Performance-verbal discrepancies and facets of psychopathy: assessing the relationship between WAIS–R/III summary IQs/index scores and PCL–R facet scores
| Published date | 06 August 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCP-12-2017-0045 |
| Date | 06 August 2018 |
| Pages | 234-246 |
| Author | Glenn D. Walters,Scott A. Duncan |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Criminal psychology,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Deviant behaviour,Public policy & environmental management,Policing,Criminal justice |
Performance-verbal discrepancies and
facets of psychopathy: assessing the
relationship between WAIS–R/III summary
IQs/index scores and PCL–R facet scores
Glenn D. Walters and Scott A. Duncan
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between differences in performance and
verbal intelligence quotients (PIQ and VIQ) and the four facet scores from the Psychopathy Checklist–Revised
(PCL–R) (Hare, 2003).
Design/methodology/approach –Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and PCL–R facet scores
provided by 181 male federal inmates as part of a forensic evaluation were analyzed with multiple regression,
paired t-tests, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.
Findings –Of the four PCL–R facet scores, only elevations on Facet 4 (antisocial) produced a significant
WAIS-Revised (Wechsler, 1981) PIQ over VIQ (PIQWVIQ) effect. In addition, only Facet 4 achieved significant
ROC accuracy and correlated with the PIQWVIQ discrepancy after other potentially important variables were
controlled. In a follow-up study of 46 male inmates, Facet 4 correlated negatively with the Verbal
Comprehension and Working Memory indices of the WAIS–Third Edition (Wechsler, 1997) and accurately
classified a significant portion of Perceptual Organization Index (POI)WWMI cases but not a significant
portion of POIWVCI cases.
Practical implications –Verbal comprehension and executive function deficits are examined as possible
explanations for the relationships observed in this study.
Originality/value –These results have potentially important implications for forensic assessment in that they
suggest that only certain specific features of the psychopathy construct are related to the well-known
PIQWVIQ discrepancy.
Keywords Intelligence, Psychopathy, Forensic assessment, PCL–R, VIQ vs PIQ, WAIS–R/III
Paper type Research paper
The notion that criminality, antisociality, and psychopathy are characterized by higher performance
than verbal intelligence quotients (performance IQWverbal IQ (PIQ WVIQ)) on the Wechsler (1949)
Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and Wechsler (1955) Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is as old
as the Wechsler scales themselves. Within five years of publishing the Wechsler-Bellevue I, Wechsler
(1944) took note of a PIQWVIQ discrepancy in delinquents and 14 years later, he was asserting that
“the most outstanding single feature of the sociopath’s test profile is his systematic high score on the
Performance as compared to the Verbal part of the Scale”(Wechsler, 1958, p. 176). The WISC
and WAIS have both yielded PIQWVIQ discrepancies in delinquents and adult criminals, although
the effect may be stronger with the WISC than with the WAIS (Grace and Sweeney, 1986), in whites
than in blacks (DeWolfe and Ryan, 1984), in violent offenders than in nonviolent offenders
(Walsh et al., 1987), in those who commit sex crime than in those who do not commit sex crimes
(Nijman et al., 2009), in higher than in lower risk individuals (Allen et al., 2013), and in recidivists than
in non-recidivists (Lueger and Cadman, 1982; Vermeiren et al., 2002). Cornell and Wilson (1992),
however, determined that the PIQWVIQ discrepancy was as potent a correlate of delinquency in
blacks as it was in whites, in nonviolent offenders as it was in violent offenders, and with the WAIS
as with the WISC.
Received 29 December 2017
Revised 14 March 2018
Accepted 9 April 2018
Glenn D. Walters is based at
the Kutztown University of
Pennsylvania College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences, Kutztown,
Pennsylvania, USA.
Scott A. Duncan is Private
Practitioner based in Suwanne,
Georgia, USA.
PAGE234
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JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY
j
VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018, pp. 234-246, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2009-3829 DOI 10.1108/JCP-12-2017-0045
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