class 33. the dark triad of personality machiavellian narcissist psychopath the dark triad
TRANSCRIPT
Class 33
The Dark Triadof Personality
MACHIAVELLIAN
NARCISSIST
PSYCHOPATH
The Dark Triad
First distinguished by
Paulhus & Williams (2002)
Narcissist: egotistical attention-seeker
Machiavellian: strategic manipulation
Psychopath: impulsive thrill-seeker
What is the common factor?
callousness
CLINICAL LEVEL-serious problems-requires professional intervention
SUB-CLINICAL LEVEL-mild version, can manage in everyday society-BUT maladaptive because aversive to others
Psychopath
Clinical versionkey features:
impulsive & callous
Keeps committing crimesNever learnsMost of life spent in prison
The Subclinical Version
Successful psychopath: milder or paired with a desirable attribute
Has avoided prison – so far
Dark Niches: Bullies, nasty bosses
Hockey Goons
- paid big salary to be nasty - often nasty outside of sport
e.g.,
- drill instructors in military- paid to toughen you up
NarcissistNarcissist
Clinical Version
SYNDROME
Sense of superiorityConstant braggingFeels entitled to superior treatmentNeeds attention
WHY?Deep insecurity
Sub-clinical VersionSub-clinical Version
SYNDROME
Begins with conceit?
Gifted with desirable attribute
e.g., admired celebrities
Acquired narcissism?
Can encourage destructive behavior
The Machiavellian
Niccolo Machiavelli
historyAdvisor to the Medici family in Italy (ca.
1500)
To succeed in politics, you must manipulate others
TACTICS: e.g., flatter important people
EXCUSE: Most people are ignorant and deserve to be manipulated
Sun-Tzu:
The Art of War(ca. 500 B.C.)
Ancient Precedent
Financial manipulator
Bernie Madoff
Relations among the DARK TRIAD:
Q: are they actually the same person?A: No, but positively correlated
Q: Are they mutually exclusive?A: No, they can be found in the same person.
OUR RESEARCH
Designed to differentiate the Dark Triad
Used questionnaires to predict actual behavior
WHO CHEATS ?
A. Copying answers during exams
Subclinical psychopaths
B. Plagiarizing term papers•Machiavellians
WHO AGGRESSES?
Jones & Paulhus study (2013)
white noise paradigm
Advertised as Competitive Game Study
Results
Narcissists aggressed after being insulted
Psychopaths aggressed after being attacked
CONCLUSIONS
Summary of D3 Features
Narcissists brag
Psychopaths impulsively hurt others & don’t care
Machiavellians manipulate to get what they want
All are callous
They can co-occur
Mohammar Gadhafi
Adolph Hitler
Josef Stalin
The newest member
The sadistic The sadistic personalitypersonality
Sexual Sadism
-from theMarquis de Sade
-popular novel
50 Shades of Grey
Criminal Sadism
-Clifford Olson
Political Sadism
-Vlad the Impaler
EVERYDAY SADISM
-non sexual
-non criminal
Abusive prison guards
Cage Fighting
films, television, video games
1. Clockwork Orange
2. Sopranos
3. Grand Theft Auto
EVERYDAY (NON-SEXUAL SADISM)CAUSES
Sadism encouraged by authorities
Encouraged by in-group favoritism
Encouraged by sports norms
Personal revenge
Question:How to show sadism in the psychology
laboratory?
Answer:Show that Sadism questionnaire predicts
amount of bug crunching
30 percent willing to crunch bugs in a grinder
Give me more !
30 percent willing to work for opportunity to blast innocent partner with loud white noise
RESULTS
Those who score high on the Everyday Sadism Scale will be more willing to crunch the bug themselves
Also those scoring high on RWA agreed if experimenter insisted
(cf. Milgram)
OTHER RESULTS
Similar results for males and femalesCommon enjoyment of all violent mediaPredicted by Everyday Sadism scaleLinked to animal cruelty, fire-lighting, and
vandalismSexual sadism only slightly relatedUnrelated to self-harmRelatively independent of Dark Triad !
CONCLUSIONS
We tend to lump together bad personalities
To understand dark characters, more differentiation is needed
DARK TETRAD
Maybe more…………..