CONSTRUCT-VALIDITY OF THE HARE PSYCHOPATHY CHECKLIST, REVISED, ON A UK PRISON POPULATION

The Hare Psychopathy Checklist, Revised (PCL-R) is a 20-item scale, wh ich is rated on the basis of interview information and collateral revi ew, yielding total and factor scores. The PCL-R was administered to 10 4 receptions at Grendon therapeutic prison. Scores from the PCL-R were correlated with Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven, 1960), Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (Caine, et al., 196 7), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Revised (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1 991) and the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire, Revised (Hyler et a l, 1988). Results generally support the construct validity of the PCL- R and are consistent with previous research, with significant correlat ions of a low to moderate order found in the predicted directions. Psy chopathy was found to be associated with high levels of overall hostil ity, extrapunitive hostility and personality characteristics such as p sychoticism and impulsivity It was significantly associated with perso nality disorders of the sadistic, anti-social, borderline, histrionic and schizotypal types and high levels of personality disorder comorbid ity. It was not significantly associated with non-verbal reasoning cap acity. Factor 1 scores failed to correlate significantly with most oth er subscales, indicating that whilst the present rest battery taps the anti-social/behavioural aspects of psychopathy the interpersonal aspe cts are being missed.