Psychopathy and interests: Implications of psychopathic personality traits for vocational and avocational preferences.

Abstract

General personality traits and interests, both vocational and avocational, have long been considered intertwined constructs. Nevertheless, the linkages between personality disorder features, such as psychopathy, and interests are poorly understood. This study bridges this gap by examining how psychopathic traits relate to vocational and avocational interests, and to what extent these associations are distinctive to psychopathy as opposed to a broader pattern of general and abnormal personality traits. In a sample of 426 community participants, Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised Fearless Dominance features of psychopathy were associated with interest in a broad swath of vocational and avocational interests, whereas Self-Centered Impulsivity features were associated with realistic, artistic, enterprising, and conventional interests; most zero-order associations were in the small to medium range. Coldheartedness and the factors derived from the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale were largely unrelated to interests, although there were several notable exceptions. Narcissistic traits, as well as HEXACO (Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness) Honesty-Humility, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience, were also related broadly to interests. The patterns of interests associated with personality disorder traits may ultimately bear practical implications for interventions as individuals seek out positions or hobbies that suit their traits. (PsycINFO Database Record

Construction and preliminary validation of Triarchic Psychopathy Scales from the HEXACO-100.

“…The present study used three separate samples collected at three universities, each of which provided IRB approval. The HEXACO-Triarchic scales were initially developed and provisionally validated using a sample of North American community members recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) that was originally collected for a study on the association between psychopathy and vocational interests (Nagel, Watts, Murphy, & Lilienfeld, 2018). The original sample included 512 respondents, 86 of whom were removed from the analyses either because of excessive missing data, implausibly short response times (completed the survey in a time that was more than 3 SD s below the sample average), and/or PPI-R Inconsistent Responding scale scores that were more than 3 SD s above the mean.…”

Construction and Preliminary Validation of Machiavellianism Scales From the HEXACO-100

“…Sample 3 was originally collected for a study of psychopathy and vocational interests (Nagel et al, 2018) and consisted of North American community members recruited through MTurk. Of the original 512 respondents, 118 respondents were removed because of excessive missing data, extremely short response times (completed the survey in <3 SD below the sample average), and/or Psychopathic Personality Inventory – Revised (PPI-R) Inconsistent Responding scale scores that were three standard deviations above the mean.…”