Skip to main content

Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
  • 830 Accesses

Synonyms

Personality assessment; Psychopathy; Self-report

Introduction

The Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP; Levenson et al. 1995) is a 26-item, self-report measure of psychopathy that was modeled after the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL; Hare 1991), which has a two-factor structure in which factor 1 has traditionally been said to assess the interpersonal and affective components of psychopathy (e.g., manipulativeness, deceitfulness, callousness), whereas factor 2 has been said to assess traits and behaviors related to impulsivity and antisociality. The two factors tend to be strongly related (rs between 0.50 and 0.60), however, due to the assessment of antagonistic traits and behaviors found in both. The LSRP was also influenced by Karpman’s (e.g., 1941) conceptualization of psychopathy, in which he distinguished between primary and secondary psychopathy. Levenson and colleagues tied “factor 1” traits to primary psychopathy and “factor 2” to secondary psychopathy.

Theoretical...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Brinkley, C., Schmitt, W., Smith, S., & Newman, J. (2001). Construct validation of a self-report psychopathy scale: Does Levenson’s self-report psychopathy scale measure the same constructs as Hare’s psychopathy checklist-revised? Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 1021–1038.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brinkley, C. A., Diamond, P. M., Magaletta, P. R., & Heigel, C. P. (2008). Cross-validation of Levenson’s psychopathy scale in a sample of federal female inmates. Assessment, 15, 464–482.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Christian, E., & Sellbom, M. (2016). Development and validation of an expanded version of the three-factor Levenson self-report psychopathy scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 98, 155–168.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Derefinko, K. J., & Lynam, D. R. (2006). Convergence and divergence among self-report psychopathy measures: A personality-based approach. Journal of Personality Disorders, 20, 261–280.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gaughan, E. T., Miller, J. D., Pryor, L. R., & Lynam, D. R. (2009). Comparing two alternative measures of general personality in the assessment of psychopathy: A test of the NEO PI-R and the MPQ. Journal of Personality, 77, 965–996.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hare, R. D. (1991). The psychopathy checklist. Toronto: Multi-health Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, R. D. (2003). The psychopathy checklist-revised. Toronto: Multi-health Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karpman, B. (1941). On the need of separating psychopathy into two distinct clinical types: The symptomatic and the idiopathic. Journal of Criminology and Psychopathology, 3, 112–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levenson, M. R., Kiehl, K. A., & Fitzpatrick, C. M. (1995). Assessing psychopathic attributes in a noninstitutionalized population. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 151–158.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld, S. O., & Andrews, B. P. (1996). Development and preliminary validation of a self-report measure of psychopathic personality traits in noncriminal population. Journal of Personality Assessment, 66, 488–524.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld, S. O., & Fowler, K. A. (2006). The self-report assessment of psychopathy: Problems, pitfalls, and promises. In C. J. Patrick (Ed.), Handbook of psychopathy (pp. 107–132). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld, S. O., & Widows, M. R. (2005). PPI-R: Psychopathic personality inventory revised: Professional Manual. Psychological Assessment Resources, Incorporated.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynam, D. R., & Miller, J. D. (2015). Psychopathy from a basic trait perspective: The utility of a five-factor model approach. Journal of Personality, 83, 611–626.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lynam, D. R., Whiteside, S., & Jones, S. (1999). Self-reported psychopathy: A validation study. Journal of Personality Assessment, 73, 110–132.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lynam, D. R., Miller, J. D., & Derefinko, K. J. (in press). Psychopathy and personality: An articulation of the benefits of a trait-based approach. In C. J. Patrick (Ed.), Handbook of psychopathy (2nd Ed.).

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2012). An examination of the psychopathic personality inventory’s nomological network: A meta-analytic review. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 3, 305–326.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. D., Lynam, D., Widiger, T., & Leukefeld, C. (2001). Personality disorders as an extreme variant of common personality dimensions: Can the five factor model represent psychopathy. Journal of Personality, 69, 253–276.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. D., Gaughan, E. T., & Pryor, L. R. (2008). The Levenson self-report psychopathy scale: An examination of the personality traits and disorders associated with the LSRP factors. Assessment, 15, 450–463.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. D., Dir, A., Gentile, B., Wilson, L., Pryor, L. R., & Campbell, W. K. (2010). Searching for a vulnerable dark triad: Comparing factor 2 psychopathy, vulnerable narcissism, and borderline personality disorder. Journal of Personality, 78, 1529–1564.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J., Zeichner, A., & Wilson, L. (2012). Personality correlates of aggression: Evidence from measures of the five-factor model, UPPS model of impulsivity, and BIS/BAS. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 27, 2903–2919.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. D., Lamkin, J., Maples-Keller, J. L., & Lynam, D. R. (2016). Viewing the Triarchic model of psychopathy through general personality and expert-based lenses. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 7, 247–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Boyle, E. H., Forsyth, D. R., Banks, G. C., Story, P. A., & White, C. D. (2015). A meta-analytic test of redundancy and relative importance of the dark triad and five-factor model of personality. Journal of Personality, 83, 644–664.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, C. J. (2010). Triarchic psychopathy measure (TriPM). PhenX toolkit online assessment catalog. Retrieved from https://www.phenxtoolkit.org/index.php?pageLink=browse.protocoldetails&id=121601.

  • Poythress, N. G., Lilienfeld, S. O., Skeem, J. L., Douglas, K. S., Edens, J. F., Epstein, M., & Patrick, C. J. (2010). Using the PCL-R to help estimate the validity of two self-report measures of psychopathy with offenders. Assessment, 17, 206–219.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, S. R., Lutz, C. J., & Bailley, S. E. (2004). Psychopathy and the five factor model in a noninstitutionalized sample: A domain and facet level analysis. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26, 213–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salekin, R. T., Chen, D. R., Sellbom, M., Lester, W. S., & MacDougall, E. (2014). Examining the factor structure and convergent and discriminant validity of the Levenson self-report psychopathy scale: Is the two-factor model the best fitting model? Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 5, 289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seibert, L. A., Miller, J. D., Few, L. R., Zeichner, A., & Lynam, D. R. (2011). An examination of the structure of self-report psychopathy measures and their relations with general traits and externalizing behaviors. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 2, 193–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sellbom, M. (2011). Elaborating on the construct validity of the Levenson self-report psychopathy scale in incarcerated and non-incarcerated samples. Law and Human Behavior, 35, 440–451.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Skeem, J. L., Miller, J. D., Mulvey, E., Tiemann, J., & Monahan, J. (2005). Using a five factor lens to explore the relation between personality traits and violence in psychiatric patients. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 454–465.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joshua D. Miller .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Weiss, B., Sleep, C., Miller, J.D. (2016). Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1242-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1242-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics