Chapter 4: Big Five, Dark pers

Dark Personalities

A set of socially aversive traits that are not extreme enough to be classified as clinical disorders but can influence behavior in subtle and impactful ways

Dark Tetrad (4)

• An extension of the previously identified Dark Triad, the Dark Tetrad includes four traits:

  • Machiavellianism: Characterized by manipulation and exploitation of others.

  • Narcissism: Excessive self-love and a need for admiration.

  • Psychopathy: Lack of empathy and remorse, often associated with antisocial behavior.

  • Everyday Sadism: Deriving pleasure from inflicting pain or discomfort on others

Dark personalities & implications

• Interpersonal relationships: Detrimental to social harmony (manipulation, deceit, or exploitation

• Workplace dynamics: → Toxic envi, decreased morale, unethical behav

• Psyc assess: Can help identifying traits and evaluate interventions

SEB skills (Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills)

• People’s capacities to maintain social relationships, regulate emotions, and manage goal- and learning-directed behaviors—personal qualities that can be distinguished from cognitive ability as measured by intelligence tests

• Unlike personality traits (which are stable tendencies), SEB skills are abilities people can use and improve

• Success is determined by SEB skills, not just intelligence and opportunities

• SEB skills promote positive outcomes for school, work, social relationships, health, and well-being

SEB Skills as Capacities

• Should recognize SEB skills as abilities that can be developed and applied in different contexts, rather than fixed traits.

Practical implications: Education (beyond grading, build lifelong skills), workplace (recruit and train based on demonstrable skills (communication, adaptability), assessment (measure skills in action than self-report)

SEB Integrative Model (5 domains)

• Self-management: Discipline, persistence, org

• Collaboration: Teamwork, cooperation

• Engagement w others: Assertiveness, leadership

• Emotional regulation: Stress management, coping strategies

• Open-mindedness: Curiosity, adaptability, cultural competence

‘Everyday Sadists’ Among Us

• "Everyday sadists"—ordinary people (not like fictional villains)—can still take pleasure in inflicting or witnessing moderate harm, like violent video games, mean humor, bullying, or even tormenting a struggling classmate.

• Erin Buckels et al.:  Par given a choie among unpleasant tasks: Killing bugs, cleaning toilets, enduring ice water or simply watch others do unpleasant tasks

  • Ppl w higher sadism score: chose the bug-killing option, who also report pleasure from this (even the bugs were fake)

• Measurable personality trait that belongs alongside other known negative traits (like narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism), forming what researchers call the Dark Tetrad

Why this matters:Recognizing everyday sadism in otherwise “normal” individuals broadens our understanding of human behavior and empathy deficits

4 ways to study personality

1. Single-trait approach

2. Many-trait approach

3. Essential-trait approach

4. Typological approach

Single-trait approach

• Starts with a trait of interest

• Main question: What do people that score high (versus low) on a certain personality trait do?

• Examine correlations between one trait and many outcomes

• Examples: intelligence, grit, courage

Many-Trait Approach

• Starts with an outcome of interest

• Main question: Who displays that behaviour (life outcome/attitude)?

• Examine correlations between one outcome and many traits

• Examples: California Q-Set (100 personality descriptions sorted into a forced choice, symmetrical normal distribution)

Essential-Trait Approach

• Search for the most important, relevant traits

• Main question: Which traits do really matter and how can we reduce the many traits to a few, essential ones?

• Theoretical approaches (e.g., Murray’s 20 needs)

• Empirical/ factor-analytic approaches (e.g., Big Five)

Typological Approach

• Idea: The structure of traits across individuals is not the same thing as the structure of personality within a person

• Important differences between people may be qualitative

• Thinks of personality as distinct personality types (versus independent traits across a spectrum that collectively make up someone’s personality)

• Ex. MBTI

  • Extroversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)

  • Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)

  • Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)

  • Judgment (J) vs. Perception (P)

• Personality type: Summary of standing on several traits

• Popular in education, marketing

• Aligns with widespread lay conception of personality

Openness / Open-Mindedness

• Fuzziest and most difficult to label trait

• Now called Openness or Open-Mindedness (highlights Openness to new mental (versus social) experiences)

• Facets: Intellectual Curiosity, Aesthetic Sensitivity, Creative Imagination

• Typical for people high in Openness: creative, imaginative, open-minded,clever, intellectual, unconventional, politically liberal, appreciation for art, aesthetics, poetry, theatre and nature, more likely to use drugs and play musical instrument

• Typical for people low in Openness: Narrow interests, inartistic,unimaginative, avoidance of philosophical or intellectual discussions

Conscientiousness

• Facets: Organization, Productiveness, Responsibility

• Typical for people high in Conscientiousness: organised, hard-working, neat, punctual, self-disciplined, persevering, rule-abiding, dutiful, ambitious, careful and considerate drivers, valuable employees, healthy (physically active, less smoking, overeating, drinking, drug abuse, sexual risk-taking), higher life expectancy

• Typical for people low in Conscientiousness: spontaneous, careless, lax, unreliable, hedonistic

Downsides of Conscientiousness

• Difficulty of coping with falling short of expectations

• Tend to link life satisfaction and self-worth to achievements

• When C is too high it can turn into OCD

Extraversion

• Facets: Sociability, Assertiveness, Energy Level

• Typical for people high in Extraversion: active, outspoken, energetic, chatty, dominant, adventurous, enthusiastic, cheerful, upbeat, optimistic, fun-loving, life-of-the-party, crave stimulation

• Typical for people low in Extraversion: quiet, introverted, prefer a cozy evening reading to a loud party, may be seen as shy, aloof, sober, unenthusiastic

Agreeableness

• Other labels for this personality dimension: conformity, friendly compliance, likeability, warmth, love

• Facets: Compassion, Respectfulness, Trust

• Typical for people high in Agreeableness: cooperative, easy to get along, tend to agree with others and say nice things about them, good-natured, forgiving, helpful, good sense of humour, greater relationship satisfaction, high number of social interests

• Typical for people low in Agreeableness: manipulative, confidently asserting their own rights, irritable, uncooperative, rude

• Women tend to be more agreeable than men

Downsides of agreeableness

• Agreeableness tax (not knowing how to say no)

• Gullibility (being easily deceived or tricked)

• Can be seen as push-overs (easily influenced)

Neuroticism

• Also known as negative emotionality or by its opposite: emotional stability

• Facets: Anxiety, Depression, Emotional Volatility

• Typical for people high in Neuroticism: anxiety, sadness, strong negative reactions to stress, insecurity, frequent worrying, hypochondriac, mood swings, easily upset, tendencies to be temperamental and feel blue and inadequate

• Typical for people low in Neuroticism: laid-back, relaxed approach, handle stress well, resilience, calmness, hardiness, good emotional control

• Neuroticism is associated with various undesirable outcomes including:

• Unhappiness, poor mental and physical health, relationship problems, low job and life satisfaction

Honesty-Humility (H)

• Added to the Big 5 in model HEXACO

• A person's tendency to be sincere, fair, and modest, avoiding manipulation and exploitation of others

The Dark Tetrad

• Taxonomy of dark personality (traits that are socially aversive, but not clinical)

• Narcissism (grandiose self-promotion and continuous craving for attention)

• Machiavellianism (masterful manipulation of others towards one’s own gain)

• Psychopathy (callous thrill-seeking; most harmful of the four)

• Sadism (getting enjoyment and a kick out of hurting others verbally and physically)

The MBTI: Reasons for continuous popularity

• Outstanding marketing

• Offers seemingly rich and intriguing descriptions of each personality type (with some help from the Barnum effect)

• All types are explained positively (no bad scores, each type is a “different gift”)

• People enjoy learning about their type

MBTI: Criticisms

• Not useful for predicting or selecting life outcomes

• Categorisation distorts real differences

• Two people with the same trait (E vs. I) could be more different than two people with the diff trait

• Measurement is not reliable

• No evidence that different types follow, persist in, or succeed in different jobs

Big five types

• Data-driven approach: latent profile analyses across four large-scale datasets

• Ntotal > 1.5 million individuals mostly from US and UK who completed Big Five

• Idea: are there specific trait constellations that keep showing up across all these people and samples?

• Finding: 4 recurrent profiles (“Average”,“Self-Centered”, “Reserved”, “Role Model”)

The Contribution of Traits

• Formalised system to describe and quantify individual differences in personality

• Ability to predict behaviour, performance, and life outcomes

• But also: getting closer to an actual understanding of why people do what they do, conceptual understanding of how personalities work and manifest in everyday life

• Understanding as the ultimate goal in science (above – and in addition to – description, and prediction)