College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Psychology

David Marcus

Professor, Director of Clinical Training

Ph.D. Clark University, 1989



Contact Information:

Email: david.marcus@wsu.edu
Office: Johnson Tower 223C
Phone: (509) 335-7750


Classes Taught:

  • Psychology 520: Empirical Approaches to Adult Psychotherapy
  • Psychology 533: Adult Psycholopathology


Research Interests:

Currently, my primary research interests include: (a) psychopathy and other externalizing disorders; (b) interpersonal factors in psychopathology and psychotherapy; and (c) cognitive factors in health anxiety. Much of my research on psychopathy has used Meehl’s taxometric method to examine whether psychopathy and related disorders (e.g., antisocial personality 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 second line of research has involved applying David Kenny’s Social Relations Model to study interpersonal perception and processes in clinical areas such as individual and group psychotherapy. Finally, my research on health anxiety has focused on how dysfunctional beliefs and a ruminative cognitive style contribute to health anxiety.



Selected Publications: (2007-present)

Psychopathy and externalizing behaviors

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

Marcus, D. K., & Barry, T. D. (2011). Does attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have a dimensional latent structure? A taxometric analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120, 427-442.

Marcus, D. K., *Fulton, J. J., & Turchik, J. A. (2011). Is risky sexual behavior continuous or categorical? A taxometric analysis of the sexual risk survey. Psychological Assessment, 23, 282-286.

Marcus, D. K., *Fulton, J. J., & *Clarke, E. J. (2010). Lead and conduct problems: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 39, 234-241.

*Fulton, J. J., Marcus, D. K., & *Payne, K. T. (2010). Psychopathic personality traits and risky sexual behavior in college students. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 29-33.

Marcus, D. K., Ruscio, J., Lilienfeld, S. O., & *Hughes, K. T. (2008). Converging evidence for the latent structure of antisocial personality disorder: Consistency of taxometric and latent class analyses. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35, 284-293.

Murrie, D. C., Marcus, D. K., Douglas, K. S., Salekin, R. S., Lee, Z., & Vincent, G., (2007). Youth with psychopathy features are not a discrete class: A taxometric analysis. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48, 714-723.


Social Relations Model

Marcus, D. K., Kashy, D. A., Wintersteen, M. B., & Diamond, G. S. (in press). The therapeutic alliance in adolescent substance abuse treatment: A one-with-many analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology.

Marcus, D. K., Kashy, D. A., & Baldwin, S. A. (2009). Studying psychotherapy using the one-with-many design: The therapeutic alliance as an exemplar. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 56, 537-548.


Health Anxiety/Hypochondriasis

*Fulton, J. J., Marcus, D. K., & *Merkey, T. (2011). Irrational health beliefs and health anxiety. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67, 527-538.

Marcus, D. K., *Hughes, K. T, & Arnau, R. C. (2008). Health anxiety, rumination, and negative affect: A mediational analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 64, 495-501.

Marcus, D. K., *Gurley, J. R., *Marchi, M. M., & *Bauer, C. (2007). Cognitive and perceptual variables in hypochondriasis and health anxiety: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 27, 127-139.


Misc Taxometrics

*Mackaronis, J. E., Strassberg, D. S., & Marcus, D. K. (in press). The latent structure of pedophilia as assessed by the Multiphasic Sex Inventory: A taxometric analysis. Psychological Assessment.

Marcus, D. K., Poythress, N. G., Edens, J. F., & Lilienfeld, S. O. (2010). Adjudicative competence: Evidence that impairment in “rational understanding” is taxonic. Psychological Assessment, 22, 716-7 22.

Ruscio, J., Walters, G. D., Marcus, D. K., & Kaczetow, W. (2010). Comparing the relative fit of categorical and dimensional latent variable models using consistency tests. Psychological Assessment, 22, 5-21.

Edens, J. F., Marcus, D. K., & Morey, L. C. (2009). Paranoid personality has a dimensional latent structure: Taxometric analyses of community and clinical samples. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 545-553.



*Denotes student authors
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