Dissertation
Using a Bifactor Model to Evaluate the Association between Meanness and Sadism
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000002404
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/120815
Abstract
The association between psychopathy and sadism is well-established. Specifically, psychopathic meanness and sadism appear to share several core features. Using confirmatory factor analysis, a Bifactor-(S – 1) model was tested to illustrate the overlap between psychopathic meanness and sadism. Using data collected independently from an Amazon MTurk sample (n = 333) and an undergraduate sample (n = 473), the Bifactor-(S – 1) model was tested against a single-factor model and a two-factor model. The Bifactor-(S – 1) model demonstrated superior fit to the other two models. This final model includes a general reference factor characterized by psychopathic meanness and a specific factor characterized by sadistic tendencies. Follow-up analyses implied that the specific factor contains a small amount of true score variance relative to the general reference factor. Yet, because the specific factor shared unique associations with external criterion measures, the true score variance contained within this factor is conceptualized to capture the unique sadistic tendency to derive pleasure from the suffering of others. Therefore, measures of sadism provide additional and meaningful information not assessed by measures of psychopathic meanness.
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Details
- Title
- Using a Bifactor Model to Evaluate the Association between Meanness and Sadism
- Creators
- Ashley Anderson
- Contributors
- David Marcus (Advisor)Christopher Barry (Committee Member)Walter Scott (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Psychology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 62
- Identifiers
- 99900606653801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation