The adaptive side of psychopathy: Investigating adaptive characteristics associated with the psychopathic personality

Psychopathy is commonly defined as a disorder characterized by a lack of empathy, impulsivity, and callousness. While generally regarded as maladaptive, past findings support an association between specific adaptive traits, such as fearlessness, and psychopathy. The present dissertation focused on two goals: examining which adaptive traits are associated with psychopathy and developing an instrument to measure those adaptive traits. Our findings suggest that a large array of adaptive traits is associated with the concept of psychopathy. Furthermore, the numerous studies relating to the development and subsequent validation of the Durand Adaptive Psychopathic Traits Questionnaire support its efficacy and incremental validity over existing instruments assessing adaptive psychopathic traits.