Characterizing Stress Processes by Linking Big Five Personality States, Traits, and Day-to-Day Stressors.

The accumulation of day-to-day stressors can impact mental and physical health. How people respond to stressful events is a key mechanism responsible for the effects of stress, and individual differences in stress responses can either perpetuate or prevent negative consequences. Most research on daily stress processes has focused on affective responses to stressors, but stress responses can involve more than just affect (e.g., behavior, cognitions). Additionally, most research has studied the role of neuroticism in shaping those responses, but many other individual differences are associated with stress. In this study, we more broadly characterized daily stress processes by expanding the nomological networks of stress responses to include Big Five personality states. We also linked those stress responses to all Big Five traits, as well as individual differences in stress variety, severity, and controllability. We studied a sample of participants (N = 1,090) who reported on stressful events, their appraisal of events in terms of severity and controllability, and their Big Five personality states daily for 8-10 days (N = 8,870 observations). Multi-level structural equation models were used to separate how characteristics of the perceived stressful situation and characteristics of the person play into daily stress processes. Results showed that (1) all Big Five personality states shift in response to perceived stress, (2) all Big Five personality traits relate to average levels of perceived stress variety, severity, and controllability, (3) individual differences in personality and average perceived stress variety and perceived severity relate to the strength of personality state responses to daily stress, albeit in a more limited fashion. Our results point to new pathways by which stressors affect people in everyday life and begin to clarify processes that may explain individual differences in risk or resilience to the harmful effects of stress.

Translating the Transdiagnostic: Aligning Assessment Practices With Research Advances.

Researchers and clinicians working within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fifth Edition, Text Rev (DSM-5-TR) framework face a difficult question: what does it mean to have an evidence-based assessment of a nonevidence-based diagnostic construct? Alternative nosological approaches conceptualize psychopathology as (a) hierarchical, allowing researchers to move between levels of description and (b) dimensional, eliminating artificial dichotomies between disorders and the dichotomy between mental illness and mental well-being. In this article, we provide an overview of ongoing efforts to develop validated measures of transdiagnostic nosologies (i.e., the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology; HiTOP) with applications for measurement-based care. However, descriptive models like HiTOP, which summarize patterns of covariation among psychopathology symptoms, do not address dynamic processes underlying the problems associated with psychopathology. Ambulatory assessment, well-suited to examine such dynamic processes, has also developed rapidly in recent decades. Thus, the goal of the current article is twofold. First, we provide a brief overview of developments in constructing valid measures of the HiTOP model as well as developments in ambulatory assessment practices. Second, we outline how these parallel developments can be integrated to advance measurement-based treatment. We end with a discussion of some major challenges for future research to address to integrate advances more fully in transdiagnostic and ambulatory assessment practices.

The Relative Importance of Psychopathy Features as Predictors of Externalizing Behaviors in Youth: A Multimethod Examination.

Research in youth psychopathy has focused heavily on the affective features (i.e., callous-unemotional [CU] traits) given robust links to severe and chronic forms of externalizing behaviors. Recently, there have been calls to expand the scope of work in this area to examine the importance of other interpersonal (i.e., antagonism) and behavioral (i.e., disinhibition) features of psychopathy. In the present study, we apply an under-utilized statistical approach (i.e., dominance analysis) to assess the relative importance of CU traits, antagonism, and disinhibition in the prediction of externalizing behaviors in youth, cross-sectionally and at 9-month follow-up. Using a multi-informant (youth- and parent-report), multi-method (questionnaire, ecological momentary assessment [EMA]) preregistered approach in a diverse sample of clinically referred youth (Mage = 12.60 years, SD = .95 years, 47% female; 61% racial/ethnic minority), we found youth- and parent-reported psychopathy features accounted for a significant proportion of variance in externalizing behavior cross-sectionally and longitudinally. However, results provided limited support for our preregistered hypotheses. While antagonism and disinhibition had larger general dominance weights relative to CU traits for both youth- and parent-report, most differences were non-significant. Thus, the interpersonal, affective, and behavioral psychopathy features could not be distinguished from one another in terms of their importance in the prediction of externalizing behavior, assessed cross-sectionally or longitudinally. Taken together, the results highlight promising avenues for future research on the relative importance of youth psychopathy features.

Moderation effects in personality disorder research.

Tests of statistical interactions (or tests of moderation effects) in personality disorder research are a common way for researchers to examine nuanced hypotheses relevant to personality pathology. However, the nature of statistical interactions makes them difficult to reliably detect in many research scenarios. The present study used a flexible, simulation-based approach to estimate statistical power to detect trait-by-trait interactions common to psychopathy research using the Triarchic model of Psychopathy and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory. Our results show that even above-average sample sizes in these literatures (e.g., N = 428) provide inadequate power to reliably detect trait-by-trait interactions, and the sample sizes needed to detect interaction effect sizes in realistic scenarios are extremely large, ranging from 1,300 to 5,200. The implications for trait-by-trait interactions in psychopathy are discussed, as well as how the present findings might generalize to other areas of personality disorder research. We provide recommendations for how to design research studies that can provide informative tests of interactions in personality disorder research, but also highlight that a more realistic option is to abandon the traditional approach when testing for interaction effects and adopt alternative approaches that may be more productive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Antagonism in Daily Life: An Exploratory Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Interpersonal Antagonism is one of the major domains of maladaptive personality. Structural-based investigations of Antagonism have generally been consistent in highlighting the more specific antagonistic traits (e.g., manipulativeness, callousness) that underlie the broader domain. However, less work has attempted to merge structural and functional accounts of Antagonism to assess how specific antagonistic traits manifest in daily life. This exploratory study examined how Antagonism and its specific features relate to outcomes assessed using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods. Across four independent EMA samples (N range=297-396; total N = 1,365; observations per outcome=5,419-17,735), we investigated how antagonistic traits related to theoretically relevant, EMA-based outcomes (e.g., affect, empathy, coldness-warmth in interpersonal interactions). Results showed robust findings across samples and operationalizations of Antagonism (e.g., Antagonism's relation with negative affect), along with more mixed results (e.g., Antagonism's relation with different measures of empathy). We discuss future research directions for structural and functional accounts of Antagonism.

Reliability of Differential Item Functioning in Alcohol Use Disorder: Bayesian Meta-Analysis of Criteria Discrimination Estimates.

Numerous studies leverage item response theory (IRT) methods to examine measurement characteristics of alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnostic criteria. Less work has examined the consistency of AUD IRT parameter estimates, an essential step for establishing measurement invariance, making statements about symptom diagnosticity, and validating the theoretical construct. A Bayesian meta-analysis of IRT discrimination values for AUD criteria across 33 independent samples (Total N = 321,998) revealed that overall consistency of AUD criteria discriminations was low (generalized intraclass correlation range = .105-.249). However, specific study characteristics accounted for substantial variability, suggesting that the unreliability is partially systematic. We replicated evidence of differential item functioning (DIF) via established factors (e.g., age, gender), but the magnitudes were small compared with DIF associated with assessment instrument. These results offer practical recommendations regarding which instruments to use when specific AUD criteria are of interest and which criteria are most sensitive when comparing demographic groups.

An empirically based power primer for laboratory aggression research.

Recent reviews suggest that, like much of the psychological literature, research studies using laboratory aggression paradigms tend to be underpowered to reliably locate commonly observed effect sizes (e.g., r = ~.10-.20, Cohen's d = ~0.20-0.40). In an effort to counter this trend, we provide a "power primer" that laboratory aggression researchers can use as a resource when planning studies using this methodology. Using simulation-based power analyses and effect size estimates derived from recent literature reviews, we provide sample size recommendations based on type of research question (e.g., main effect vs. two-way vs. three-way interactions) and correlations among predictors. Results highlight the large number of participants that must be recruited to reach acceptable (~80%) power, especially for tests of interactions where the recommended sample sizes far exceed those typically employed in this literature. These discrepancies are so substantial that we urge laboratory aggression researchers to consider a moratorium on tests of three-way interactions. Although our results use estimates from the laboratory aggression literature, we believe they are generalizable to other lines of research using behavioral tasks, as well as psychological science more broadly. We close by offering a series of best practice recommendations and reiterating long-standing calls for attention to statistical power as a basic element of study planning.

Exploring Gender Differences in Machiavellianism Using a Measurement Invariance Approach.

Research suggests that men and women differ on mean levels of Dark Triad personality constructs such as Machiavellianism, but few studies have investigated whether or not these differences are due to actual latent trait differences or bias in measurement. Further, recent research suggests important challenges associated with existing measures of MACH in terms of overlap with psychopathy and matching expert descriptions. The present study took a recently developed measure of Machiavellianism (the Five Factor Machiavellianism Inventory; FFMI), based on the five-factor model, and examined its invariance across gender. Strong (or scalar) factorial invariance was established, indicating that latent factor means can be compared between men and women using this measure. Mean-level differences showed that men had higher levels of latent factors related to antagonism and social dominance. In terms of total score, men reported significantly higher mean levels of Machiavellianism. The findings of the present study lend support to the notion that mean level differences in Machiavellianism across gender are not artifacts of measurement bias.

Examining the conceptual and empirical distinctiveness of Agreeableness and "dark" personality items.

OBJECTIVE: A growing research literature has focused on what have been termed "dark" personality traits/constructs. More recently, the "dark factor" of personality has been proposed as a unifying framework for this research. To date, little work has rigorously investigated whether the traits/constructs investigated in the context of the dark factor can be captured by existing models of normative personality, namely Agreeableness from the Five-factor Model. Thus, the "dark factor" may be an instance of the "jangle" fallacy, where two constructs with different names are in fact the same construct. METHOD: We used a preregistered approach that made use of bass-ackward factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and nomological network analysis to investigate the distinction between the D factor and Agreeableness. RESULTS: Agreeableness and the D factor were similar in their coverage of antagonistic personality content, strongly negatively related (latent r = -.90), and showed near perfect profile dissimilarity (rICC  = -.99). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that the D factor can be understood as the opposite pole of Agreeableness (i.e., antagonism) and not as a distinct construct. We discuss the implications for researchers interested in continuing to advance the study of antagonistic personality traits.

Untangling the Relation Between Narcissistic Traits and Behavioral Aggression Following Provocation Using an FFM Framework.

Work on narcissism has identified two variants: grandiose and vulnerable. The variants share an antagonistic core, but differ in neuroticism and extraversion. The current study explored how the variants relate to behavioral aggression following provocation. Results showed an interaction between grandiose narcissism and condition, such that grandiose narcissism was positively related to aggression only among those who were provoked, though the magnitude of this interaction was dependent on which measure of grandiose narcissism was used. A similar effect for vulnerable narcissism was not found. Moderated mediation analyses showed that antagonism-related traits were responsible for this relation. For vulnerable narcissism, moderated mediation results showed competing relations among vulnerable narcissism components-neuroticism-related traits were negatively related while antagonism-related traits were positively related. Results are discussed in the context of previous work. Antagonism-related traits, as opposed to traits related to extraversion and neuroticism, are most important in explaining narcissistic aggression.

The Importance of Antagonism: Explaining Similarities and Differences in Psychopathy and Narcissism's Relations With Aggression and Externalizing Outcomes.

Psychopathy and narcissism are multidimensional constructs with substantial overlap. Low agreeableness (i.e., antagonism) features prominently in clinical and theoretical descriptions of both disorders. The authors examined whether antagonism components of their assessments accounted for the overlap between narcissism and psychopathy. Next, they tested whether the antagonism components were responsible for the relations that narcissism and psychopathy bore to aggression outcomes. Using multiple regression, the authors found that the low agreeableness component accounted for the majority of overlap between psychopathy and narcissism, nearly all of the variance in narcissism's relations with aggression outcomes, and the majority of variance in psychopathy's relations with aggression outcomes. Disinhibitory traits, which serve to distinguish psychopathy from narcissism, accounted for incremental variance in aggression outcomes for psychopathy. Results are discussed in the context of the overlap between narcissism and psychopathy. The authors argue that low agreeableness is largely responsible for the maladaptive outcomes associated with grandiose narcissism and psychopathy.

Using item-level analyses to better understand the consequences of partialing procedures: An example using the Dark Triad.

OBJECTIVE: Partialing procedures are frequently used in psychological research. The present study sought to further explore the consequences of partialing, focusing on the replicability of partialing-based results. METHOD: We used popular measures of the Dark Triad (DT; Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) to explore the replicability of partialing procedures. We examined whether the residual content of popular DT scales is similar to the residual content of DT scales derived from separate samples based on relations with individual items from the IPIP-NEO-120, allowing for a finer-grained analysis of residual variable content. RESULTS: Profiles were compared using three sample sizes (Small N = 156-157, Moderate N = 313-314, Large N = 627-628) randomly drawn from a large MTurk sample (N = 1,255). There was low convergence between original and residual DT scales within samples. Additionally, results showed that the content of residual Dirty Dozen scales was not similar across samples. Comparable results were found for short Dark Triad-Machiavellianism, but only in the moderate and small samples. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that there are important issues that arise when using partialing procedures, including replicability issues surrounding residual variables. Reasons for the observed results are discussed and further research examining the replicability of residual-based results is recommended.

The "core" of the dark triad: A test of competing hypotheses.

As research on the dark triad (DT; the interrelated constructs of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) has accumulated, a subset of this research has focused on explicating what traits may account for the overlap among the DT members. Various candidate traits have been investigated, with evidence supporting several of them, including antagonism (vs. agreeableness), honesty-humility, and callousness and interpersonal manipulation (the latter 2 as a set). The present study sought to test the leading candidates against one another in their ability to account for the shared variance among the DT members. Using a preregistered analytical plan, we found that agreeableness (as measured by the International Personality Item Pool-NEO-120), honesty-humility (H/H) from the HEXACO-Personality Inventory, and the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale subscales of Callous Affect and Interpersonal Manipulation accounted for all or nearly all of the shared variance among the DT members. Big Five Inventory (BFI)-based measures of Agreeableness (BFI and BFI-2) accounted for notably less variance in most cases. The results were consistent across 2 large samples (Ns of 627 and 628) and across various DT measurement approaches. We argue that the most parsimonious explanation for findings on the core of the DT is that such traits all fall under the umbrella of antagonism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Using Dominance Analysis to Decompose Narcissism and Its Relation to Aggression and Externalizing Outcomes.

Research on narcissism has shown it to be multidimensional construct. As such, the relations the larger construct bear with certain outcomes may mask heterogeneity apparent at the more basic trait level. This article used the Five Factor Narcissism Inventory, a Five-Factor Model-based measure of narcissism that allows for multiple levels of analysis, to examine the relative importance of narcissistic traits in relation to aggression, externalizing behavior, and self-esteem outcomes in two independent samples. The relative importance of the narcissism factors was determined through the use of dominance analysis-a relatively underused method for determining relative importance among a set of related predictors. The results showed that antagonism, compared with agentic extraversion and neuroticism, was the dominant predictor across all forms of aggressive behavior. Additional analyses showed that subscales within the broader factor of antagonism also showed differential importance relative to one another for certain aggression outcomes. The results are discussed in the context of the relation between narcissism and aggression and highlight the utility of using extensions of regression-based analyses to explore the heterogeneity within personality constructs.

Using Bayesian methods to update and expand the meta-analytic evidence of the five-factor model's relation to antisocial behavior.

The Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality is the dominant hierarchical model of personality. Previous work has demonstrated the importance of the FFM domains and facets in understanding a variety of antisocial behaviors ranging from non-violent antisocial behavior to a variety of aggression outcomes. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to quantitatively summarize the empirical work that has examined these relations, as well as update and expand previous work in this area using Bayesian meta-analytic methods. A comprehensive search of available literature on the FFM and antisocial behavior was conducted and posterior distributions of effect sizes were computed for the FFM domains (across 12 antisocial outcomes). The meta-analytic results supported the primary importance of (low) Agreeableness and (low) Conscientiousness in predicting antisocial behavior across antisocial outcomes, with the exception of the outcome related to child molestation. The importance of Neuroticism was more dependent on the specific antisocial outcome under examination. The results are discussed in the context of the descriptive research on the FFM and antisocial behavior, and how Bayesian methods provide additional utility in estimation and prediction compared to more common frequentist methods. Furthermore, we recommend that future work on the FFM and antisocial behavior move towards process-level analyses to further examine how traits are implicated in different forms of antisocial behavior.

Development and preliminary validation of a five factor model measure of Machiavellianism.

Machiavellianism is characterized by planfulness, the ability to delay gratification, and interpersonal antagonism (i.e., manipulativeness and callousness). Although its theoretically positive relations with facets of Conscientiousness should help distinguish Machiavellianism from psychopathy, current measurements of Machiavellianism are indistinguishable from those of psychopathy in large part because of their assessment of low Conscientiousness. The goal of the present study was to create a measure of Machiavellianism that is more in line with theory using an expert-derived profile based on the 30 facets of the five-factor model (FFM) and then test the validity of that measure by comparing it with relevant constructs. Previously collected expert ratings of the prototypical Machiavellian individual on FFM facets yielded a profile of 13 facets including low Agreeableness and high Conscientiousness. Items were written to represent each facet, resulting in a 201-item Five Factor Machiavellianism Inventory (FFMI). Across 2 studies, with a total of 710 participants recruited via Mechanical Turk, the FFMI was reduced to its final 52-item form and was shown to relate as expected to measures of Big Five personality traits, current Machiavellianism measures, psychopathy, narcissism, ambition, and impulsivity. The FFMI is a promising alternative Machiavellianism measure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Differences among dark triad components: A meta-analytic investigation.

Since its emergence 14 years ago the dark triad (DT), composed of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, has become an increasingly popular research focus. Yet questions remain over whether the DT components are sufficiently distinct from another. We examined the nomological networks of each DT component through a meta-analysis of the available literature on the DT. We conducted 3 separate analyses-an examination of the average intercorrelations among the DT components (k = 156), an examination of similarities in each DT component's nomological network (k = 159), and an examination of the effect sizes between DT components and 15 outcome categories (k range = 7 to 42). Our results indicate that the nomological networks of psychopathy and Machiavellianism overlap substantially while narcissism demonstrated differential relations compared with psychopathy and Machiavellianism. These results remained relatively constant after controlling for DT assessment approach. We argue that the current literature on Machiavellianism may be better understood as a secondary psychopathy literature. Future directions for DT research are discussed in light of our meta-analytic results. (PsycINFO Database Record

Identifying Essential Features of Juvenile Psychopathy in the Prediction of Later Antisocial Behavior: Is There an Additive, Synergistic, or Curvilinear Role for Fearless Dominance?

Despite years of research, and inclusion of psychopathy DSM-5, there remains debate over the fundamental components of psychopathy. Although there is agreement about traits related to Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, there is less agreement about traits related to Fearless Dominance (FD) or Boldness. The present paper uses proxies of FD and Self-centered Impulsivity (SCI) to examine the contribution of FD-related traits to the predictive utility of psychopathy in a large, longitudinal, sample of boys to test four possibilities: FD 1. assessed earlier is a risk factor, 2. interacts with other risk-related variables to predict later psychopathy, 3. interacts with SCI interact to predict outcomes, and 4. bears curvilinear relations to outcomes. SCI received excellent support as a measure of psychopathy in adolescence; however, FD was unrelated to criteria in all tests. It is suggested that FD be dropped from psychopathy and that future research focus on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness.