Abstract

Psychopathy in females has been understudied. Extant data on gender comparisons using the predominant measure of assessment in clinical practice, the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), points to a potential lack of measurement invariance (MI). If indeed the instrument does not perform equally (well) in both genders, straightforward comparison of psychopathy scores in males and females is unwarranted. Using a sample of female and male forensic patients (N = 110 and N = 147 respectively), we formally tested for MI in a structural equation modeling framework. We found that the PCL-R in its current form does not attain full MI. Four items showed threshold-biases and particularly Factor 2 (the Social Deviance Factor) is gender biased. Based on our findings, it seems reasonable to expect that specific scoring adjustments might go a long way in bringing about more equivalent assessment of psychopathic features in men and women. Only then can we begin to meaningfully compare the genders on the prevalence, structure, and external correlates of psychopathy.

摘要

女性的精神病已被充分研究。使用临床实践中的主要评估方法，精神病检查表修订版 (PCL-R) 进行性别比较的现有数据表明，可能缺乏测量不变性 (MI)。如果该仪器确实在两性中表现不均（良好），那么直接比较男性和女性的精神病分数是没有根据的。使用女性和男性法医患者样本（分别为 N = 110 和 N = 147），我们在结构方程建模框架中正式测试了 MI。我们发现当前形式的 PCL-R 没有达到完全 MI。四个项目显示出阈值偏差，特别是因素 2（社会偏差因素）是有性别偏见的。根据我们的发现，预计特定的评分调整可能会大大有助于对男性和女性的精神病特征进行更等效的评估，这似乎是合理的。只有这样，我们才能开始有意义地比较性别在精神病的患病率、结构和外部相关性方面。