Psychopathy in Iran: a cross-cultural study

Area of Science:

• Forensic Psychology
• Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Limited cross-cultural research exists on psychopathy.
• No prior studies have assessed psychopathy in non-Western populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the factor structure of the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) in an Iranian sample.
• To compare the PCL:SV factor structure between Iranian and Western samples.

Main Methods:

• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and item response theory (IRT) were utilized.
• The study compared 351 Iranian prisoners with 405 participants from the PCL:SV standardization sample.

Main Results:

• The hierarchical three-factor model of psychopathy demonstrated a good fit for the Iranian data.
• Differential item functioning was observed between the Iranian and Western samples.
• Factor 1 (interpersonal style) showed lower discrimination in the Iranian sample, while Factor 2 (deficient emotional experience) showed greater discrimination.

Conclusions:

• The three-factor model of psychopathy, particularly the deficient emotional experience factor, may be a culturally universal aspect of psychopathy.
• Other factors of psychopathy appear to be culturally specific and require further investigation.