Unmasking Cleckley's psychopath: assessing historical case studies

The current study investigated original case descriptions of psychopathy (Cleckley, 1941) in relation to current conceptualizations and general personality traits. Attorneys, forensic psychologists and clinical faculty members completed ratings of psychopathy and personality after reading vignettes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality and mental health Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 142 - 151
Main Authors: DeShong, Hilary L., Helle, Ashley C., Mullins-Sweatt, Stephanie N.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2016
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:
Adult
Agreeableness
Antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial Personality Disorder - diagnosis
Antisocial Personality Disorder - psychology
Case studies
Cleckley
Clinical psychologists
College faculty
Conscientiousness
Female
Five factor model
Forensic psychiatry
Forensic psychologists
Gender differences
History, 20th Century
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Neuroticism
Personality
Personality Assessment
Personality traits
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychologists
Psychopathology
Psychopathology - history
Psychopathy
Ratings & rankings
Vignettes
five factor model
Cleckley
personality
Psychopathy
ISSN:1932-8621, 1932-863X
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The current study investigated original case descriptions of psychopathy (Cleckley, 1941) in relation to current conceptualizations and general personality traits. Attorneys, forensic psychologists and clinical faculty members completed ratings of psychopathy and personality after reading vignettes based on Cleckley's descriptions of a psychopath. The results suggest that professionals' ratings are consistent with current conceptualizations of psychopathy. Furthermore, the five‐factor model (FFM) personality traits of the vignettes aligned with the current literature on the FFM and psychopathy (i.e. low neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness). The results further supported that a general trait model, like the FFM, may be well suited to describe the underlying personality traits of psychopathy. Gender differences were also examined.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-0H4CV02J-6
ArticleID:PMH1333
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SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:1932-8621
1932-863X
DOI:10.1002/pmh.1333