A taxometric analysis of psychopathy in a Chinese prison sample.

As psychopathy is one of the major personality disorders-relating to severe pathological syndromes of personality-clarity concerning the nature of the latent structure of psychopathy is necessary for accurate assessment. In the present study, psychopathy was assessed in 339 Chinese male prisoners aged 18 to 35 years with three subscales of the Youth Psychopathy Trait Inventory - Short Version (YPI-SV). Three different taxometric analyses were used to assess the taxonicity of psychopathy, and a three-factor solution to the YPI-SV was used as the basis of the analysis. Consistency tests of the three different procedures showed strongly that the latent structure was dimensional rather than categorical. Moreover, the mean comparison curve fit index was close to .40, which also clearly indicates a dimensional result. These results confirm the fact that the factor solution applies in most studies of psychopathy.