Content Validation of the Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality-Basic Version (CAPP-Basic) Using...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Forensic Psychology

Background:

• The Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathic Personality (CAPP) is a key model for understanding psychopathy.
• The standard Lexical Rating Scale for the CAPP (CAPP-LRS) has high reading level demands, limiting its use.
• A simplified version, CAPP-Basic, was developed to address these accessibility issues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the content validity of the CAPP-Basic.
• To determine if the CAPP-Basic accurately reflects psychopathic personality domains and symptoms for individuals with lower verbal skills.

Main Methods:

• Mental health professionals (N=121) rated symptoms using the CAPP-Basic.
• Content validity was assessed at both the domain and symptom levels.
• This study represents the first evaluation of the CAPP-Basic's content validity.

Main Results:

• The CAPP-Basic demonstrated good content validity across its domains.
• Symptom-level content validity was also found to be adequate.
• Results align with previous findings on the CAPP model.

Conclusions:

• The CAPP-Basic is a valid tool for assessing psychopathic personality in populations with limited reading abilities.
• This simplified scale increases the potential utility of the CAPP model in diverse research contexts.
• Content validity supports the use of CAPP-Basic for broader psychopathy research.