Psychopathy and the five factor model: Self and therapist perceptions of psychopathic personality

The utility of psychopaths’ self-reports have consistently been questioned in the literature. Extant literature attempts to assess the degree to which individuals with psychopathic tendencies can and do identify in themselves those traits associated with psychopathy. Typically, self-report measures are more highly correlated with Factor 2 of the PCL-R than Factor 1. This pattern suggests that psychopaths are better able to reliably assess their behavior than their personality or emotional traits. Unexplored is whether psychopaths perceive their personality differently than observers’ when using the same measure. The current study assesses the congruence of offenders’ self-report of personality and the personality ratings provided by their primary therapists using a uniform measure of personality, the NEO-PI-R. Results suggest that offenders’ ability to accurately report on their personality characteristics is hampered by their emotional and affective deficits (psychopathy Facet 2). Implications for FFM-psychopathy research and psychopathy self-reports are discussed.