The Levenson Self-report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP) was created in 1995 by Michael R Levenson. It is a measure of psychopathic/sociopathic (interchangeable) traits. Psychopathy/sociopathy are colloquial terms for Anti-social Personality Disorder.
Originally two Subscales, 26 items
-Primary psychopathy (psychopathic emotional affect) – 16 items
-Secondary psychopathy (psychopathic lifestyle) – 10 items
More current research proposes a three-way model (three sub-scales) which can be broken up into egocentricity, callousness and anti-social.
Example items
- Success is based on survival of the fittest; I am not concerned with the losers
- I find that I am able to pursue one goal for a long time
- Looking out for myself is my top priority
- I often admire a really clever scam
Validity checks
- Internal validity – Cronbach’s alpha: .84 (Sellbom, 2009)
- Has been validated with prison and non-prison samples (Sellbom, 2011)
- Good test-retest reliability
- Good convergent reliability with other psychopathy measures (Sellbom, 2011)
Cross-cultural evidence
The LSRP was originally developed for Western individuals, specifically a North American audience. The LSRP has since been translated into Chinese, and used for Chinese populations. Internal convergent and discriminate validity remained high (Shou, Sellbom & Han, 2016)
Advantages
- Free to the public
- Quick to administer
- Valid across culture
Disadvantages
- Not well validated in a clinical setting
Levenson‚ M.; Kiehl‚ K.; Fitzpatrick‚ C. (1995). “Assessing psychopathic attributes in a noninstitutionalized population”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology‚ 68‚ 151-158.
Gaughan J. D. Miller E. T.‚ Pryor L. R. (Dec 2008). “The Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale:An Examination of the Personality Traits and Disorders Associated With the LSRP Factors”. Assessment 15 (4): 450–63.
Walters‚ Glenn; Brinkley‚ Chad; Magaletta‚ Philip; Diamond‚ Pamela (2008). “Taxometric analysis of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy scale”. Journal of Personality Assessment.
Martin Sellbom. “Elaborating on the construct validity of the Levenson self-report psychopathy scale in incarcerated and non-incarcerated samples”.