The Dark Triad beyond the SPI: Providing Incremental Validity in Predicting Prosocial and Risky Behaviours

Personality measures have been criticized for their lack of coverage of some traits. As a result, researchers have examined and combined measures to better understand and predict target behaviours. The Supernumerary Personality Inventory (SPI; Paunonen, 2002) was designed to measure a wide range of personality traits, including antisocial tendencies. The Dark Triad (Paulhus & Williams, 2002) was developed specifically to measure the socially malevolent traits of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. Previous studies revealed significant correlations between the SPI traits and the Dark Triad traits, which suggest that the two measures may share some of the same theoretical underpinnings. The present study investigated the Dark Triad’s incremental validity beyond the SPI in predicting both prosocial and risky behaviours. Participants were 118 university students (31 males, 87 females) who completed self-report measures of the SPI and the Dark Triad traits. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted with the 10 SPI traits inputted in the first model, and the three Dark Triad traits inputted in the second model in order to predict a series of behavioural criteria. Results showed that the SPI significantly predicted risky behaviours, but not prosocial behaviours. It was also showed that the Dark Triad did not add incrementally to the SPI’s prediction of prosocial and risky behaviours

The combinative role of traits cheerfulness and seriousness in predicting resiliency and well-being: A moderated mediation model

Cheerfulness can be defined as the habitual tendency to possess a cheerful composure both alone and in social interactions (Ruch, Köhler, and van Thriel, 1996; 1997). While the construct of cheerfulness has been of significant interest to researchers, little attention has been given to trait seriousness. Both cheerfulness and seriousness have important clinical implications; for instance, depressed patients have reported lower cheerfulness and higher seriousness compared to healthy controls (Falkenberg, Jarmuzel, Bartels, & Wild, 2011). Thus, the present study seeks to address these traits collectively, providing a more comprehensive understanding of their roles in predicting resiliency and well-being. It was hypothesized that varying combinations of cheerfulness and seriousness would have distinct effects on resiliency, such that: cheerfulness and subjective well-being would be associated via resiliency, and the effect produced by resiliency would be moderated by seriousness. Participants were 646 college students and their family members who completed a self-report battery of the state-trait cheerfulness inventory, resiliency, and subjective well-being (SWB). A moderated mediation model was used, with seriousness as a moderator and resiliency as the mediator between cheerfulness and SWB. Results demonstrated that seriousness moderated the association between cheerfulness and resiliency, which subsequently predicted better SWB. Individuals with high cheerfulness did not differ in resiliency at different levels of seriousness, but individuals with low cheerfulness reported greater resiliency at higher levels of seriousness. The present study contributes to a better understanding of the ways in which possessing a cheerful disposition together with a serious frame of mind can impact resiliency

In search of the “prosocial personality”: Disentangling empathy, compassion, and altruism

Background: Although considerable research has examined situational factors inprosocial behaviour,prosocial traitsare poorly defined. The same labelsare appliedto different constructs, and different labels are applied to the same construct (e.g., “empathy,” “sympathy,” “compassion”).Furthermore, trait altruism lacks both a solid theoretical definition and adequate measures. The goal of this study is to semantically and statistically distinguish betweenprosocial constructs by developing a personality scale assessingprosocial tendencies. Method: A review of literature, drawing from various domains, revealed three constructs that may compriseprosocial personality: empathy (recognizing, understanding, and sharing in others’ emotions), compassion (expressing concern for others, seeking toalleviate their suffering), and altruism (selflessly giving/helping). Conceptual definitions of each construct guided item generation, and expert ratersevaluated these itemsprior to administration. The sample will be approximately 300 students. Planned Analyses: For construct validation, the scale will be compared with other measures of empathy, compassion, altruism,as well as measures of alexithymia, gratitude, and self-compassion. Exploratory factor analysis will examine the underlying factor structure of the items, anditems with poor psychometric properties will be discarded. Although itis expected that a three-factor structure will emerge,other factor solutions will be considered. The final scale will be approximately 30 items (10 per subscale). Conclusion: Besides disentangling these constructs, the scale will also provide theoretical contrast to the Dark Triad/Tetrad. Future studies will attempt to replicate the factor structure of the scale and examine whether empathy, compassion, and altruism differentially predictprosocial behaviour

The Resiliency Scale for Young Adults Revisited

Resiliency has been examined in past research using a scale for children and adolescents, called the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents (RSCA; Prince-Embury, 2006, 2007). This scale is based on a three-factor model for resiliency that includes Sense of Mastery, Sense of Relatedness, and Emotional Reactivity (Prince-Embury, 2006, 2007). The RSCA has recently been revised for young adults, by developing the Resiliency Scale for Young Adults (RSYA). The RSYA is a 50-item self-report measure, with each item rated on a scale from 0 = Never; to 4 = Almost always. The current study is a replication of a study by Prince-Embury et al. (2016) that presented psychometric support for the RSYA. A sample of first year undergraduate students at Western University (similar to the sample collected in the 2016 study), were administered the online RSYA at two time points during the Fall 2016 semester. The current study examines the internal consistency and the test-retest reliability of this measure, as well as replicating various analyses completed in the 2016 study. The results supported the internal consistency and also the test-retest reliability of the RSYA, which also showed negative relationships with stress, anxiety, depression and a positive relationship with life satisfaction. This scale holds promise for further studies of resiliency in young adults