Interrater Reliability of Psychopathy Checklist-Revised: Results on Multiple Analysis Levels for a Sample of Patients Undergoing Forensic Psychiatric Evaluation
2018 (English)In: Criminal justice and behavior, ISSN 0093-8548, E-ISSN 1552-3594, Vol. 45, no 2, p. 234-263Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Scores from the Psychopathy ChecklistâRevised (PCL-R) are used to support decisions regarding personal liberty. In our study, performed in an applied forensic psychiatric setting, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for absolute agreement, single rater (ICCA1) were .89 for the total score, .82 for Factor 1, .88 for Factor 2, and .78 to .86 for the four facets. These results stand in contrast to lower reliabilities found in a majority of field studies. Disagreement among raters made a low contribution (0%-5%) to variability of scores on the total score, factor, and facet level. For individual items, ICCA1 varied from .38 to .94, with >.80 for seven of the 20 items. Items 17 (âMany short-term marital relationshipsâ) and 19 (âRevocation of conditional releaseâ) showed very low reliabilities (.38 and .43, respectively). The importance of knowledge about factors that can affect scoring of forensic instruments (e.g., education, training, experience, motivation, ratersâ personality, and quality of file data) is emphasized.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. Vol. 45, no 2, p. 234-263
Keywords [en]
PCL-R, interrater reliability, separate interview data, generalizability theory, Swedish forensic psychiatric patients
National Category
Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology)
Research subject
SOCIAL SCIENCE, Psychology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-11999DOI: 10.1177/0093854817747647ISI: 000419691200005Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85040353412OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-11999DiVA, id: diva2:1173934
Funder
The Karolinska Institutet's Research FoundationStiftelsen Söderström - Königska sjukhemmet
Note
Article first published online: January 9, 2018
Funders: The Swedish Carnegie Institute; The Swedish Foundation for Care Sciences and Allergy Research; The Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine (Rättsmedicinalverket)
2018-01-152018-01-152019-05-28Bibliographically approved