Compulsive buying: relationship with body mass index.

OBJECTIVE: Compulsive buying has historically been associated with various self-regulatory disturbances, including eating pathology (e.g., binge eating). Therefore, a relationship between scores on a measure of compulsive buying, the Compulsive Buying Scale (CBS), and body mass index (BMI) in adulthood was hypothesized. DESIGN AND METHODS: Using a self-report survey methodology in a cross-sectional consecutive sample of convenience of 373 obstetrics/gynecology patients, correlations between CBS scores and BMI, both generally and with regard to race were examined. RESULTS: A modest general correlation between CBS scores and BMI (r = 0.17, P < 0.01) was found. However, when these data were examined by race, CBS scores and BMI were significantly related among Caucasian women (r = 0.25, P < 0.01), but not in African American women (r = 0.04, P = n.s.). CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that compulsive buying is associated with increasing BMI in adulthood, particularly among Caucasian women.

An examination of the association between psychopathy and dissimulation using the MMPI-2-RF validity scales.

This investigation sought to determine whether individuals high on psychopathic traits are better able than those low on such traits to avoid detection when feigning psychopathology in the context of a forensic psychological evaluation. Study 1 tested whether individuals high on psychopathy were better able than those low on psychopathy to avoid detection by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2-Restructured Form's (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Tellegen, A., 2008, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form: Manual for administration, scoring and interpretation, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.) overreporting (F-r, Fp-r) and underreporting (L-r and K-r) validity scales, when undergraduate students were asked to feign good, feign bad, or respond honestly. Study 2 aimed to replicate and extend the overreporting (F-r and Fp-r) analyses in a forensic pretrial sample, in which individuals were classified as malingering or not malingering using the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS; Rogers, R., Bagby, R. M., & Dickens, S. E., 1992, Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms. Tampa, FL, Psychological Assessment Resources.). Combined results indicated that psychopathy did not affect the utility of the MMPI-2-RF validity scales in detecting overreporting. The underreporting analyses indicated that psychopathy did not affect the utility of L-r; however, callous-aggressive (or "meanness") psychopathy traits moderated the utility of K-r in detecting those feigning psychological adjustment, such that K-r was better able to detect individuals high on, rather than low on, psychopathy when underreporting. These results are promising in terms of evidence that individuals high on psychopathic traits are not any better than individuals low on these traits in feigning during psychological evaluations.

An examination of gender-moderated test bias on the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale.

In this investigation, we examined the validity of Levenson's Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP; Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995) in a sample of undergraduate students (n = 403). Utilizing a step-down hierarchical multiple regression procedure (e.g., Arbisi, Ben-Porath, & McNulty, 2002), we used LSRP scores to predict psychopathic personality traits to determine the presence of gender-moderated test bias. Results indicate similar correlational magnitudes for men and women. However, systematic over- and underprediction of scores (i.e., differential intercepts) was found for external criteria measuring key affective (i.e., low empathy) and behavioral (i.e., aggression, antisocial behavior) components of the psychopathic personality, although these effects were generally small.