What lies beneath? A first look beyond global traits and shedding light on the differential intercorrelation between dark triad sub-factors and various intimate relationship variables.
Open Access
Author:
Hauch, Benjamin
Area of Honors:
Psychology
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
James Marshall Lebreton, Thesis Supervisor Greg Edward Loviscky, Thesis Honors Advisor
The Dark Triad (DT) of personality, as defined by Paulhus and Williams (2002), consists of three distinct but overlapping non-pathological traits; subclinical Narcissism, Machiavellianism and subclinical Psychopathy. The DT traits are thought to be underpinned by a common core of aggression, or ‘disagreeableness’ as measured by the Big five inventory (BFI) (Paulhus and Williams, 2002). As socially maladaptive inheritable traits, their robust persistence in society runs counterintuitively to evolutionary psychology theories stating modern humans have long since transitioned to long-term mating strategies (Buss, 2007; Eastwick, 2009). Due to their offensive nature, individuals who possess DT personalities struggle maintaining long-term relationships. Instead, these traits are thought to continue within the population by exploiting short-term mating strategies. A greater understanding of the connection between these maladaptive personality traits and sexuality/intimate relationships is necessary to advance insights into the persistence of such maladaptive traits. The current research aims to accomplish this by exploring beyond the associations between each of the global DT traits with specific aspects of sexually intimate relationships by examining the intercorrelations among relationship quality, sexuality, and the sub-factors underlying each of the three traits and across various personality inventories measuring these traits.
