Graduation Year

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor in Psychology (Psy. D.)

Abstract

The term “psychopath” is a word used often, particularly on tv shows, courtroom dramas like Law and Order, and even in everyday language to describe the people we know who may be deviant, cold, and lacking remorse. Although these descriptors may be accurate, they don’t adequately encapsulate the construct of psychopathy entirely. The picture of individuals with actual psychopathy is much more complex, and our field’s history of attempts to parse out psychopathic traits is equally as convoluted, which has led to differences in conceptualization and measurement. Despite the attention paid to the psychopathy construct, a full conceptualization of psychopathy is not exclusively listed in the most updated edition of our diagnostic manual, the DSM-5-TR, and is instead placed in Section III under the Alternative Model of Personality Disorder category. Based on Patrick et al. (2009), the current research aims to improve the ability to characterize psychopathy by creating scales of triarchic psychopathy by utilizing the CAT-PD, a self-report measure of the DSM-5 personality traits.

Faculty Mentor

Dustin Wygant, PhD

Department Affiliation

Psychology

Committee Member

Michael McClellan, PhD

Department Affiliation

Psychology

Committee Member

Jerry Palmer, PhD

Department Affiliation

Psychology

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