Entendendo a psicopatia: contribuição dos traços de personalidade e valores humanos

Abstract

This dissertation aimed at determining the extent to which personality traits, mediated by human values, predict psychopaths phenotypes. In this sense, three empirical studies were carried out. Study 1 aimed to adapt to the Brazilian context the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM). Participants were 498 undergraduate students of public and private universities from João Pessoa (Brazil), with a mean age of 22 years (SD = 7.79), they responded to TriPM and demographic questions. Initially, we verified the discriminative power of items, item 35 was eliminated for not differentiate participants with close scores. Subsequently, a Principal Component Analysis was performed by fixing varimax rotation and extraction of three factors, it was possible to identify a solution with acceptable reliability indicators and each dimension being formed by nine items: Disinhibition (α = .73), Boldness (α = .73) and Meanness (α = .81), together explaining 25.6% of the total variance. Study 2 aimed to test the adapted version. Participants were 230 people from the general population, with mean age 26.9 years (SD = 8.87), who responded the TriPM version with 27 items and demographic questions. Alternative models were tested, but the three factors was more acceptable (e.g., GFI = .81; RMSEA = .05). With preliminary evidences attesting to the adequacy of TriPM proceeded to the Study 3, aiming to verify the mediating role of human values in the relationship between personality traits and psychopathy. Participants were 228 undergraduate students of public and private universities from João Pessoa (Brazil), with a mean age of 25.1 years (SD = 7.51) who answered TriPM, Big Five Inventory, the Basic Values Questionnaire and demographic questions. The results indicated that personality traits and values were good predictors of psychopathic phenotypes, moreover, confirmed the mediating role of values in the relationship between personality and psychopathy. It is estimated that the objectives were achieved, with the adaptation of a self-report measure for the estimation of psychopathic traits in general population, with preliminary evidence for its factorial validity and internal consistency, and increasing the understanding that has been around psychopathy from the relationships it establishes with other constructs.