Week 6 - Dark personality: the darker side of the self Flashcards
What is personality?
’’ The concept of personality refers to the dynamic intergration of the totality of a person’s subjective experience and behaviour patterns, including both:’’
- Conscious, concrete, and habitual behaviours, experiences of self, and of the surrounding world, conscious, excplicit psychic thinking, and habitual desires and fears
- Unconscious behaviour patterns, experiences, and views, and intentional states
-=
(Kernberg, 2016, p.145)
What is the trait approach?
Basic structures of personality:
1. Stable over time
2. Stable across situations
3. Influences behaviour
What is the BIG 5
Openness to experience
- Original, imaginative, broad interests & daring.
Conscientiousness
- Hardworking, ambitious, energetic & persevering.
Extraversion
- Sociable, fun-loving, affectionate, friendly & talkative.
Agreeableness
- Trusting, sympathetic, polite & cooperative.
Neuroticism (emotional stability)
- Worrisome, insecure, self-conscious & temperamental.
(McCrae & Costa, 1987)
The Dark Triad
Narcissism:
- Grandiosity, entitlement, dominance & superiority.
Machiavellianism:
- Cold, manipulative, exploitative, self-interested & deceptive.
Psychopathy:
- Impulsive, thrill seeking, selfish, displays a lack of empathy, remorse & anxiety.
Paulhus and Williams (2002)
Which of the BIG 5 dimensions will be most related to the dark triad?
Openness to experience
- Original, imaginative, broad interests & daring.
Conscientiousness
- Hardworking, ambitious, energetic & persevering.
Extraversion
- Sociable, fun-loving, affectionate, friendly & talkative.
Agreeableness
- Trusting, sympathetic, polite & cooperative.
Neuroticism (emotional stability)
- Worrisome, insecure, self-conscious & temperamental
Whilst they are interlated, they are distinct from eachother
Paulhus & Williams (2002) conclude that these different relationships amongst the 3 dimensions or the dark triad and the dimensions of the big 5, suggest that the dark triad are distinct - the study indicated a signficant correlation.
Clinical vs Sub-Clinical
- Narcissism and psychopathy can be clinical or subclinical.
- Measures of the dark triad are focussing on subclinical traits.
i.e. levels of the trait are not indicative of a pathology/disorder - In clinical populations, a highly narcissistic individual may have a diagnosis of “Narcissistic personality disorder”
- in clinical populations, a highly psychopathic individual may have a diagnosis of “Antisocial personality disorder”
Love styles and the dark triad (JONASON & KAVANAGH, 2010)
- Passionate love
- Selfless love
- Manic/Volatile love
- Game playing
- Friendship / Enhancing love
- Pragmatic love
The Dark Triad is predictive of:
- Game playing
- Pragmatic
HOW DOES THIS WORK IN THE DATING WORLD?
- Men more so than women, score higher on the DT.
- Men higher on the DT also favour short-term relationships (Jonason et al, 2012)
- Women find high DT men more desirable than low DT men for short-term relationships (Carter et al., 2014).
Qureshi et al. (2016) could not replicate these findings. - Assortative mating – High DT women find high DT men more desirable for short-term relationships and vice versa (Jonason et al., 2015)
I’ll be there for you? The DT and Friendships (Jonason and SCHMITT, 2012)
Motivations for friendships
- The person act as a mate
- The person is a good person
- The person offers some services
Individuals high on the DT choose friends for strategic purposes.
Life stress, the dark triad, and mental distress (Lyons et al. 2019)
Life stress:
- Depression
- Psychosis
- Anxiety
How does having DT traits impact this relationship?
Life Stress + Narcissim -> reduces/protects against: Depression and Psychosis
Life stress + Machiavellianism -> Increases/Mediates: Psychosis
SUMMARY (SO FAR):
- The big 5 doesn’t necessarily encompass the dark side of personality.
- The dark triad does, so it can be important to consider measuring the big 5 and the dark triad concurrently.
- The dark triad is a measure of sub-clinical narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism.
- Individuals high on the dark triad don’t play nicely with others.
- But their superficial charm, their willingness and ability to manipulate/exploit others may allow for positive short-term interactions.
- However, scoring high on the DT may mean that the individual is protected
against mental distress.
Particularly if they are highly narcissistic.
The Dark TETRAD
Narcissism:
- Grandiosity, entitlement, dominance & superiority.
Machiavellianism:
- Cold, manipulative, exploitative, self-interested & deceptive.
Psychopathy:
- Impulsive, thrill seeking, selfish, displays a lack of empathy, remorse & anxiety.
Sadism:
- The tendency to find pleasure in the suffering of others (van Geel et al., 2017).
THE DARK TETRAD, TRADITIONAL
BULLYING AND CYBERBULLYING
Are the dark tetrad predictive of bullying in the real world and online?
VAN GEEL ET AL., (2017)
- Examined the relationship between the big 5, the dark triad, sadism and both real world and online bullying.
- Real world bullying measured using the “Bullying participant Role Questionnaire”
Example “I have pushed, punched or slapped another student” and “I have said bad things about another student”
- Cyberbullying measured using the “European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire”
Example “I spread rumours about someone on the internet” and “I threatened someone through texts or online messages
VAN GEEL ET AL., (2017) - RESULTS
- Extraversion, (Dis)Agreeableness, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy and Sadism are predictive of real world bullying.
- Agreeableness and Sadism are predictive of cyberbullying.
- Therefore, possessing dark traits is predictive of both types of bullying – but only sadism is consistently predictive of both types.
Mixed findings in online vs real world contexts
Cyberstalking associated with all of the dark tetrad – but real world stalking varies:
- Aggravated stalking associated with Psychopathy and Sadism.
- Surveillance stalking associated with Machiavellianism and Narcissism (Brankovic et al. 2023)
Narcissism is uniquely predictive of both in-person sexual harassment and online sexual harassment – but Psychopathy and Machiavellianism are not
(Schokkenbroek et al., 2024).
Why aren’t traits related to real world and online behaviours consistently
Variation in actual behaviour
- Real world bullying “I have pushed, punched or slapped another student”
- Cyberbullying “I threatened someone through texts or online messages”
Online vs Real world stalking are expressed differently as behaviours?
- e.g. “It is normal to ‘keep an eye on’ the social media of someone who frequently interacts with your partner” vs “Have you ever sneaked on to
someone’s private property without permission”
Online vs Real world sexual harassment - same items were used, but content changed to “Have you made crude, offensive, sexist comments to your partner in person OR online”.
- The more similar the online behaviour is to the real world behaviour, the more consistently personality can predict it???
