A systematic comparison of three sadism measures and their ability to explain workplace mistreatment over and above the dark triad

The present study investigated a potential antecedent of workplace mistreatment, sadism, which represents the dispositional tendency to engage in cruel, demeaning, or harmful behavior for dominance or pleasure. Time-lagged data from 379 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers showed that sadism positively predicted interpersonal deviance, instigated incivility, and cyberbullying frequency above and beyond the dark triad. Moreover, relative weight analyses consistently identified sadism as the most important predictor of workplace mistreatment compared to other dark triad predictors. This study also sought to identify possible differences among three popular sadism scales. The three scales were interchangeable in terms of predicting the outcomes. Confirmatory factor analyses and differential item functioning analyses both revealed, however, that only the SSIS was invariant across sex groups.     

Genetics and adoption: Forming a partnership

Genetic issues are demanding more attention in the area of public health. Adoption agencies and policymakers are beginning to address these issues where they relate to the adoption process and to the many families involved in adoption in this country. Genetic counselors need to play an active role as both educators of and consultants for adoption professionals and the families with whom they work. To facilitate a partnership between genetics and adoption we have developed a workshop intended to educate adoption professionals about the lifelong implications of genetic conditions on the adoption triad.     

Understanding dark side personality at work: Distinguishing and reviewing nonlinear,interactive, differential,and reciprocal effects

The topic of dark side personality at work has received considerable research attention over the past decade, and both qualitative and quantitative reviews of this field have already been published. To show the relevance of dark personality in the work context, existing reviews have typically focused on systematically discussing the different criteria that have been linked to dark traits (e.g., job performance, work attitudes, leadership emergence, etc.). In contrast, and complementing this earlier work, the current review paper summarizes the available literature on this topic by structuring it in terms of the nature of the relationships studied rather than in terms of the types of outcome variables. Doing so, the focus shifts from “What are the outcomes of dark traits?” to “How are dark traits related to work outcomes?” Scrutinizing the nature of these relationships, we specifically focus on four types of effects (i.e., nonlinear, interactive, differential, and reciprocal) that highlight the complexity of how dark side traits operate in the work context. Structured this way, this review first provides a conceptual underpinning of each of these complex effects, followed by a summary of the empirical literature published over the past 10 years. To conclude, we present an integration of this field, provide suggestions for future research, and highlight concrete assessment challenges.     

The Middle Passage,Trauma and the Tragic Re-Imagination of African American Theology

African American Christian consciousness developed in response to the traumatic field in which African American subjectivity took shape. The expression of the faith in the African American tradition is fundamentally tragic as a consequence. The Middle Passage is the existential and symbolic nodal point of this experience. There is a sense in which African Americans remain very much on the water; marginalized and suspended between worlds. There is a deeper sense in which the African American situation and response reflects the condition of modernity and post-modernity in the sense that it is hardly more than modernity becoming conscious of itself. A thorough examination and exploration of its significance is essential to developing a theology that adequately expresses African American Christian consciousness. This paper is an attempt to lay out, what I think, are some of the basic components of the experience and the bare outlines or orientation of such a theology grounded in it.     

Facing a psychopath: Detecting the dark triad from emotionally-neutral faces, using prototypes from the Personality Faceaurus

Is facial structure a valid cue of the dark triad of personality (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy)? I obtained self-reports and peer reports of personality as well as expression-neutral photographs of targets, and then I created prototypes of people high and low on each of the three dimensions by digitally combining select photographs of Caucasian targets. The results indicated that unacquainted observers reliably detected the dark triad composite, especially in female prototypes. Thus, not only is the dark triad a set of psycho-social characteristics—it may also be a set of physical–morphological characteristics. In the Discussion, I introduce a website that stores these personality prototypes and many others (http://www.nickholtzman.com/faceaurus.htm).     

Personality and mate poaching experiences

Although previous research suggests Big Five (BF) and Dark Triad (DT) traits (Narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy) are related to mate poaching, no studies have simultaneously examined the effects of both groups of traits on poaching. This study examined BF and DT personality traits, as well as their higher order factors as predictors of mate poaching behaviors in short-term relationships among a sample of 819 university students. Results showed DT better predicted mate poaching experiences than BF traits, though they better predicted poaching success in men. Regarding specific traits, psychopathy from DT, and extraversion from BF, were the most consistent predictors of mate poaching experiences. Considering sex differences, DT better predicted being the target of poaching in women, and being successfully poached in men. There were no consistent sex differences in the effects of BF traits on mate poaching. Generally, personality traits better predicted poaching attempts, poaching success, and being the target of poaching than other poaching experiences. Possible different roles of BF and DT traits for mate poaching experiences in men and women were discussed.     

Moral disengagement,the dark triad,and unethical consumer attitudes

PurposeBandura’s theory of moral disengagement explains how otherwise ethical persons can behave immorally. We examined whether a trait model of general personality and the “dark triad” underlay moral disengagement, the relationship these constructs have to unethical consumer attitudes, and whether moral disengagement provided incremental validity in the prediction of antisocial behaviour.MethodsSelf-report data were obtained from a community sample of 380 adults via an online survey that administered all measures.ResultsCorrelations between unethical consumer attitudes, lower Agreeableness, lower Conscientiousness, higher moral disengagement, higher psychopathy, and higher Machiavellianism were captured by a single factor. When this broad factor was examined using regression, demographic, personality and the dark triad traits all predicted moral disengagement, specific influences being age, education, Intellect, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. A similar model examining predictors of unethical consumer attitudes again found all blocks contributed to the outcome, with specific influence provided by age, Intellect, and moral disengagement, the latter showing incremental validity as a predictor of unethical consumer attitudes.ConclusionsMoral disengagement is based on low Agreeableness, Machiavellianism and psychopathic-type traits, but provides incremental validity in predicting antisocial attitudes to a trait model alone. Narcissism is neither related to moral disengagement, nor unethical consumer attitudes.     

Dark triad personality traits and theory of mind among school-age children

This study examined the associations between four personality dimensions associated with the dark triad (callous–unemotional traits, narcissism, impulsivity, and Machiavellianism) and theory of mind (TOM) abilities among 146 middle school children. Results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed narcissism to be positively associated with TOM, callous–unemotional (CU) traits to be negatively associated with TOM, and impulsivity and Machiavellianism to be unrelated to TOM. No significant interactions were found between gender and any of the dimensions of personality. The putative mechanisms linking each personality dimension with understanding of mental states in others are discussed, along with directions for future research.     

A Review of Eating Disorders in Athletes

SUMMARY

The current review aims to evaluate the literature on eating disorders and athletes with the purpose of making recommendations for sport psychologists and other relevant personnel on how to proceed in identifying, managing, and preventing eating disorders in school settings. Whereas the intention of this review is to make recommendations for secondary educational settings, research on other populations such as collegiate and young adult athletes was also reviewed where helpful or where information on adolescent athletes was not available. Recommendations for prevention and intervention include ongoing education of athletes and coaches regarding nutrition, body composition, and performance, using appropriate screening to detect eating disorders, and use of a sport management team to aid in athlete recovery.     

Is that all there is?

I take issue with two suggestions of Joel Feinberg's: first, that it is incoherent to suppose that human life as such is absurd, and, second, that a particular human life may be absurd and yet saved from being tragic by being fulfilled. I also argue that human life as such may well be absurd and I consider various responses to this.