PSY2001 W6 Personality (L) Flashcards
What are the features of the Dark Triad?
Narcissim, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy
What are the features of the Light Triad?
Kantianism
Humanism
Faith in Humanity
What are the measures relating to the Dark Triad?
seperate questionnaires designed to measure each of the specific traits. Narcissitic personality inventory, Mach IV, Self Report Psychopathy Scale.
Two questionnaires commonly used to measure all three of the Dark Triad traits within the general population: Dirty Dozen, Short Dark Triad
What are the measures relating to the Light Triad?
the light triad scale (Kaufman, 2019)
Critically Evaluate the Dark Triad
Issues relating to how these concepts are measured (e.g., poor psychometric properties, social desirability bias etc).
The Dark Triad has also been criticised on the grounds that (i) three traits are not enough and (ii) the three traits are not sufficiently distinct.
Unification hypothesis
Uniqueness hypoethesis
Critically Evaluate the Light Triad
there are issues relating to how these concepts are measured (e.g., poor psychometric properties, social desirability bias etc).
To assess the nomological network what can you do?
convergent validity
discriminate validity
predictive validity
What is the predictive validity ?
extent to which a measure accurately predicts behaviors in the future based on the traits or constructs it assesses.
What is the Dark Triad?
emerged ~20 years ago Paulhus and Williams (2002) wanted to explore personality traits that are maladaptive but still within the normal range of functioning (sub-clinical)
Refers to constellation of three socially undersirable personality traits: Narcissim, Maciavellianism and Psychopathy
Why is there support for subclinical definition of the dark traid traits?
Furnham, Richards & Paulhus, 2013
Since these traits are established clinical disorder but can also be found in normal populations.
What is the myth of narcissus ?
Young man know for his beauty but also for his cold-hearted demeanour. Nemesis (goddess of retribution) punished narcissus for his cruelty and slef-absorption and lured him to a still pool of water, bent down to drink saw himself in his reflection and fell deeply in love with it, obssessed unable to tear himself away from the pool unable to eat or drink/eat died
What is the narcissistic personality
(Ames, Rose, & Anderson, 2006, p. 441)
a grandiose, yet fragile sense of self, as well as a preoccupation with success and demands for admiration”
How would you characterise Narcissism?
excessively self-centred, strong sense of entitlement, preoccupation with success. Admiration and believe that they are special, insiste on associating with only hgih status people.
At the root of their inflated egos are often deeply-held feelings of inferiority, and so are envious of others, and will diminish others’ success or accomplishments.
Who is Niccolo Machiavelli?
Italiam diplomat, philosopher during the renaissance.
He famously argued that it is sometimes necessary for leaders to be ruthless, cunning, and willing to use any means, even morally questionable ones, to achieve and maintain political authority.
What is a machiavellian personality?
Wilson et al., 1996
“a strategy of social conduct that involves manipulating others for personal gain, often against the other’s self-interest”
What characterises Machievalellianism
Master manipulators used careful and deliberate manipulation techniques for personal gain.
Engage in a plethora of unethical and counterproductive behaviours including lying theft and sabotage.
Cynical view of humane nature, very little concern for the welfare of other above their own wellbeing
What is Psychopathy?
Ames, Rose, & Anderson, 2006
“a drive to engage in impulsive or antisocial behaviour without empathy, anxiety, or remorse.”
What characterises psychopathy?
Impulsivity and thrill-seeking.
Engage in risky behaviours wihtout consideration for consequences. Callousness and lack of empathy. Lack of emotional bonds and do not experience feelings of guilt or remorse for their behaviour.
What is the Psychopath Test (Jon Ronson)
touches on the clinical aspects of psychopathology but also points out that successful people can also score highly psychopathology (e.g. politicians)
How is narcissim measured?
Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1979)
40 forced-choice items a) I only associate with high class people ect…Overreliance on the measure (used in 77% of studies on narcissim) the measure focuses largely on the grandiose aspect of narcissim (Rose, 2002)
How is machiavellianim measured?
Mach IV (Christie & Geis, 1970)
20 items: “The best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear”
7-point Likert scale scale (totally disagree - totally agree).
Psychometric problems with the scale. There is a lack of agreement on the number of subscales comprising this measure with studies suggesting 3-9 different subscales. It also often shows poor internal consistency, and research has suggested removing half of the items (Miller et al., 2016)
How is Psychopathy measured?
Self-Report psychopathy Scale (SPR, Hare, 1985) recently updated to SRP-III (Neumann & Hare 2014)
64 items (e.g., I purposely tried to hit someone with the vehicle I was driving)
5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree- strongly agree)
Lack of consensus concerning what subclinical psychopathy refers to and how it differs from clinical psychopathy (Glenn & Raine, 2014)
What are the two questionnaires commonly used to measure all three of the dark triad traits with the general population?
The Dirty Dozen (Jonason & Webster, 2020)
The Short Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2014)
What is the Dirty Dozen?
Jonason & Webster, 2020
12 items (E items for each dimension)
Limitations: 4 items are not enough to capture nuances in the constructs (Miler et al 2012). Convergent validity was assessed by comparing the DD subscales with established measures of each subscale M r=.34, P r = .42, n R + .46
SRP III (P) correlated stronger with machiavelliasim than the DD psychopathy subscale.
What is the Short Dark Triad?
Jones & Paulhus, 2014
27 items ( 9 items each dimension)
positives: more items for each subscale to better represent each of the dimensions. Has stronger correlations with the full dark triad measures.
Negative: Factor analysis studies have repeatedly failed to reproduce a three factor structure. Machiavellianism and psychopathy often cluster into a single factor (Persson et al., 2017)
What is the correlation of the dark triad traits and agreeableness?
Big Five
negatively associated with agreeableness ( largest correlation was with psychopathy)
What si the correlation of all the dark traid traits and conscientiousness?
Big Five
negatively associated with conscientiousness (largest correlation was machieavelliasim)
What si the correlation of narcissim and extraversion and openess?
positively associated with extraversion and openness
Do psychology students have the darkest personalities?
Vedel & Thomsen, 2017
The Big Five + Dark Triad traits were measured in a sample of newly enrolled students (N = 487): Psychology, Economics/business, Law, Political science.
Mean scores on the dark triad traits were compared across academic courses.
Results:
* Psychology students scored lower on Machiavellianism than students on all other courses.
* Psychology students scored lower on Narcissism than students studying economics and business.
* There was no difference in scores on Psychopathy according to course.
Is Narcissim increasing?
Twenge et al. 2008
examined how narcissism scores have changed in college students from 1979 to 2006
Results: since 1982, narcissism scores have increased significantly.
NPI scores were 30% higher in the most recent cohort compared to the first cohort. Increase was found particularly among women
Why might we be seeing a rise in Narcissim?
Reed et al. 2018
Research has found a relationship between social media use and narcissism in young adults.
Higher amounts of (visual) social media use was associated with higher levels of narcissism.
Specifically, participants who posted large quantities of photos and selfies showed a 25 percent increase in narcissism.
Parenting styles (change in)
Why is there a rise in narcissim?
Brummelman et al. 2015
Monitored 565 children (7-12) and their parents for 2 years.
Measured 4 variables: child self-esteem, child narcissism, parental warmth, and parental overvaluation (parents believing their child to be more special and more entitled than others).
Parental overvaluation predicted child narcissism, but not child self-esteem. Parental warmth predicted self-esteem but not narcissism.
What is the unification hypoethesis?
traits show strong, possitive intercorrelations and have been found to load onto the same factor in factor analysis
What is the uniqueness hypothesis ?
the three traits have different patterns of associations with other traits and outcome variables.
Are 3 traits enough to capture the dark side of human nature?
Subclinical sadism = proneness to feel pleasant emotions while hurting others or watching others in pain.
Should be incldued to forma dark tetrad
What is Kantianism?
Treating people as ends unto themselves adn on mere means.
What is Humanism?
Valuing the dignity and worth of each individual
What is faith in humanity?
Believing in the fundamental goodness of humans
Is there a order of important of the 3 light triad traits?
kantianism > Humanism > Faith in Humanity
What is the Light Triad Scale?
Kaufman et al. 2019
12 items (4 fo each demension)
developed when brainstorming items opposite of each of the dark triad traits but also relatin gto forgiveness, trust, honesty, caring and acceptance
What is the correlation between each trait of the light triad?
Kantiasim//Humanism = .41
Humanism//Faith in Humanity = .60
Faith in humanity//Kantiaism = .34
What is the correlation between each trait of the dark triad?
Psychopathy//Narcissimm = .50
Psychopathy//Machiavellianism = .31
Machiavellianism//Narcissim = .25
What are the limitations of the Light Triad Scale ?
No cross-cultural validity (as a relatively new scale)
Tests have primarily been on western cultures (UK/USA)
What is the total correlation between the Dark and Light triad?
-0.48**
Are people more good than bad?
calcuated Light vs Dark triad balance score by subtracting each person’s score on the dark triad from their score on the light triad.
Results: mean balance score of entire sample = 1.3 (average person is tipped more towards the light triad)
What is the nomological network for both the Dark and Light Triad?
network of traits, qualities and outcomes that you would expect to be associated with a trait to demonstrate that it is a valid construct
What does the nomological network of the Dark and LIght triad help establish?
helps to establish that a measure has construct validity. (the extent to which the measure behaves in a way consistent with our hypoehtese and represents how well scores on the instrument are indicate of the construct)
What is discriminate validity?
correlate the measure with measures that you expect would not be correlated
What is convergent validity?
correlate the measure with measures that you expect to be highly correlated
What is predictive validity?
explore wether the traits correlate or predict outcomes in line with expected hypoetheses
What is the correlation of the Light triad and Open Mindedness?
.29**
What is the correlation of the Dark triad and Open Mindedness?
-.04
What is the correlation of the Dark triad and Conscientiousness?
-.19**
What is the correlation of the Light triad and Conscientiousness?
.32**
What is the correlation of the dark triad and Extraaversion?
.24**
What is the correlation of the Light triad and Extraaversion?
.24**
What is the correlation of the Light triad and Agreableness?
.79**
What is the correlation of the Dark triad and Agreableness?
-.52**
What is the correlation of the Dark triad and Negative Emotionality?
.04
What is the correlation of the Light triad and Negative Emotionality?
-.30**
What is the correlatinos with the worldview?
Partial correlations controlled for the contributions of compassion, respectfulness, and acceptance facets from the Agreeableness dimension of the Big 5. (light triad)
What is a person with light triad scores like?
older, female, spirituality, + childhood stability, + acceptance of others, + compassion, empathy, + life satisfaction, + positive enthusiams, + belif that others are good, + belief that one’s own self is good.
- weaker motives for achievement and self-enhancement
- a proclivity for interpersonal guilt
- excessive trust and compassion that could leave one open to exploitation.
What is a person with dark triad scores like?
younger, male, motivated by power, sex, achievement, +childhood unpredictability, + selfishness, + self enhancement values, - life satisfaction,- compassion, empathy,- belief that others are good,- belief that onoe’s own self is good.
- A greater number of casual sexual partners
- Greater creativity
- Higher bravery, assertiveness and leadership.
