Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

Validity

The content validity of the PICTS is supported by the

fact that inmates familiar with the lifestyle concept

participated in the measure’s development and

furnished the content for several PICTS items.

Furthermore, the eight thinking styles believed to sup-

port a criminal lifestyle are assessed on the PICTS.

In early studies evaluating the predictive validity of

the PICTS, it was determined that several of the PICTS

thinking-style scales, Cutoff and Entitlement in partic-

ular, predicted future disciplinary problems in prison

and subsequent arrests in the community. More recent

research has shown that higher-level PICTS scales—

such as the P and R, and GCT—are incrementally

valid predictors of future disciplinary problems and

recidivism when age, prior arrests, and popular non-

self-report rating scales such as the Psychopathy

Checklist: Screening Version are controlled.

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have

been used to support the construct validity of the

PICTS as a factorially complex and hierarchically

organized construct with both general (GCT) and spe-

cific (eight thinking-style scales) features. Further-

more, the pattern of convergent and discriminant

correlations between the PICTS thinking-style scales

and various measures of personality indicate that the

PICTS correlates better with similar constructs (anti-

social personality) than with dissimilar constructs

(depression, anxiety, schizophrenia).

Future Research

One direction for future research is testing the cross-

national validity of the PICTS. Promising results have

been reported in studies from Canada, the United

Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia. Although the PICTS

has been translated into a number of different languages

and dialects, there have been no studies to date examin-

ing its utility in non-English-speaking populations.

A second direction for future PICTS research is

using it to measure change in offenders enrolled in

psychological programming. Although studies indi-

cate that several PICTS scales appear to change over

the course of intervention, longitudinal studies are

required to ascertain whether a change on the PICTS

reflects a meaningful change in thinking and behavior

and whether or not this has a direct bearing on future

recidivism.

Recent studies have shown that the latent structure

of criminal thinking, like the latent structure of

psychopathy and antisocial personality, is dimensional

rather than categorical in nature. What needs to be deter-

mined is whether the dimensionality observed on the

PICTS is the same or different from the dimensional

structure of psychopathy and antisocial personality.

Glenn D. Walters

See alsoForensic Assessment; Psychopathy Checklist:

Screening Version

Further Readings

Blud, L., Travers, R., Nugent, F., & Thornton, D. (2003).

Accreditation of offending behaviour programmes in HM

Prison Service: “What Works” in practice. Legal and

Criminological Psychology, 8,69–81.

Palmer, E., & Hollin, C. (2003). Using the Psychological

Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles with English

prisoners. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 8,

175–187.

Walters, G. D. (1995). The Psychological Inventory of Criminal

Thinking Styles: Part I. Reliability and preliminary validity.

Criminal Justice and Behavior, 22,307–325.

Walters, G. D. (2002). The Psychological Inventory of

Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS): A review and meta-

analysis. Assessment, 9,283–296.

Walters, G. D., & Mandell, W. (2007). Assessing the

incremental validity of the Psychological Inventory of

Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and Psychopathy

Checklist: Screening Version (PCL: SV) with disciplinary

report count data. Law and Human Behavior, 31,

141–157.

PSYCHOPATHICPERSONALITY

INVENTORY(PPI)

The PPI is a widely used self-report measure designed to

detect the principal personality traits of psychopathy.

Revised in 2005 as the Psychopathic Personality

Inventory–Revised (PPI–R), it consists of 154 items

arrayed in a 4-point Likert-type format. The PPI–R, like

the original PPI, yields a Total score reflecting global

psychopathy as well as eight-factor analytically derived

content scales reflecting specific facets of psychopathy:

Machiavellian Egocentricity, Rebellious Nonconformity

(formerly Impulsive Noncomformity), Blame External-

ization (formerly Alienation), Carefree Nonplan-

fulness, Social Influence (formerly Social Potency),

640 ———Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI)

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