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Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version

(PCL:SV)

Chapter January 2016

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1101-1

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P
Psychopathy Checklist: Screening
Version (PCL:SV)
Kristopher J. Brazil and Adelle E. Forth
Department of Psychology, Carleton University,
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Synonyms
Hare psychopathy checklist: screening version;
PCL:SV; Psychopathy checklist: screening
version
Definition
An assessment rating scale designed for screening
psychopathic traits and behaviors in criminal
populations and to assess psychopathic traits and
behaviors in noncriminal populations
Introduction
Assessment of psychopathic personality traits
(e.g., callousness, lacking empathy, social devi-
ance) has largely been conducted in criminal
(forensic) populations using the Psychopathy
Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare 1991, 2003).
The PCL-R is a reliable and valid rating scale of
psychopathy, but requires extensive resources and
time to administer and is designed for use with
# Springer International Publishing AG 2016
V. Zeigler-Hill, T.K. Shackelford (eds.), Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1101-1
forensic populations. These realities limited the
scales use to situations where comprehensive
case le information and access to individuals is
readily available, and it hindered research on psy-
chopathy in non-forensic populations (e.g., civil
psychiatric, community, etc.). As a result, Robert
Hare and his colleagues developed a shorter and
more widely applicable version of the PCL-R
called the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Ver-
sion (PCL:SV; Hart et al. 1995). The PCL:SV
closely mirrors the PCL-R by design and is
intended for use with individuals aged 16 and
older in forensic and non-forensic settings. The
scale was designed using the content of the
PCL-R and approximates the administering pro-
cedure, making the PCL:SV a measure of the
construct of psychopathy. This entry will discuss
the content and structure of the PCL:SV, its
administering procedures, and psychometric
properties of the scale and will briey discuss
some areas where it has been used in research.
Content and Structure of the PCL:SV
The content of the PCL:SV includes 12 items that
are conceptually adapted from the PCL-R. Item
response theory analysis has shown that the PCL:
SV items contribute to the total PCL:SV score in a
similar way as in the PCL-R scale suggesting
comparability between the scales (Cooke
et al. 1999). Six of the items assess the core
personality traits of psychopathy (Factor 1 or
2 Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV)
Part 1), and six items assess the socially deviant or
antisocial behaviors of psychopathy (Factor 2 or
Part 2). Because the PCL:SV is designed for use
outside of forensic settings as well, the antisocial
items from the PCL-R that specically tap crimi-
nal behavior were reevaluated to consider antiso-
cial acts that individuals engaged with during
adolescence and in their adult life that did not
necessarily bring them into formal contact with
the criminal justice system.
The PCL:SV is structured to give a total score
and two factor scores. All items are scored on a
three-point scale from 0 to 2. A score of 0 indicates
that the item does not apply to the individual being
assessed or the individual exhibits traits opposite
to the items description. A score of 2 indicates the
item denitely applies to the individual as
evidenced by many life situations and examples
that indicate the item is a persistent and chronic
feature of the individual. A score of 1 indicates
that not enough information is provided to secure
a score of 0 or 2 or that the item only applies to the
individual in some limited circumstances (i.e., is
not a persistent and chronic feature of the person).
Summing the scores for all the items gives the
total score (ranging from 0 to 24), summing
items 1 to 6 gives a Factor 1 score (ranging from
0 to 12), and summing items 7 to 12 gives a Factor
2 score (ranging from 0 to 12).
The total score is a dimensional measure that
indicates the magnitude of psychopathic traits and
behaviors that the individual exhibits. For clinical
and forensic purposes, a cutoff score of !18 is
often recommended when making decisions about
individuals that are most likely psychopathic, and
individuals with scores from 13 to 17 are consid-
ered candidates to be further assessed with the
PCL-R for psychopathic features. Individuals
with scores lower than 12 are considered to
exhibit relatively few psychopathic features and,
if resources and time is limited, can be condently
screened out and not require an immediate PCL-R
follow-up assessment. The factor scores are
dimensional measures of the core personality fea-
tures of psychopathy (Factor 1) and antisocial
behavior patterns of psychopathy (Factor 2). The
two factor scores are provided as a result of pre-
vious studies that have found a two-factor solution
using factor analysis for the PCL-R, with this
factor structure being extended to the PCL:SV as
well (Guy and Douglas 2006). These factors are
conceptually and statistically distinct but are also
positively correlated with each other, showing a
mean weighted coefcient of correlation of 0.53
(range 0.140.73) across 11 samples (Hart
et al. 1995). A three- and four-factor solution for
the PCL:SV has also been validated, providing the
possibility to calculate scores for these factors as
well (Guy and Douglas 2006). The total score and
factor scores can be used for research purposes to
explore and identify different possible correlates
and predictors associated with either the full con-
struct of psychopathy (total score) or each aspect
of psychopathy (factor scores).
Administering the PCL:SV
The PCL:SV can be administered in research or
applied settings. Examples of applied settings
where the PCL:SV has been used include screen-
ing for employment (e.g., police ofcer selection),
to identify potential for institutional misbehavior
(e.g., following institution transfer) and to identify
placement in psychiatric services (Hart
et al. 1995). Different training requirements are
needed depending on whether the PCL:SV is
being administered for clinical/forensic purposes
or research purposes. For clinical/forensic pur-
poses, the person administering the PCL:SV
requires an advanced degree and to have adequate
training administering the scale or its parent scale
the PCL-R to ensure reliability of the scores
obtained. For research purposes, the person
administering the PCL:SV must at least be under
the supervision of a person who has an advanced
degree and training to use the PCL:SV/PCL-R and
has been trained by that person to use the scale
appropriately. This ensures that the scale is used as
it was intended and that reliable and valid results
can be obtained.
Administering the PCL:SV typically involves
conducting a 3060-min semi-structured inter-
view followed by 2030 min spent corroborating
information gleaned from the interview with col-
lateral le and/or informant information (Hart
Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV)
et al. 1995). The interview replicates the PCL-R
interview structure, which has the intention of
sampling the individuals interpersonal style in
addition to formulating questions to gain informa-
tion about the individual including their educa-
tional and occupational history and goals, family
history, marital status, childhood and adolescent
conduct problems, adult antisocial behavior, and
substance use behaviors. Collateral le/informant
review is also important when scoring items, in
large part because deceit and manipulation may be
strong features of the individual being assessed.
Identifying discrepancies between the informa-
tion from the interview and information from the
collateral le/informant review assists with scor-
ing certain items and ensures accurate and reliable
measures of the individuals PCL:SV score. File/
informant review may differ across individuals
being assessed since the PCL:SV is applicable in
many settings. For community samples, a single
informant may be all that is available or feasible
for research purposes. In forensic and clinical
settings, however, extensive information from
institutional les may be readily available. For
those administering for research purposes, it is
recommended to use as many informants as pos-
sible to corroborate interview information to
arrive at an accurate and reliable score.
Psychometric Properties: Norms
and Reliability
The PCL:SV is normed on 11 samples that com-
prises 586 individuals (Hart et al. 1995). Since the
PCL:SV was designed to be applicable in a broad
variety of settings, these samples include individ-
uals from forensic nonpsychiatric, forensic psy-
chiatric, civil psychiatric, and noncriminal/
nonpsychiatric populations. Comparing the types
of samples on PCL:SV total scores, the forensic
nonpsychiatric and forensic psychiatric samples
have the highest PCL:SV scores followed by civil
psychiatric samples, and lastly, community sam-
ples have the lowest PCL:SV scores. Across all
samples, males tend to score higher on the PCL:
SV than females. The interrater reliability and
internal consistency of the PCL:SV total scores
3
show interrater reliability ranging from 0.84 to
0.92 and internal consistency around alphas of
0.84 across the different samples (see Hart
et al. 1995 for more details).
Research Findings Using the PCL:SV
Validation and Correlated Features
One of the most reliable ndings of the PCL-R is
its ability to predict future misbehavior such as
risk of violent reoffending in criminal populations
(Hare 2003). In one of the largest sample studies
using the PCL:SV, the McArthur Violence Risk
Assessment Study assessed 939 civil psychiatric
men and women with the PCL:SV as a measure of
risk for recidivism (Steadman et al. 2000). PCL:
SV total scores were signicantly related to vio-
lence in the community suggesting that the PCL:
SV may be used to assess risk for recidivism in
civil psychiatric patients. Psychopathy classica-
tion was also the highest-level risk factor for this
sample using a decision tree model of risk assess-
ment. The ability of the PCL:SV to predict risk for
general and violent offenses has also been found
in both intellectually disabled and
non-intellectually disabled offenders (Gray
et al. 2007). Thus, evidence supports the use of
the PCL:SV for predicting risk of recidivism in
broader groups of individuals beyond the forensic
nonpsychiatric population typically assessed with
the PCL-R.
Designed for use with noncriminal/non-
psychiatric populations, the PCL:SV has been
used to shed light on psychopathic traits in com-
munity samples as well. PCL:SV scores were
found to be related to violence, alcohol use, and
negatively with vocabulary intelligence in a com-
munity sample of African American and White
men and women, mirroring ndings in forensic
samples (Neumann and Hare 2008). However,
only a maximum of 2% of the sample received
total PCL: SV scores above 12, suggesting that
even lower scores on the scale can predict mean-
ingful results such as tendency toward violence
and alcohol use. Another study from Great Britain
assessed 638 community men and women with
the PCL:SV and found PCL:SV total scores were
4 Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV)
positively associated with reporting having
engaged with violence in the past 5 years (Coid
and Yang 2011). PCL:SV total scores also signif-
icantly predicted injury of victims and having
three or more victim types (e.g., partner, stranger,
friend).
The PCL:SV has also been used to examine
adult psychopathy scores in a longitudinal exam-
ination of the stability of psychopathic traits from
childhood to adulthood in community youth
(Lynam et al. 2007). PCL:SV scores were signif-
icantly correlated with childhood psychopathy
scores even after controlling for childhood risk
status, family variables, delinquency, and other
variables, demonstrating evidence for the stability
of psychopathic traits from childhood to adult-
hood. This research supports the rationale for
designing the PCL:SV for use with non-forensic
populations and enables important research inves-
tigating psychopathic personality traits in a broad
variety of samples.
Conclusion
The PCL:SV was designed to supplement and
extend the use of the PCL-R by acting as a screen-
ing tool for psychopathic traits and as a valid
measure in non-forensic populations to assess
psychopathic traits and its correlates. It shares a
conceptual and empirical foundation with the
PCL-R and demonstrates reliability and validity
that instills condence in its use as an accurate and
effective scale in assessing psychopathy. The
PCL:SV provides a conceptually equivalent and
empirically strong way to assess psychopathic
traits and behaviors in a variety of populations
beyond criminal populations that can extend
research into understanding psychopathic person-
ality traits in all types of individuals. As a shorter
and less resource-intensive scale, the PCL:SV is a
viable alternative option when assessing psychop-
athy for research and applied purposes.
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Cross-References
Psychopathy
Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R)
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