The Generalizability Across Ethnicities Of Psychopathy Assessment

Introduction

In 2002 a very influential studied concluded individuals of African descent were more psychopathic than those of European decent. However, the authors of this article pointed out several flaws in that study and intend to address the gaps in previous research with their study. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the extent to which different level of psychopathic traits assessed by the PCL-R differ in Black and White adults. If significant differences in level of assessment are due to racial background the results raise several questions and to what caused this discrepancy and the consequences of this difference applied to the legal system.

Methods

The study was conducted by doing a meta-analysis of several other research studies of Blacks and Whites groups’ scores on the PCL-R or its derivatives that are relevant to the present research question. To address for potential confounding variables the researchers coded each identified sample by population (correctional, substance abuse, psychiatric) and gender, and conducted study-specific analyses by age. They chose PCL-R because it is the most widely validated measure of this construct.

Derivative of this such as PCL were used because it captures the affective and interpersonal traits of psychopathy and the DSM diagnoses which provides a set standard that simplifies interpretation. As for eligible populations only studies of Black and White adults were included in these analyses because little data are available on ethnic groups other than Blacks. The primary studies used for the meta-analysis were found by conducting thorough searches on PsychInfo using key terms such as PCL, PCL-R, race and minority.

After they narrowed done the studies they reviewed the PCL measures and contacted the researchers who conducted the study. The identified primary studies’ results on ethnic group differences in Total and Factor scores on the PCL measures were meta-analyzed using user-written commands in STATA and using Cohen’s d as the measure of effect size. Since most of the studies used in this meta-analysis were correlational the full range of PCL scores were highly likely to be well represented.

Results

The researchers focused on 21 studies of independent correctional, substance abuse and psychiatric samples that included the statistical findings necessary to compute effect sizes for group differences. The results of all 21 studies were meta-analyzed to determine if there were ethnic group differences in Total scores and factor scores on PCL measures. Additionally, to control for gender differences three additional studies were entered separately for a total of 24 studies. The results from the meta-analysis showed a generally small effect size that was for some studies marginally statistically significant but for most studies non-significant.

The results they found that were marginally significant showed Blacks received scores there were an average of 0.7 points higher than Whites. However, in terms of measurement for the PCL-R this is less than one-fourth the size of the standard error measurement. To determine if age significantly moderated the effect of ethnic differences in psychopathy the researchers chose two relatively large primary studies from the group of 21 studies and they found age was not a significant factor. Overall the researchers found homogeneous effect size results for a variety of subsamples indicating there is no significant difference between Blacks and White on these levels of psychopathy and antisocial behavior.

Discussion

The principle finding from this study is there is very little evidence to support the theory that Blacks are more psychopathic than Whites. Across the 21 studies the data supports Blacks are no more “emotionally detached” than Whites and on the PCL-R Blacks only exceeded Whites by an average of less than one point. The most salient limitation of the study is the lack of female and non-correctional populations in the studies they analyzed.

It is clear that more studies examining ethnic differences in psychopathy are need and should include these underrepresented groups. From the findings in this study it is implicated that there is little relation between psychopathy and ethnicity. Therefore, based on these findings there is little basis for concern that using PCL-R scores to inform decisions about men in criminal justice settings will disproportionately impact minority groups.