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Scientific Reports Feb 2024This study analyzed the effects of the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism) and self-concealment on social appearance anxiety. Empirical...
This study analyzed the effects of the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism) and self-concealment on social appearance anxiety. Empirical investigations on which personality traits influence social appearance anxiety are yet missing. In this study, a sample of N = 1186 Chinese students performed a questionnaire-based survey assessing different personality facets and social appearance anxiety tendencies. Measures included the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, the Machiavellian Personality Scale, the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale, the Self-concealment Scale, and the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that psychopathy, Machiavellianism, sadism, and self-concealment positively predicted social appearance anxiety and narcissism negatively predicted social appearance anxiety. Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism, and self-concealment were positive predictors of social appearance anxiety, whereas narcissism was a negative predictor. These findings provide insight into the complex nature of the Dark Tetrad and their influence on social appearance anxiety.
Topics: Humans; Personality; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Machiavellianism; Personality Disorders; Narcissism; Anxiety
PubMed: 38409247
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-55422-w -
International Journal of Environmental... Jan 2024There is mounting concern over the potential harms associated with ultra-processed foods, including poor mental health and antisocial behavior. Cutting-edge research...
There is mounting concern over the potential harms associated with ultra-processed foods, including poor mental health and antisocial behavior. Cutting-edge research provides an enhanced understanding of biophysiological mechanisms, including microbiome pathways, and invites a historical reexamination of earlier work that investigated the relationship between nutrition and criminal behavior. Here, in this perspective article, we explore how this emergent research casts new light and greater significance on previous key observations. Despite expanding interest in the field dubbed 'nutritional psychiatry', there has been relatively little attention paid to its relevancy within criminology and the criminal justice system. Since public health practitioners, allied mental health professionals, and policymakers play key roles throughout criminal justice systems, a holistic perspective on both historical and emergent research is critical. While there are many questions to be resolved, the available evidence suggests that nutrition might be an underappreciated factor in prevention and treatment along the criminal justice spectrum. The intersection of nutrition and biopsychosocial health requires transdisciplinary discussions of power structures, industry influence, and marketing issues associated with widespread food and social inequalities. Some of these discussions are already occurring under the banner of 'food crime'. Given the vast societal implications, it is our contention that the subject of nutrition in the multidisciplinary field of criminology-referred to here as nutritional criminology-deserves increased scrutiny. Through combining historical findings and cutting-edge research, we aim to increase awareness of this topic among the broad readership of the journal, with the hopes of generating new hypotheses and collaborations.
Topics: Food, Processed; Criminology; Crime; Criminal Law
PubMed: 38397611
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph21020120 -
Children (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2024Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by low empathy, guilt, and prosociality, putting children at risk for lifespan antisocial behavior. Elevated CU traits...
BACKGROUND
Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by low empathy, guilt, and prosociality, putting children at risk for lifespan antisocial behavior. Elevated CU traits have been linked separately to difficulties with emotion understanding (i.e., identifying emotional states of others) and disrupted parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) functioning. However, no study has investigated how PNS functioning and emotion understanding are jointly related to CU traits.
METHOD
We explored associations between CU traits, emotion understanding, and PNS functioning (indexed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) among children aged 7-10 years old ( = 55). We also tested whether deficits in emotion understanding differ across specific emotions (i.e., fear, pain, happiness, anger). Each child's RSA was continuously recorded while they watched a film that included emotionally evocative social interactions. To assess emotion understanding, children identified emotions replayed in 1s animations of scenes from the film. Parents reported on child CU traits, conduct problems, and demographic information.
RESULTS
Higher CU traits were related to lower emotion understanding ( = -0.43, = 0.03). PNS activity during the film moderated this association ( = -0.47, < 0.001), such that CU traits were associated with lower emotion understanding among children with mean (B = -0.01, = -2.46, = 0.02) or high (i.e., 1 > ; B = -0.02, = -3.00, < 0.001) RSA levels during the film, but not among children with low RSA levels (i.e., 1 < M; B = 0.00, = -0.53, = 0.60). Moreover, we found that the observed moderated associations are driven by deficits in fear, specifically.
CONCLUSIONS
The link between poorer emotion understanding, fear understanding in particular, and CU traits was attenuated for children who demonstrated patterns of PNS functioning consistent with attentional engagement while viewing the emotion stimuli.
PubMed: 38397296
DOI: 10.3390/children11020184 -
Scientific Reports Feb 2024The Dark Tetrad (DT) is composed of the traits of Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Sadism. Most studies analyzing the DT have employed a variable-centered...
The Dark Tetrad (DT) is composed of the traits of Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Sadism. Most studies analyzing the DT have employed a variable-centered approach, analyzing the traits separately. In the present study, we treat DT as a whole, adopting a person-centered approach. We analyzed different homogeneous subgroups of individuals characterized by specific DT profiles, aiming to examine their relationship with Big Five personality factors. A sample of 1149 participants (50.1% women, 18-79 years) completed The Short Dark Triad and the Assessment of Sadistic Personality instrument to assess DT, while the Mini-IPIP was used to assess the Big Five personality factors. Cluster analysis yielded five groups: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Mean DT, Low DT, and High DT group. The main results showed that the High DT group was distinguished by higher levels of extraversion and lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness (compared with the Low DT group). Moreover, the Narcissism group was characterized by higher scores on emotional stability, openness to experience, and extraversion. Finally, distribution according to gender varied across DT groups (more men than women in the High DT group and the opposite in the Low DT group). Limitations and future lines of research are discussed.
Topics: Male; Humans; Female; Personality; Machiavellianism; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Sadism; Narcissism
PubMed: 38396168
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-55074-w -
PloS One 2024This study presents and validates the Italian adaptation of the Dark Tetrad at Work (DTW) scale, an instrument for assessing four socially aversive personality traits...
This study presents and validates the Italian adaptation of the Dark Tetrad at Work (DTW) scale, an instrument for assessing four socially aversive personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and sadism) in the context of the workplace. A total of 300 Italian-speaking participants (50% female, M age = 32 years ± 9.2) and 253 English-speaking participants (38% female, M age = 39 years ± 12.1) were recruited via an online survey platform. The Italian-speaking sample was used to test the factorial structure, reliability and criterion-related validity of the Italian version of the DTW, whereas the English-speaking sample was used to test cross-language measurement invariance. Results from confirmatory factor analysis showed that the original four-factor model provided the best fit to the data. The Italian DTW scale demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, with reliability coefficients of ω = .77 for narcissism, ω = .80 for Machiavellianism, and ω = .81 for both psychopathy and sadism. Concurrent associations between the DTW scales and negative and positive workplace outcomes supported the criterion validity of the scale. Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism positively correlated with counterproductive work behaviors and workplace bullying, and negatively with organizational citizenship behaviors and affective organizational commitment. In contrast, narcissism exhibited a unique pattern: It correlated positively with positive workplace behaviors and negatively with counterproductive behaviors toward the organization, but it was also found to be a significant predictor of workplace bullying. This finding may reflect multidimensional nature of narcissism, but a note of caution is warranted in interpreting this result, as all measurements relied on self-report instruments, introducing the possibility of socially desirable associations influencing the outcomes. Finally, the comparison with the English sample established configural, full metric and partial scale invariance, allowing for valid cross-language comparisons between Italian and English-speaking populations in the future. Preliminary Italian normative data were provided to offer a benchmark for the interpretation of DTW values. This study provides a reliable and valid instrument tailored to the Italian workforce, enhancing our understanding of dark personality traits within organizational contexts and providing organizations with an effective means to address and manage dark personality traits for a healthier workplace culture.
Topics: Humans; Female; Adult; Male; Reproducibility of Results; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Machiavellianism; Narcissism; Italy; Occupational Stress; Personality
PubMed: 38394098
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298880 -
Frontiers in Psychiatry 2024Emotion dysregulation (ED) has primarily been described in patients suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) and is an integral part of this diagnosis, but...
Emotion dysregulation (ED) has primarily been described in patients suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) and is an integral part of this diagnosis, but it is also a transdiagnostic construct that can be found in several other psychiatric disorders. The strong relationships between ED and BPD may lead clinicians to underestimate ED associated to other clinical contexts. This can lead to difficulties in diagnostic and treatment orientation, especially in the context of comorbidities. In this article, after reviewing the literature on the development and functioning of emotion dysregulation, and on the evidence for emotion dysregulation in eight disorders (borderline personality disorder, pathological narcissism with/without narcissistic personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), we present a transdiagnostic processual model of emotion dysregulation based on core triggers and interpersonal styles to try to address this issue and to provide a simple but technical tool to help clinicians in their diagnostic assessment and treatment orientation. By focusing more on typical patterns and interpersonal dynamics than only on categories, we believe that this model may contribute to the actual need for improvement of our current psychiatric classifications, alongside other well-studied and under-used dimensional models of psychopathology (e.g., HiTOP, AMPD), and may be useful to build more specific treatment frameworks for patients suffering from ED.
PubMed: 38384590
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1260138 -
International Journal of Law and... 2024International scientific research has extensively studied psychopathy, but few studies focus on an intercultural and postcolonial context. Mayotte, a French overseas...
International scientific research has extensively studied psychopathy, but few studies focus on an intercultural and postcolonial context. Mayotte, a French overseas collectivity located in East Africa, offers a unique opportunity to study the application and effects of psychopathy diagnosis in the criminal justice field within a social context shaped by colonial legacy. This research uses a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data, to show that in Mayotte, the majority of individuals diagnosed with psychopathy are young, low-income individuals who act in groups. Among them are minors, and the majority have no prior criminal history. This article provides a complementarist reflection on this phenomenon, informed by immersive field anthropology and theoretical contributions from psychology, sociology, and criminology. Through an inductive research process, this study posits the hypothesis that diagnoses of psychopathy in post-colonial contexts may be influenced by complex determinants rooted in collective history and contemporary power relations.
Topics: Humans; Comoros; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Criminals; Africa, Eastern; Social Environment
PubMed: 38382355
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijlp.2024.101963 -
Scientific Reports Feb 2024Youths with high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and aggression are at an increased risk for developing antisocial behaviours into adulthood. In this...
Youths with high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits and aggression are at an increased risk for developing antisocial behaviours into adulthood. In this population, neurostructural grey matter abnormalities have been observed in the prefrontal cortex. However, the directionality of these associations is inconsistent, prompting some to suggest they may vary across development. Although similar neurodevelopmental patterns have been observed for other disorders featuring emotional and behavioural dysregulation, few studies have tested this hypothesis for CU traits, and particularly not for aggression subtypes. The current study sought to examine grey matter correlates of CU traits and aggression (including its subtypes), and then determine whether these associations varied by age. Fifty-four youths (10-19 years old) who were characterized for CU traits and aggression underwent MRI. Grey matter volume and surface area within the anterior cingulate cortex was positively associated with CU traits. The correlation between CU traits and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) volume varied significantly as a function of age, as did the correlation between reactive aggression and mOFC surface area. These associations became more positive with age. There were no significant findings for proactive/total aggression. Results are interpreted considering the potential for delayed cortical maturation in youths with high CU traits/aggression.
Topics: Adolescent; Humans; Child; Young Adult; Adult; Conduct Disorder; Aggression; Emotions; Antisocial Personality Disorder; Prefrontal Cortex
PubMed: 38374428
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-54481-3 -
Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria (Sao... Feb 2024
PubMed: 38364014
DOI: 10.47626/1516-4446-2024-3536