Delroy L. Paulhus

The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy

Abstract Of the offensive yet non-pathological personalities in the literature, three are especially prominent: Machiavellianism, subclinical narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy. We evaluated the recent contention that, in normal samples, this ‘Dark Triad’ of constructs are one and the same. In a sample of 245 students, we measured the three constructs with standard measures and examined a variety of laboratory and self-report correlates. The measures were moderately inter-correlated, but certainly were not equivalent. Their only common Big Five correlate was disagreeableness. Subclinical psychopaths were distinguished by low neuroticism; Machiavellians, and psychopaths were low in conscientiousness; narcissism showed small positive associations with cognitive ability. Narcissists and, to a lesser extent, psychopaths exhibited self-enhancement on two objectively scored indexes. We conclude that the Dark Triad of personalities, as currently measured, are overlapping but distinct constructs.

Is Acculturation Unidimensional or Bidimensional? A Head-to-Head Comparison in the Prediction of Personality, Self-Identity, and Adjustment

The unidimensional model of acculturation posits that heritage and mainstream culture identifications have a strong inverse relation, whereas the bidimensional model posits that the 2 identifications are independent. The authors compared these models in 3 samples of ethnic Chinese (ns = 164, 150, and 204), 1 sample of non-Chinese East Asians (n = 70), and one diverse group of acculturating individuals (n = 140). Although the unidimensional measure showed a coherent pattern of external correlates, the bidimensional measure revealed independent dimensions corresponding to heritage and mainstream culture identification. These dimensions displayed patterns of noninverse correlations with personality, self-identity, and psychosocial adjustment. The authors conclude that the bidimensional model is a more valid and useful operationalization of acculturation.

Interpersonal and intrapsychic adaptiveness of trait self-enhancement : A mixed blessing ?

Reactions to trait self-enhancers were investigated in 2 longitudinal studies of person perception in discussion groups. Groups of 4-6 participants met 7 times for 20 min. After Meetings 1 and 7, group members rated their perceptions of one another. In Study 1, trait self-enhancement was indexed by measures of narcissism and self-deceptive enhancement. At the first meeting, self-enhancers made positive impressions. They were seen as agreeable, well adjusted, and competent. After 7 weeks, however, they were rated negatively and gave self-evaluations discrepant with peer evaluations they received. In Study 2, an independent sample of observers (close acquaintances) enabled a pretest index of discrepancy self-enhancement: It predicted the same deteriorating pattern of interpersonal perceptions as the other three trait measures. Nonetheless, all self-enhancement measures correlated positively with self-esteem.

Enhancement and denial in socially desirable responding.

One research tradition has distinguished self-deception, the tendency to give favorably biased but honestly held self-descriptions impression management, the tendency to give favorable selfdescriptions to others. A 2nd tradition has distinguished enhancement, the claiming of positive attributes, from denial, the repudiation of negative attributes. The 2 distinctions were evaluated jointly in 3 studies. Factor analyses showed that impression management items (both enhancement and denial) loaded together. Self-deception items split up: Enhancement items formed a 2nd factor, whereas denial items fell closer to the impression management factor. Of the 4 types, self-deceptive enhancement best predicted adjustment. These results clarify the constructs of enhancement and denial: The critical distinction is not simply one of keying direction but whether the item content refers to a positive or negative attribute.

Two Replicable Suppressor Situations in Personality Research.

Suppressor situations occur when the simultaneous inclusion of two predictors improves one or both validities. A common allegation is that suppressor effects rarely replicate and have little substantive import. We present substantive examples from two established research domains to counter this skepticism. In the first domain, we show how measures of guilt and shame act consistently as mutual suppressors: Adding shame into a regression equation increases the negative association between guilt and aggression, whereas adding guilt increases the positive association between shame and aggression. In the second domain, we show how the effects of self-esteem and narcissism operate consistently as mutual suppressors: That is, adding narcissism into a regression equation increases the negative association between self-esteem and antisocial behavior, whereas adding self-esteem increases the positive association between narcissism and antisocial behavior. Discussion addresses the different implications for suppressors in theoretical and variable selection applications.

Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3): A Brief Measure of Dark Personality Traits

Three socially aversive traits—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—have been studied as an overlapping constellation known as the Dark Triad. Here, we develop and validate the Short Dark Triad (SD3), a brief proxy measure. Four studies (total N = 1,063) examined the structure, reliability, and validity of the subscales in both community and student samples. In Studies 1 and 2, structural analyses yielded three factors with the final 27 items loading appropriately on their respective factors. Study 3 confirmed that the resulting SD3 subscales map well onto the longer standard measures. Study 4 validated the SD3 subscales against informant ratings. Together, these studies indicate that the SD3 provides efficient, reliable, and valid measures of the Dark Triad of personalities.

Self-Deception and Impression Management in Test Responses *

In psychological assessment, we aim for the most accurate description of some cognitive or behavioral attribute. In assessment involving self-reports, this objective is invariably haunted by the possibility of misrepresentation. Certainly we would be sceptical of self-reports of intelligence, perhaps because of its universal desirability. Among the few qualities typically rated as even more desirable than intelligence is having a good personality. Thus it seems dangerous to ignore the possibility that at least some respondents systematically misrepresent their own personality.

Capturing the four-factor structure of psychopathy in college students via self-report.

A number of self-report psychopathy scales have been used successfully in both clinical and nonclinical settings. However, their factor structure does not adequately capture the four factors (Interpersonal, Affective, Lifestyle, and Antisocial) recently identified in the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 2003) and related measures. This deficit was addressed by upgrading the Self Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP-II; Hare, Hemphill, & Harpur, 1989). In Study 1 (N = 249), an exploratory factor analysis of this experimental version revealed oblique factors similar to those outlined by Hare (2003). In Study 2 (N = 274), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed this structure, that is, four distinct but intercorrelated factors. The factors exhibited appropriate construct validity in a nomological network of related personality measures. Links with self-reports of offensive activities (including entertainment preferences and behavior) also supported the construct validity of the oblique four-factor model.

Self-Report Measures of Intelligence: Are They Useful as Proxy IQ Tests?

Correlations between single-item self-reports of intelligence and IQ scores are rather low (.20–.25) in college samples. The literature suggested that self-reports could be improved by three strategies: (1) aggregation, (2) item weighting, and (3) use of indirect, rather than direct, questions. To evaluate these strategies, we compared the validity of aggregated and unaggregated versions of direct measures with four indirect measures (Gough’s Intellectual efficiency scale, Hogan’s Intellect composite scale, Sternberg’s Behavior Check List, and Trapnell’s Smart scale). All measures were administered to two large samples of undergraduates (Ns = 310, 326), who also took an IQ test. Although results showed some success for both direct and indirect measures, the failure of their validities to exceed .30 impugns their utility as IQ proxies in competitive college samples. The content of the most valid items referred to global mental abilities or reading involvement. Aggregation benefited indirect more than direct measures, but prototype-weighting contributed little. Journal of Personality 66:4, August 1998. Copyright

Socially desirable responding and sexuality self‐reports

We assessed the impact of two distinct forms of socially desirable responding—self‐deceptive enhancement and impression management—on sexuality self‐reports (n = 504) under anonymous testing conditions. Results revealed significant positive relationships between self‐deceptive enhancement and sexual adjustment variables for both sexes. Impression management was significantly negatively related to a number of intrapersonal (e.g., unrestricted sexual fantasies, sexual drive) and interpersonal (e.g., sexual experience, virginity status) sexual behaviors for females, and to unrestricted sexual attitudes and fantasies for males. We calculated correlations were first calculated between self‐deceptive enhancement, impression management, and personality and conservatism scores. Self‐deceptive enhancement and impression management were significantly associated with personality for males and females, and with conservatism for females only. When personality and conservatism variance were partialed out, associations ...