Methodology Chapter 3.
3.7 Factor Structure of the PPI-R
The PPI-R is an adaption of the PPI; a 187 item assessment intended to measures traits associated with psychopathy. The PPI was adapted to make it more accessible to a wider audience. The language, at times was too culturally specific to a North American culture and the reading level required reducing to a younger mental age of 8 to make it more accessible to clinical/forensic sample, as well as community samples. The PPI-R is intended as a measure of personality traits associated with psychopathy, the emphasis is far less on the antisocial behaviours associated with the disorder. Again, this is to make it more appropriate for use with a variety of samples including, but not limited to offender/clinical samples, as the PCL-R does.
Preliminary factor analysis conducted suggested a two factor structure, PPI-I that has been called Fearless Dominance and PPI-II, Impulsive Antisociality (Benning et al. 2003). According to Patrick et al. (2006) these factors are statistically independent of each other and reflective of the psychopathy construct with PPI-I measuring affective and interpersonal elements of psychopathy and PPI-II measuring the antisocial behaviour and impulsivity along with “aggressive personality traits.” (p. 2). More specifically, Fearless Dominance consists of the following PPI-R scales: Social Potency, Stress Immunity and Fearlessness scales, and Impulsive Antisociality is measured by the Machiavellian Egocentricity, Impulsive Nonconformity, Blame Externalisation and Carefree Non Planfulness scales. The Cold-heartedness Scale does not load well on to
Page | 3-72 either factor, and is therefore independent from both. The PPI-R is said to measure psychopathic traits across three factors: Self-Centred Impulsivity (Machiavellian Egocentrism, Rebellious Non-Conformity, Blame Externalisation, Carefree Non- planfulness), Fearless Dominance (Social Influence, Fearlessness and Stress Immunity), and Cold-heartedness, which currently does not load onto other factors identified but would typically be associated with Factor 1 of psychopathy. Additionally, these factors are said to correlate well with the two-factor structure of psychopathic traits most often identified in the literature, with Fearless Dominance and, which does not load onto either factor, but I soften associated with Cold-heartedness identified with Factor 1 or primary psychopathy and Self-centred Impulsivity identified with Factor 2 or secondary psychopathy (Llilienfeld and Widows 2005).The two factor structure of the PPI and subsequent PPI-R are consistent with the two factor model of psychopathy proposed (see chapter), with PCL-R Factor 1 sharing some features with PPI-I and PCL-R 2 Factor 2 fairly consistent with PPI-II.
3.7.1 Disgust Sensitivity Scale-Revised (Studies II-IV)
Disgust Scale –Revised (Haidt, McCauley and Rozin, 2007) 25 item self-report assessment of three cross-culturally identified dimensions of disgust including core disgust, animal reminder disgust and contamination. It is intended to measure individual’s reports of disgust sensitivity across these domains.
3.7.2 Sexual Activity Checklist (Studies III and IV)
Sexual Activity Checklist Nordling (2007) Consists of a selection of sexual activities that Nordling developed with the BDSM community in mind to evaluate the activities the community members might engage in. Participants will indicate which activities they engage in and an overall score will be calculated based on the number of items participants participate in. This is an admittedly crude method of measuring BDSM,
Page | 3-73 however, there is no formal assessment of BDSM activity and Nordling has reported success in using this tool to measure differences in various groups so it will be included in this study. Activities range from the fairly typical, such as oral sex, through to atypical activities such as the use of weights, mummification on, gags, and scat.
3.7.3 Special scoring protocols for the PPI-R and Sexual Activities Checklist 3.7.3.1 PPI-R Scoring
The PPI-R is a psychometric tool requiring a good understanding of the factorial nature of psychopathy to be successfully utilised. Participants receives scores for each subscale of psychopathic traits measured including raw scores for each domain under evaluation as well as scoring for Virtuous, Devious and Inconsistent responding. Lilienfeld and Widows (2005) suggest that the exclusion criteria for potential participants consist of evaluation and removal of data that has a high rate of inconsistent responding. Those that score high on the Deviant and Virtuous responding scales should not be removed however because deviations in this scores are not necessarily indicative of intentional lying but may also be the consequence of negative or positive impression management. This is something that must be considered when evaluating research findings but should not dissuade researchers from utilising these tools. Included with the manual is a set of normative data for a various samples arranged by sex, age group, and whether or not the group was part of a community or forensic sample. While it would not be appropriate to outline instructions for how to score the PPI-R as it is a copy written test that requires purchase (see the manual for precise details) it is necessary to explain why participants scores have been divided into through groups of Low (>45-59), Moderate (60-69) and High (70+) for statistically analyses. Lilienfeld and Widows (2005) have indicated that the statistically mean score of the PPI-R is 50 and while there is no cut off to indicate that
Page | 3-74 indicates psychopathy a score of 70 or greater is considered clinically significant. Therefore, scores up to and including 59 which are within one standard deviation of the mean are listed as ‘Low’, scores from 60-69, which are above one standard deviation of the mean are listed as ‘Moderate’ and scores two standard deviations above the mean are listed as ‘High’. This division of scores, while admittedly crude, enables an examination of the diversity within the construct of psychopathy to be explored with greater precision than if those that scored above 70 were listed as ‘High’ with anything below 69 listed as ‘Low’.
In addition, the PPI-R factors, Fearless Dominance (PPI-R 1) and Impulsive Antisociality (PPI-R 2) were explored independently as (Benning et al. 2005) suggests that global scores may not provide adequate information regarding the two-factors and how they correspond to specific traits and correlates associated with psychopathy, because these factors do not correlate strongly with each other. For example, low anxiousness is a key feature associated with those who score higher on Fearless Dominance (PPI-R1) compared with those who tend to report higher levels of neuroticism and anxiety which is positively correlated with Impulsive Antisociality (PPI-R2) (Patrick et al. 2006).
3.7.3.2 Scoring for the Sexual Activity Checklist
The Sexual Activity Checklist has been developed by Nordling (2003/2006) as a measure of the diverse BDSM sexual practices that individuals may participate in. Currently there are no formal tools that measure the extent of someone’s BDSM activity and because BDSM practitioners are so diverse an all-purpose tool such as this, which has been used in previous research, has been co-opted for the purposes of measuring the extent of the BDSM activities engages in. There is no value judgment implied or suggested by certain activities, rather, the number of activities an individual engages in is simply added up to provide a score of sorts. The more activities engaged
Page | 4-75 in, the higher the score. Scores run from 0- 41 as there are a total of 41 items on the checklist.
For the purpose of examining the extent of BDSM fantasy endorsement, the Sexual Activity Checklist was adapted to include a range or responses on a Likert scale that included Never (0), Seldom (.15), Occasionally (.25), Sometimes (.50), Often (.75), Regularly (1) . Scores may range from 0-41. This is admittedly a crude measure of BDSM fantasy, however, the Sexual Activities Checklist has been used in research to demonstrate differences within the community effectively and has been devised by experts within the field of BDSM, measuring the presence or absence of practices common to BDSM therefore it would be most beneficial to use with regards to BDSM fantasy, as well.