Social Work and Sexual Violence...Assignment #8

Felicia McCaw
SW 314
Social Work and
Sexual Violence
Assignment #8


Reference:

American Psychological Association
2011, Vol. 23, No. 1, 164-173



How Useful Are Indices of Personality Pathology When Assessing
Domestic Violence Perpetrators?

Compiled and written by:

Peter Gibbons, Marjorie Collins and Corinne Reid

Name of Study

How Useful Are Indices of Personality Pathology When Assessing Domestic Violence Perpetrators?

Literature

The purpose of this study is to address the debate about profiling personality pathology when assessing and treating male perpetrators of domestic violence. In support of this study, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III) is utilized to explore the range and severity and diversity of the male perpetrator personality pathology and possible response bias in a group of domestic violence perpetrator being assessed for the appropriate treatment (N=177). The programs are usually geared toward male participants without referring to differentiating characteristics due to lack of homogeneous qualities. Because of the supposed “sameness” this effectively negates the possibility of running an effective treatment program and results in waste of resources and endangering of co-inmates with whom the perpetrator comes in contact with. Some are diagnosed as premeditated in their violence (anti-social or sadistic personality) whereas others are affectively violent (display characteristics consistent with borderline personality disorder).

Method Used to Conduct the Study

The methodology used to compile and gather input was from 181 participants who were either
self-referred (N=115) or court referred (N=66) to complete a Domestic Violence Intervention Program between 2003 and 2007 at a social service agency in Perth, Australia. The median age was 37.8 years (SD = 9.2) with ages ranging from 18 to 64 years. Prior to entry participants were assessed prior to a 18 week group program.

The MCMI – III (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory) is used and the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) both are used to evaluate the levels of prevalence of personality pathology among domestic violent perpetrators.
Felicia McCaw
SW 314
Assignment #8
Page 2

Measures

The measures of all entering the Domestic Violence Group Program completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. The inventory was selected because it has been ratified in various editions and is widely used to assess psychopathology in men attending domestic violence treatment programs. Six hundred clinical subjects were used with a cross-validation subjects sample of 398 clinical subjects, the MCMI – III was constructed from a theoretical evolutionary model and include much of the personality disorder criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Further the MCMI – III has three modifying indexes advantages to analyze and assess response bias: Disclosure, Desirability and Debasement Indexes. The Disclosure Index assesses the extent to which validity of truth is relayed and openness and frankness of responses as opposed to deliberate references and secretiveness; the Desirability Index assesses the inclinations to portray oneself as socially attractive, virtuous, or composed, the Debasement index assesses the respondent’s level of self-deprecation or devaluation.

Results

The results relayed that the prevalence of personality pathology among domestically violent men in the sample by Gibbons, Collins, and Reid was higher than reported by Gondolf (1999), White and Gondolf (2000) or Langhinrichsen-Rohling (2000) yet lower than rates of personality pathology reported in studies using the MCMI and several studies employing the MMPI -2. In the study done by Gibbons, Collins, and Reid, 37% of men in the sample reported severe personality pathology, mostly for the borderline type. Three quarters reflected severe personality levels and also had significant elevations on anti-social, aggressive, and passive-aggressive personality patterns as well, reflecting comorbid personality disorder, which according to some researchers is not common. The group severe level of personality pathology also scored the highest percentage on a number of Axis I Clinical Syndrome Scales.

A 17% of the overall sample reflected a moderate level of severity and reported profiles consistent with less severe but diverse personality disorders: histrionic, narcissistic, and compulsive; anti-social aggressive, and passive-aggressive; and schizoid, avoidant, depressive, dependent, and self-defeating personality patterns.

The remaining 46% of the sample did not report personality pathology consistent with a disorder, the subdivision for the low pathology level reflects trait and sub trait levels of severity indicative that another 30% of the overall sample exhibits the presence of clinically important personality pattern characteristics.

Conclusion of the Study

Therefore based on the study it has reflected that in male domestic violence perpetrators sample levels of personality pathology is reflective of higher rates than Gondolf (2002) suggested and the prevalence rate is intermediate between Gondolf’s research and other research on personality pathology with 54% of our participants producing personality profiles indicative of a disordered
personality. Considerable diversity of personality pathology among domestically violent men using modifying indices are used with careful assessment of the effects of response biases to
Felicia McCaw
SW 314
Assignment #8
Page 3

control against over – and underreporting. Further because of this careful individual profile assessment needs to be done on groups of domestically violent perpetrators to fixate and adjust certain treatments that will effectively target differing personality pathologies to ensure optimal outcomes.


My Opinion/thoughts about the study

Based on the study and the conditional methods utilized to ensure that inner biases would be considered the study takes into account that some questions would probably not be answered with total frankness and with some evasiveness. I agree that the probability of finding a parallelism between a highly antagonistic domestically violent male perpetrator will reflect that the differing characteristics of anti-social antics, sadistic personality and borderline personality disorder are enabled to be established and as a guarantee that the connection exists.