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Evaluating the Screening Version of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL: SV): An Item Response Theory Analysis

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David john Cooke at University of Bergen
David john Cooke
Christine Michie
Christine Michie
Christine Michie
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Stephen David Hart at Simon Fraser University
Stephen David Hart
Robert Hare at University of British Columbia
Robert Hare
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Abstract

The Screening Version of the Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL:SV; S. D. Hart, D. N. Cox, & R. D. Hare, 1995) was developed to complement the Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare. 1991), and for use outside forensic settings. The PCL:SV takes less time to administer and requires less collateral information than the PCL-R. An item response theory approach was adopted to determine similarities in the structural properties of the 2 instruments and whether the PCL:SV could be regarded as a short form of the PCL-R. Eight of the 12 items in the PCL:SV were strongly parallel to their equivalent PCL-R items. Of the 4 items PCL:SV items which differed from their equivalent PCL-R items, all 4 were found to be equal or superior to their equivalent PCL-R item in terms of discrimination. The analyses confirmed previous results that the interpersonal and affective features of psychopathy have higher thresholds than do the impulsive and antisocial behavioral features; individuals have to be at a higher level of the psychopathic trait before the interpersonal and affective features become evident. The PCL:SV is an effective short form of the PCL-R. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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... Validity and reliability. Cooke et al. (1999) [16] evaluated the screening version of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL: SV) utilising item response theory (IRT) analysis to conclude its effectiveness as a screening tool for psychopathy. IRT is a statistical technique utilised to examine the relationship between responses and underlying latent traits. ...
... Validity and reliability. Cooke et al. (1999) [16] evaluated the screening version of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL: SV) utilising item response theory (IRT) analysis to conclude its effectiveness as a screening tool for psychopathy. IRT is a statistical technique utilised to examine the relationship between responses and underlying latent traits. ...
... IRT is a statistical technique utilised to examine the relationship between responses and underlying latent traits. Furthermore, by sampling 3628 male offenders from different correctional institutes, Cooke et al. (1999)'s research contributes effectively to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence supporting the psychometric properties of the PCL: SV. Furthermore, results indicate good reliability and validity by determining the items to be effective in discriminating between individuals with high and low levels of psychopathy. ...
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... Participants were 70 (predominantly New Zealand Maori) men, with a median age of 31 years. The majority of the participants scored above the cut-off for psychopathy, as assessed by the psychopathy checklist-screening version (PCL-SV) (Cooke et al., 1999), with a mean score of 19.5. TA was measured using the Working Alliance Inventory-Short Form (WAI-S) (Tracey & Kokotovic, 1989) at four time points during the course of the treatment programme: at 2, 10, 19 and 26 weeks from the start of the programme. ...
... Observer ratings of TA at F I G U R E 1 PRISMA flowchart. Abbreviations: CBT, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy; PCL-SV, Psychopathy Checklist-Screening Version (Cooke et al., 1999); TA, Therapeutic Alliance; VRS, Violence Risk Scale (Wong & Gordon, 2009); WAI-S, Working Alliance Inventory-Short form (Tracey & Kokotovic, 1989). ...
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... The PCL:SV (Hart et al., 1995) is a 12-item clinician-rated semi-structured interview designed for rating an individual's level of psychopathic traits. It is an effective shortened version of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Cooke et al., 1999;Hare, 1991), a commonly used clinical assessment tool for psychopathy. The PCL:SV was selected rather than the PCL-R primarily because the researchers were not granted access to collateral information by the facility; furthermore, collateral information may have been limited due to the county jail setting rather than prison. ...
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