717
Journal of Personality Disorders, 26(5), 717–726, 2012
© 2012 The Guilford Press
VIEWING PSYCHOPATHY FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF THE PERSONALITY
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY FIVE MODEL:
IMPLICATIONS FOR DSM-5
Dustin B. Wygant, PhD, and Martin Sellbom, PhD
The current study examined the association between domains from the
Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5; Harkness & McNulty, 1994)
model, which is a dimensional model of pathological personality that
corresponds closely to the proposed domains of the DSM-5, and psy-
chopathy as indexed by the Psychopathy Checklist-Screening Version
(PCL-SV; Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995). The sample comprised 99 individu-
als undergoing forensic psychological evaluations. The PSY-5 domain
of Aggressiveness was strongly associated with the PCL-SV global mea-
sure of psychopathy, as well as both PCL-SV parts and the four facets.
The PSY-5 domain Disconstraint was preferentially associated with the
behavioral facets of psychopathy, whereas low Negative Emotionality
was related to the affective characteristics of the construct. These find-
ings have implications for the Antisocial/Psychopathic prototype pro-
posed for the DSM-5.
The psychopathic personality is one that is characterized by deficiencies
in affective processing (e.g., impaired fear-processing, callousness, shal-
low affect), interpersonal characteristics (e.g., grandiosity, deceitfulness),
and behavioral dysfunction (e.g., impulsivity, stimulation seeking; see
e.g., Hare & Neumann, 2008; Patrick, Fowles, & Krueger, 2009). This per-
sonality disorder is particularly important to consider in the criminal jus-
tice system given that it has been found to be a robust predictor of crimi-
nal behavior, recidivism, violent behavior, and sexual aggression (Hare &
Neumann, 2008). Indeed, psychopathic individuals involved in the crimi-
nal justice system have been found to commit more offenses (Kosson,
Smith, & Newman, 1990; Wong, 1985), engage in a greater variety of crim-
This article was accepted under the editorship of Paul S. Links.
From Eastern Kentucky University (D. B. W.); and The University of Alabama (M. S.).
This project was supported in part by a Junior Faculty Summer Research Award from the
Eastern Kentucky University College of Arts and Sciences.
Address correspondence to Dustin B. Wygant, PhD, Department of Psychology, Eastern Ken-
tucky University, 521 Lancaster Ave., Richmond, KY 40475; E-mail: dustin.wygant@eku.edu.