Background
The Hare Psychopathy Checklist (Original) (PCL-22) is one of the most influential clinical instruments developed for assessing psychopathic personality traits, antisocial behavior patterns, emotional detachment, and interpersonal manipulation. The checklist was originally developed by Dr. Robert D. Hare during the late 1970s and early 1980s as part of clinical and forensic psychopathy research. The original version contained 22 items before later revisions resulted in the widely known PCL-R. The assessment evaluates interpersonal style, emotional functioning, impulsivity, antisocial tendencies, behavioral instability, criminal versatility, and social deviance commonly associated with psychopathic personality characteristics.
Procedure
This assessment is designed to evaluate long-term personality patterns, interpersonal behavior, emotional functioning, behavioral regulation, and antisocial tendencies. Participants or evaluators select the response option that best reflects the presence or absence of each psychopathy-related characteristic or behavioral pattern. The assessment focuses on interpersonal manipulation, emotional detachment, impulsivity, behavioral instability, antisocial tendencies, irresponsibility, and chronic social deviance.
Participation
This assessment is intended for educational, screening, and research purposes only. Results should not be considered a clinical diagnosis or substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric, forensic, or legal evaluation. Psychopathy-related assessments should be interpreted cautiously and within appropriate clinical, ethical, and professional contexts.
Scoring & Interpretation
Responses are scored according to the degree to which psychopathic personality traits, antisocial tendencies, emotional detachment, and behavioral instability are present.
The PCL-22 traditionally uses:
- 2 = Definitely Present
- 1 = Possibly Present
- 0 = Definitely Absent
Higher scores generally indicate stronger psychopathic personality characteristics, interpersonal manipulation tendencies, emotional detachment, impulsivity, antisocial behavior, and behavioral instability.
The checklist is commonly used within forensic and clinical contexts for psychopathy research and personality assessment.
Hare Psychopathy Checklist (Original) (PCL-22) Questionnaire
Below is the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (Original) (PCL-22), a digitally adapted 22- items self-assessment questionnaire. This assessment does not provide a clinical diagnosis, medical determination, or substitute for professional psychological evaluation.
Psychometric Norms
Current normative data for theCurrent normative data for the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (Original) (PCL-22) are derived from 117 anonymous participant responses collected through TraitProfiler between 2026 and 2026. All response data are collected anonymously and are intended exclusively for educational, psychometric, and non-commercial research purposes.
Sources
- Hare, R. D. A research scale for the assessment of psychopathy in criminal populations. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 1, Issue 2, 1980,