The Triarchic Psychopathy Model is Embedded Within the Five Factor Model: No Need for Reconfiguration

The triarchic model of psychopathy conceptualizes psychopathy as underlain by three distinct trait domains: Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition. In addition to the original Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM), several alternative measures of the TriPM have been developed from existing personality inventories, including the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised, which assesses five-factor model traits. Although proponents of the TriPM have suggested that the FFM domains require reconfiguration to capture the content of the triarchic domains, others have argued that the Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition are well-captured by traditional FFM domains. The goal of this paper is to examine the convergence between the triarchic and FFM domains, and to evaluate the extent to which reconfiguring the domains provides additional incremental variance in psychopathy-related outcomes. In the present study, 431 participants completed several measures via Amazon Mechanical Turk, including the TriPM, its alternative scales, measures of the FFM, and criterion scales related to psychopathy. Consistent with previous research, findings indicate strong convergence between Meanness and low Agreeableness, Disinhibition and low Conscientiousness, and Boldness and a composite score of low Neuroticism and high Extraversion. Reconfigured domains did not appear to add significant incremental variance to psychopathy-related outcomes when compared to the traditional FFM domains.