Using the HEXACO to Capture Psychopathy: Development and Initial Validation of the Power Proxies of Psychopathic Traits

Abstract

Psychopathy, though often considered an abnormal personality construct, has been repeatedly found to be related to “normal” personality traits, and the HEXACO model of personality is particularly capable of capturing the “dark” personality variance integral to the construct. Additionally, while previous research indicates that psychopathy can be applied to both sexes, it has been suggested that psychopathic traits are expressed somewhat differently between men and women. In Study 1, we examined the relations between the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP) and the HEXACO-60 in a student sample (n = 1,346) in order to create proxy measures for Hare’s two-factor/four-facet model of psychopathy and to investigate sex differences in the associations between the SRP and the HEXACO. We created “general” proxies for use with samples of men and women in addition to male- and female-specific proxies for potential use with samples of exclusively men or women, respectively. The proxies had good psychometric properties and had stronger correlations with several psychopathy-relevant variables than did a previous attempt to measure the SRP facets using HEXACO items. In Study 2, we investigated how the proxies would function in a youth community sample (n = 396). The proxies related to many external variables in a similar manner as that of a previously validated measure of psychopathic traits in youth, suggesting that the proxy scales can be used with younger populations. In Study 3, we used a MTurk sample (n = 471) to update the proxy scales with HEXACO-100 items and to investigate sex differences in the relations between the SRP and the new HEXACO items. Several items were added to each version of the proxy scales and, compared to the original proxies, the updated proxies displayed better psychometric properties and stronger correlations with psychopathy-relevant variables. Overall, this program of research demonstrates considerable overlap between Hare’s model of psychopathy and the HEXACO model of personality. Honesty-Humility and altruism seem to underlie all of the psychopathy scales, whereas aspects of the other HEXACO domains tend to differentiate the psychopathy scales from one another. Further, several sex differences in how psychopathic traits relate to basic personality were identified.