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Personality patterns among hospitalized vs. incarcerated psychopaths
Journal of Clinical Psychology
|July 1, 1980
Summary
This study identified five distinct MMPI profile types among psychopathic individuals, revealing significant differences between hospitalized patients and incarcerated individuals. These findings underscore the complex nature of psychopathy and suggest empirical methods for MMPI profiling.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Psychiatry
- Forensic Psychology
Background:
- Psychopathy is a complex personality construct with varied clinical presentations.
- The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a widely used tool for assessing psychopathology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify distinct MMPI profile types in psychopathic individuals.
- To compare MMPI profiles of hospitalized patients with incarcerated individuals diagnosed with psychopathy.
- To evaluate the utility of empirical clustering versus two-point codes for MMPI profile analysis in psychopathy.
Main Methods:
- A formal clustering procedure was applied to MMPI profiles of 80 hospitalized and 80 incarcerated white, male psychopathic personalities.
- Four dimensions of profile pattern were used to differentiate emergent types.
- Frequencies of common two-point codes were analyzed for discriminative power.
Main Results:
- Five primary MMPI profile types emerged from the clustering procedure.
- Hospitalized and incarcerated psychopathic individuals differed in the frequency of specific profile types, particularly those combining psychopathic and nonpsychopathic psychopathology.
- Hospitalized subjects exhibited higher average MMPI profile elevation compared to incarcerated subjects.
- Common two-point MMPI codes did not significantly differentiate between the two groups.
Conclusions:
- Psychopathy is a heterogeneous condition, with diverse MMPI profile patterns.
- Comparative studies of psychopathic individuals across different settings (e.g., hospitalized vs. incarcerated) are valuable for understanding this heterogeneity.
- Empirical methods, such as clustering, are more effective for deriving MMPI profile types in psychopathy than the traditional two-point code approach.