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Washington State University
College of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychology

David Marcus

Professor
Director of Clinical Training, Former Department Chair

Ph.D. Clark University, 1989

Contact Information

Email: david.marcus@wsu.edu
Office: Johnson Tower 209
Phone: (509) 335-7750

Classes Taught:

  • Psychology 348: Forensic and Legal Psychology
  • Psychology 520: Empirical Approaches to Adult Psychotherapy
  • Psychology 533: Adult Psychopathology

Research Interests

Currently, my primary research interests include: (a) psychopathy; (b) other “dark” personality traits such as sadism and spitefulness; and (c) the relative importance of common versus specific factors in psychotherapy.  Much of my research on psychopathy is focused on the measurement of psychopathic personality traits, including studies that have used Meehl’s taxometric method to examine whether psychopathy and related disorders (e.g., antisocial personality disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, conduct disorder) exist along a continuum or are discrete, qualitatively distinct conditions.  In other words, this research is interested in the question of whether there are “psychopaths” who are uniquely different from others or whether psychopathy is a dimensional construct.  I am also interested in the behavioral correlates of psychopathic personality traits, such as the association between psychopathy and risky sexual behavior. My other area of research uses meta-analytic methods to examine whether various psychological treatments yield similar outcomes (“Dodo bird effect”), whether adding specific components to treatments improves outcomes, and the role of therapist allegiance in psychological assessment and treatment.

Selected Publications (2013-present)

Psychopathy and externalizing behaviors

Fanning, J. R., Marcus, D. K., & Coccaro, E. F.  (in press).  Evidence for the taxonic latent structure for DSM-5 intermittent explosive disorder in adults.  Psychological Medicine.

Marcus, D. K., *Eichenbaum, A. E., *Anderson, A. E., *Zimmerman, J. A., *Nagel, M. G., Zeigler-Hill, V., Watts, A. L., Lilienfeld, S. O.  (2019).  Construction and preliminary validation of Triarchic Psychopathy Scales from the HEXACO-100.  Psychological Assessment, 31, 961-973.

*Eichenbaum, A. E., Marcus, D. K., & French, B. F.  (2019).  Item response theory analysis of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised.  Assessment, 26, 1046-1058.

Marcus, D. K., *Robinson, S. L., & *Eichenbaum, A. E. (2019).  Externalizing behavior and psychopathy: A social relations analysis. Journal of Personality Disorders, 33, 310-325.

*O’Connell, D. C., & Marcus, D. K.  (2019).  The association between psychopathy and sadism.  Aggression and Violent Behavior, 46, 109-115.

*Anderson, A. E., & Marcus, D. K. (2019).  A bifactor model of meanness, coldheartedness, callousness, and sadism.  Personality and Individual Differences, 137, 192-197.

*Preszler, J., Marcus, D. K., Edens, J. F., & McDermott, B. E.  (2018).  Network analysis of psychopathy in forensic inpatients.  Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 127, 171-182.

Marcus, D. K., *Sawaqdeh, A., *O’Connell, D.,& Lilienfeld, S. O.  (2018).  Identifying careless responding bias with the Psychopathic Personality Inventory—Revised (PPI-R) validity scales.  Assessment, 25, 31-39.

*O’Connell, D., & Marcus, D. K. (2016). Psychopathic personality traits predict positive attitudes toward sexually predatory behaviors in college men and women Personality and Individual Differences, 94, 372-376.

Marcus, D. K., & *Norris, A. L.  (2014).  A new measure of attitudes toward sexually predatory tactics and its relation to the triarchic model of psychopathy.  Journal of Personality Disorders  28, 247-261.

Marcus, D. K., *Fulton, J. J., & Edens, J. F.  (2013).  The two-factor model of psychopathic personality: Evidence from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory.  Personality Disorders:  Theory, Research, and Treatment, 4, 67-76.

 

Other Dark Personality Features

Marcus, D. K., *Preszler, J., & Zeigler-Hill, V.  (2018).  A network of dark personality traits: What lies at the heart of darkness?  Journal of Research in Personality, 73, 56-62.

Zeigler-Hill, V., & Marcus, D. K. (2016).  The Dark Side of Personality.  In V. Zeigler-Hill & D. K. Marcus (Eds.), Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Marcus, D. K., & Zeigler-Hill, V.  (2015).  A big tent of dark personality traits. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9, 434-446.

*Grafeman, S. J., Barry, C. T., Marcus, D. K., & *Leachman, L. L.  (2015).  Interpersonal perception of narcissism in an at-risk adolescent sample: A social relations analysis.  Journal of Research on Adolescence, 25, 92-100.

Zeigler-Hill, V., Noser, A. E., Roof, C., Vonk, J., & Marcus, D. K.  (2015).  Spitefulness and moral values.  Personality and Individual Differences, 77, 86-90.

Marcus, D. K., Zeigler-Hill, V., Mercer, S., & *Norris, A. L.  (2014).  The psychology of spite and the measurement of spitefulness.  Psychological Assessment, 26, 563-574.


Psychotherapy Research

*Lui, J. H. L., Barry, C. T., & Marcus, D. K. (2019).  A short-term intervention for adolescents with callous-unemotional traits and emotion-processing deficits.  Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 38, 475-500

*Lui, J. H. L., Marcus, D. K., & Barry, C. T. (2017).  Evidence-based apps? A review of mental health mobile applications in a psychotherapy context.  Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 48, 199-210.

Marcus, D. K., *Bell, E. C., & Mercer, S. H. (2015).  Adding components improves treatment outcomes: Reply to Flückiger et al. (2015)” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83, 443-444.

Marcus, D. K., *O’Connell, D., *Norris, A. L., & *Sawaqdeh, A.  (2014).  Is the Dodo bird endangered in the 21st century?  A meta-analysis of treatment comparison studies.  Clinical Psychology Review, 34, 519-530.


Misc Taxometrics

Rufino, K. A., Marcus, D. K., Ellis, T. E., & Boccaccini, M. T.  (2018).  Further evidence that suicide risk is categorical:  A taxometric analysis of data from an inpatient sample.  Psychological Assessment, 30, 1541-1547.

*Norris, A. L.. Marcus, D. K., & Green, B. A.  (2015).  Homosexuality as a discrete class.  Psychological Science, 26, 1843-1853.

 Marcus, D. K., *Sawaqdeh, A., & Kwon, P.  (2014).  The latent structure of generalized anxiety disorder in midlife adults.  Psychiatry Research, 215, 366-371.

*Eichner, K. V., Kwon, P. & Marcus, D. K.  (2014).  Optimists or optimistic? A taxometric study of optimism. Psychological Assessment, 26, 1056-1061.


*Denotes student authors

David Marcus