Speaker
Abstract
Introduction: Dark personality consists of an association of different traits traditionally understood as socially aversive: Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, Narcissism, among others. A substantial amount of research discusses the overlap between these traits, as many of them share similar facets. Thus, a theoretical model is proposed, consisting of eight components (Authoritarianism, Greed, Cruelty, Insensitivity, Irresponsibility, Manipulation, Arrogance, and Vengeance), whose definitions do not overlap.
Objective: The aim of this research is to create a questionnaire that provides empirical evidence to support the aforementioned theoretical model.
Participants: Three samples from the general adult Spanish population were selected. The first two were used for the pilot study: one with 206 individuals (Mage = 39.53, SDage = 17.95, 73.79% women) and another with 237 (Mage = 43.63, SDage = 16.37, 67.09% women). The third sample was used for the main study, with 1,064 participants (Mage = 42.42, SDage = 13.38, 63.06% women).
Methodology: A set of 160 items was developed to assess the eight components, which were reviewed by a team of psychometricians and a panel of experts composed of 22 professionals from various fields of psychology. The initial items underwent a qualitative and quantitative pilot test (item analysis and exploratory factor analysis). After removing poorly performing items, the revised questionnaire was administered to the main sample to analyze each dimension using Item Response Theory techniques. Additionally, measurement invariance across sex, evidence of convergent/discriminant validity of its factors, and the internal structure of the complete battery were examined.
Conclusions: A final battery consisting of nine traits is proposed, whose scores have shown strong evidence of content validity and internal structure for assessing dark personality in the general adult Spanish population, confirming the proposed theoretical model. Limitations inherent to the assessment of these traits will be discussed, as well as future research directions, such as adapting this instrument to the organizational setting.
| Oral presentation | BERO: A New Perspective on the Psychometric Assessment of Socially Aversive Traits |
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| Author | García-Fernández, J., González-Nuevo, C. & Postigo, Á. |
| Affiliation | University of Oviedo, Department of Psychology |
| Keywords | Dark_Personality, Socially_Aversive_Traits, Psychometrics,Test_Construction; Measurement Invariance |
