Situating Psychopathy Within the DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) Among Italian Community-Dwelling Adults

Abstract

Given growing evidence for a joint hierarchical framework of clinical and personality symptomatology, situating triarchic traits within this model would acknowledge transdiagnostic trait-related variance and provide a basis for linking the DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) domains to established indicators of these neurobehavioral traits. The current study (N = 2,041 Italian adults) sought to replicate and extend recent evidence regarding the locations of triarchic traits within the AMPD and to examine relations with criterion measures at different levels of the hierarchy. “Bass-ackwards” analyses revealed a hierarchical structure of personality pathology in which triarchic traits aligned with broad dispositional domains of the AMPD. Boldness, meanness, and disinhibition were clearly situated within the Externalizing branch of the hierarchy and helped to differentiate the Negative Affect, Antagonism, Detachment, and Disinhibition domains at lower levels. The current findings support the view of psychopathy as multidimensional and encompassing developmentally meaningful and neurobehaviorally relevant traits.