RF in clinical and forensic settings provides avenues for both clinical and research applications in contexts where traditional psychopathy measures are less likely to be administered.

Examining the Association Between the MMPI-2-RF Triarchic Psychopathy Scales and Suicidality in a Criminal Defendant Sample

“…These analyses showed that, for men, boldness was negatively associated, and disinhibition was positively associated, with all outcome Bivariate correlation analyses between the triarchic scales showed that boldness was significantly associated with meanness (r = .08, p < .001) and disinhibition (r = -.11, p < .001), and meanness was significantly correlated with disinhibition (r = .52, p < .001). These values are consistent with past research with these scales (e.g., Sellbom et al, 2016).…”

“…The MMPI-2-RF (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008/2011) was scored from MMPI-2 (Butcher et al, 2001) administrations, which has been supported empirically in this context (Tarescavage, Alosco, Ben-Porath, Wood, & Luna-Jones, 2015). To operationalize the triarchic model, we used the MMPI-2-RF Triarchic scales (Sellbom et al, 2016), which have been well validated in a range of university, community, and correctional samples (Anestis et al, 2018;Gottfried et al, 2019;Kutchen et al, 2017;Sellbom et al, 2016). Cronbach's alphas were .78 (male) and .81 (female) for Boldness, .80 and .81 for Meanness, and .72 and .68 for Disinhibition.…”

Concurrent and developmental correlates of psychopathic traits using a triarchic psychopathy model approach.

“…One explanation for these surprising findings is that the broad personality facets used in this study may not be well-suited to truly capture TriPM meanness. For example, consistent with our findings, Sellbom and colleagues (2016) also found that their MMPI-2-RF-based meanness scale demonstrated fewer expected convergent and discriminant associations with criterion variables as compared to boldness and disinhibition. Indeed, TriPM meanness might be better captured with more traditional measures such as measures of callous-unemotional traits (Frick et al, 2014).…”

Personality traits and combat exposure as predictors of psychopathology over time

“…In previous work, a disinhibition scale was developed to include antisocial behavior, substance use, and impulsive personality traits (Krueger et al , 2007, Patrick et al , 2013). Based on this work, an index was developed for the MMPI-2-RF using a regression-based algorithm (Sellbom et al , 2012, Sellbom et al , in press). These indices of disinhibition allowed for identification of candidate items for development of a disinhibition scale using RINGS-available items.…”