Dark Tetrad traits and self-concept domains
Abstract
The aim of this research was to examine the relations between the Dark Tetrad traits (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism) and six domains of self-concept (social, competence, affect, academic, family, and physical self-concept). On a sample comprised 210 participants (69.5% women), age between 18 and 78 years, the Serbian adaptations of the following instruments were applied: Short Dark Triad (SD3), Assessment of Sadistic Personality (ASP), and Multidimensional Self Concept Scale (MSCS). The results showed that narcissism is positively related to all domains of self-concept, and the other three dimensions of Dark Tetrad are negatively related to almost all domains of self-concept. The results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that narcissism had significant and positive effects in the prediction of all domains of self-concept, especially social and physical self, while psychopathy had significant negative effects in the prediction of all domains, especially social self. Machiavellianism had a negative contribution to the prediction of social, competence, and affect self-concept, while sadism had a negative contribution only to competence and academic self-concept. Although narcissism is considered as the „brightest“ dark trait, results could indicate that people with high scores of narcissism have biased evaluations of the self, which is in line with their grandiose and superior self-view.
References
Akram, U., & Stevenson, J. C. (2021). Self-disgust and the dark triad traits: The role of expressive suppression. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, 110296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110296
Baran, L., & Jonason, P. K. (2020) Academic dishonesty among university students: The roles of the psychopathy, motivation, and self-efficacy. PLOS ONE, 15(8): e0238141. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238141
Barbaranelli, C., Farnese, M. L., Tramontano, C., Fida, R., Ghezzi, V., Paciello, M., & Long, P. (2018). Machiavellian Ways to Academic Cheating: A Mediational and Interactional Model. Frontiers in Psychology, 9:695. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00695
Borráz-León, J. I., & Rantala, M. J. (2021). Does the Dark Triad predict self-perceived attractiveness, mate value, and number of sexual partners both in men and women? Personality and Individual Differences, 168, 110341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110341
Bracken, B. A. (1992). Multidimensional Self Concept Scale. Austin, TX: Pro-ed.
Bracken, B. A. (Ed.). (1996). Handbook of self-concept: Developmental, social, and clinical considerations. John Wiley & Sons.
Bracken, B. A. (2009). Positive Self-Concept. In M. J. Furlong, R. Gilman, & E. S. Huebner (Eds.), Handbook of Positive Psychology (1st ed., pp. 89-106). New York: Routledge.
Campbell, W. K., Rudich, E. A., & Sedikides, C. (2002). Narcissism, self-esteem, and the positivity of self-views: Two portraits of self-love. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(3), 358–368. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202286007
Dinić, B. M., Petrović, B., & Jonason, P. K. (2018). Serbian adaptations of the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD) and Short Dark Triad (SD3). Personality and Individual Differences, 134, 321–328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.06.018
Dinić, B.M., Wertag, A., Sokolovska, V., & Tomašević, A. (2020a). Centrality and redundancy of the Dark Tetrad traits. Personality and Individual Differences, 155. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.109621
Dinić, B.M., Sadiković, S., & Wertag, A. (2020b). Factor mixture analysis of the Dark Triad and Dark Tetrad. Could sadism make a difference? Journal of Individual Differences. Online First. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000331
Dinić, B. M., Bullut Allred, T. Petrović, B., & Wertag, A. (2020c). A test of three sadism measures. Short Sadistic Impulse Scale, Varietes of Sdistic Tendencies, and Assessment of Sadistic Personality. Journal of Individual Differences. Online First. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000319
Dinić, B.M., Wertag, A., Sokolovska, V., & Tomašević, A. (2021). The good, the bad, and the ugly: Revisiting the Dark Core. Current Psychology. Online First. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01829-x
Doerfler, S. M., Tajmirriyahi, M., Ickes, W., & Jonason, P. K. (2021). The self-concepts of people with Dark Triad traits tend to be weaker, less clearly defined, and more state-related. Personality and Individual Differences, 180, 110977. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110977
Egan, V., Chan, S., & Shorter, G. W. (2014). The Dark Triad, happiness and subjective well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 17–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.004
Eisenbarth, H., Godinez, D., du Pont, A., Corley, R. P., Stallings, M. C., & Rhee, S. H. (2019). The influence of stressful life events, psychopathy, and their interaction on internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Psychiatry Research, 272, 438–446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.12.145
Fukushima, O., & Hosoe, T. (2011). Narcissism, variability in self-concept, and well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 45(6), 568–575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2011.07.002
Gebauer, J. E., & Sedikides, C. (2018). Agency and communion in grandiose narcissism. In A. E. Abele & B. Wojciszke (Eds.), Agency and communion in social psychology (pp. 90–102). Routledge.
Góis, A. D., Lima, G. A. S. F. d., & De Luca, M. M. M. (2020). Everyday sadism in the business area. RAUSP Management Journal, 55(3), 393-408. https://doi.org/10.1108/RAUSP-03-2019-0048
Hardin, B. S., Smith, C. V., & Jordan, L. N. (2021). Is the COVID-19 pandemic even darker for some? Examining dark personality and affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Personality and Individual Differences, 171, 110504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110504
Hassall, J., Boduszek, D., & Dhingra, K. (2015). Psychopathic traits of business and psychology students and their relationship to academic success. Personality and Individual Differences, 82, 227–231. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.03.017
Holtzman, N. S., Vazire, S., & Mehl, M. R. (2010). Sounds like a narcissist: Behavioral manifestations of narcissism in everyday life. Journal of Research in Personality, 44(4), 478–484. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2010.06.001
Imbesi, L. (1999). The Making of a Narcissist. Clinical Social Work Journal, 27, 41–54. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022809314267
Jia X, Wang Q and Lin L (2020) The Relationship Between Childhood Neglect and Malevolent Creativity: The Mediating Effect of the Dark Triad Personality. Frontiers in Psychology, 11:613695. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613695
Jonason, P. K., Lyons, M., & Bethell, E. (2014). The making of Darth Vader: Parent–child care and the Dark Triad. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 30–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.10.006
Jonason, P. K., & Ferrell, J. D. (2016). Looking under the hood: The psychogenic motivational foundations of the Dark Triad. Personality and Individual Differences, 94, 324–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.01.039
Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3): A brief measure of dark personality traits. Assessment, 21(1), 28–41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191113514105
Lisá, E., & Valachová, M. (2021). Dispositional mindfulness as a mediator between basic psychological needs and dark triad traits. Personality and Individual Differences, 181, 111057. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111057.
Miller, J. D., Jones, S. E., & Lynam, D. R. (2011). Psychopathic traits from the perspective of self and informant reports: Is there evidence for a lack of insight? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120(3), 758–764. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022477
Muris, P., Merckelbach, H., Otgaar, H., & Meijer, E. (2017). The Malevolent Side of Human Nature: A Meta-Analysis and Critical Review of the Literature on the Dark Triad (Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(2), 183–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616666070
Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Toward a taxonomy of dark personalities. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(6), 421–426. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414547737
Plouffe, R. A., Saklofske, D. H., & Smith, M. M. (2017). The Assessment of Sadistic Personality: Preliminary psychometric evidence for a new measure. Personality and Individual Differences, 104, 166–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.07.043
Radojević, N. i Dinić, B. (2020). Relacije agensnog i komunalnog narcizma sa samoefikasnošću u različitim životnim domenima. Primenjena psihologija, 13(1), 91–117. https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.2020.1.91-117
Tamayo, A., & Raymond, F. (1977). Self-concept of psychopaths. The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 97(1), 71–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1977.9915927
Visser, B. A., Pozzebon, J. A., Bogaert, A. F., & Ashton, M. C. (2010). Psychopathy, sexual behavior, and esteem: It’s different for girls. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(7), 833–838. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.02.008
Authors retain the copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the nonexclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of re-use, and to distribute it in all forms and media. The published articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA). It is allowed to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and remix, transform and build upon it for any purpose, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given to the original
author(s), a link to the license is provided, it is indicated if changes were made and the new work is distributed under the same license as the original. Authors are permitted to deposit the author’s publisher’s version (PDF) of their work in an institutional repository, subject-based repository, author’s personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.), and/or departmental website at any time after publication, with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.