The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP): content validation using prototypical analysis

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Psychopathy is a complex personality construct requiring robust assessment tools.
• The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) is a recent personality-based model for psychopathy assessment.
• Content validity is essential for the psychometric integrity of clinical instruments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct the first examination of the content validity of the English-language Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP).
• To evaluate the representativeness of CAPP symptoms to the adult psychopathy construct using prototypical analysis.
• To assess the psychometric properties of the CAPP through confirmatory factor analyses.

Main Methods:

• Prototypical analysis involving international mental health professionals (N = 132) rating CAPP symptoms.
• Confirmatory factor analyses to evaluate the unidimensionality of CAPP domains.
• Content validation procedures to assess symptom representativeness.

Main Results:

• Findings indicate good content validity for the CAPP, with most symptoms deemed highly representative of psychopathy.
• The interpersonal style domains of the CAPP were found to be particularly prototypical.
• Confirmatory factor analyses supported the high unidimensionality of CAPP domains.

Conclusions:

• The CAPP demonstrates strong content validity as a personality-based assessment of psychopathy.
• The study supports the CAPP's utility in clinical and forensic settings.
• Further refinement of certain CAPP symptoms is recommended to enhance the model's psychometric properties.