TY - JOUR

T1 - Themes of the dark core of personality

AU - Bader, Martina

AU - Hartung, Johanna

AU - Hilbig, Benjamin E.

AU - Zettler, Ingo

AU - Moshagen, Morten

AU - Wilhelm, Oliver

PY - 2021/6/1

Y1 - 2021/6/1

N2 - Enduring patterns of socially aversive behavior are ascribed to stable personality disorders (such as narcissistic or antisocial tendencies) in clinical psychology or to so called "dark" traits in personality psychology. As recently shown, the substantial overlap among the latter constructs is attributable to a single underlying disposition, called the Dark Factor of Personality (D). Whereas evidence supports the conceptualization of D as the core of aversive traits, the structure of the specific factors of D received less empirical attention so far. To this end, this study further scrutinizes the internal structure of D with items stemming from 12 different aversive traits assessed in three large and heterogeneous samples (total N > 160,000). Specifically, we (a) explored the bifactor structure of D using a modified "bass-ackwards" approach, (b) cross-validated the identified factor solutions via confirmatory factor analyses, and (c) examined the empirical relation of D and the specific factors to five criterion measures. Results indicate that a bifactor structure modeling D along with five specific factors-or themes-labeled Callousness, Deceitfulness, Narcissistic Entitlement, Sadism, and Vindictiveness, best describes the internal structure of D. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

AB - Enduring patterns of socially aversive behavior are ascribed to stable personality disorders (such as narcissistic or antisocial tendencies) in clinical psychology or to so called "dark" traits in personality psychology. As recently shown, the substantial overlap among the latter constructs is attributable to a single underlying disposition, called the Dark Factor of Personality (D). Whereas evidence supports the conceptualization of D as the core of aversive traits, the structure of the specific factors of D received less empirical attention so far. To this end, this study further scrutinizes the internal structure of D with items stemming from 12 different aversive traits assessed in three large and heterogeneous samples (total N > 160,000). Specifically, we (a) explored the bifactor structure of D using a modified "bass-ackwards" approach, (b) cross-validated the identified factor solutions via confirmatory factor analyses, and (c) examined the empirical relation of D and the specific factors to five criterion measures. Results indicate that a bifactor structure modeling D along with five specific factors-or themes-labeled Callousness, Deceitfulness, Narcissistic Entitlement, Sadism, and Vindictiveness, best describes the internal structure of D. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - D factor

KW - dark factor of personality

KW - dark traits

KW - dark triad

KW - D70

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107086907&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1037/pas0001006

DO - 10.1037/pas0001006

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 33779194

AN - SCOPUS:85107086907

VL - 33

SP - 511

EP - 525

JO - Psychological Assessment

JF - Psychological Assessment

SN - 1040-3590

IS - 6

ER -