Preliminary Psychometric Analysis of a Self-Report Instrument for Assessing Psychopathic Traits

Brazilian researchers have dealt with limited methodological resources for assessing psychopathic traits of individuals from non-forensic settings. In the present study, we investigate the psychometric properties of a new self-report instrument for assessing psychopathic traits of individuals from the Brazilian general population. Participants were 1238 adults from Brazilian general population (ages from 18 to 76 years; M= 28.36; SD= 10.50; 71.8% females), who answered an online questionnaire. We used exploratory ordinal factor analyses coupled with Item Response Theory (IRT) techniques to retain 60 highly informative items concerning the phenotypic dimensions of Machiavellian Egocentricity, Disinhibition and Fearless Dominance. Latent estimates of these three dimensions correlated with several theoretically relevant variables, including an external psychopathy assessment - the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy scale. Despite the need of further studies, our findings suggest the new tool has adequate psychometric properties.