Correlation Between Psychopathy Traces and Interpersonal Behavior: Assessment on Private Women of Freedom

Abstract

Recent studies focus predominantly on male psychopathy. This study investigated the female population by examining correlations between two instruments: the Psychopathy Checklist – Revised (PCL-R), used exclusively in the justice system for psychiatric diagnosis of psychopathy, and the Interpersonal Measure of Psychopathy (IM-P), an auxiliary tool used to detect interpersonal behaviors associated with psychopathy. The sample counted 30 women who were serving sentences in a closed regime in three prisons in the South of Brazil. The interviews were carried out in the premises of the three prisons, and the instruments were simultaneously and independently applied by two evaluators. The results indicated a statistically significant and positive correlation between PCL-R and IM-P, highlighting the correlation between IM-P with Factor 1 of the PCL-R. These results corroborate with previous studies on the subject, showing that the IM-P acts as an auxiliary tool to diagnose psychopathy, especially regarding the assessment of interpersonal behaviours.

Keywords

• personalidade
• psicopatologia
• diagnóstico
• prisões