Age differences in Machiavellianism across the life span: Evidence from a large-scale cross-sectional study

Morality, self-control, age, type of offence and sentence length as predictors of psychopathy amongst female incarcerated offenders in South Africa

There has been an increase in female incarcerated offenders nationally and internationally. Despite this trend, literature and research on female offenders remain limited compared to their male counterparts. Evidence of the relationship between certain personality disorders and offending behaviour has led numerous countries to prioritise identifying and assessing personality disorders among the offender population. Psychopathic personality traits may contribute to women's risk factors for expressing antisocial behaviours, resulting in their potential future incarceration. Thus, a need exists to understand possible factors that may predict the expression of psychopathic traits in females, which may have notable utility among female offenders. This study aimed to investigate possible predictor variables of psychopathy amongst incarcerated female offenders in South Africa. A quantitative research approach, non-experimental research type, and correlational research design were employed. A convenience sampling technique was used. The sample consisted of 139 (N = 139) female offenders housed in two correctional centres in South Africa who voluntarily participated in this study. Correlation analyses and hierarchical regression analysis procedures were conducted to analyse the results. Results indicated (i) a certain combination of predictor variables that statistically and practically significantly explained both primary and secondary psychopathy and (ii) individual predictor variables (e.g., Impulsivity, Simple Tasks, Risk-Seeking, and Self-Centredness) that explained both primary and secondary psychopathy statistically and practically significantly. This study provides valuable information about the possible predictor variables of psychopathy amongst female offenders within the context of South Africa. However, further research must be conducted to validate these findings and advance our knowledge on this topic.

Research on the impact of the socio-educational environment on the academic performance of college students: the mediating role of study motivation

Background

Enhancing the academic performance (AP) of college students can contribute to the overall scientific literacy among this population, thereby fostering societal progress.

Objective

The study investigates the correlation between college students' AP and the socio-educational environment (SEE, including family, roommates, and teachers), study motivation (SM, including self-efficacy and study behaviors). Based on the research findings, recommendations are offered to students, educators, and school administrators.

Settings

Utilizing a stratified sampling approach, data was collected by selecting a sample of 330 first-year computer science students from a specific local university in Hebei Province, China.

Methods

Data will be collected through a hierarchical sampling method. Using correlation analysis, difference analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) as data analysis methods. The data passed reliability and validity analysis (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.88, KMO = 0.88, χ2/df = 1.49RMSEA = 0.04).

Results

The independent sample T-test results showed that female students had higher academic performance than male students (p < 0.001), and there was no significant difference in academic performance between students from single parent or orphan families and students from normal families (p = 0.14), from non urban areas and from urban areas (p = 0.67). The results of the mediating effect analysis indicate that SM exerts complete mediation in the association between SEE and AP, with a mediating effect value of 0.18.

Conclusion

The educational disparity between urban and rural areas in China is gradually narrowing. Support policies for students from impoverished families in higher education institutions are showing initial effectiveness. The conducive learning environment and educational atmosphere for students can indirectly influence their psychological state, thus impacting their academic performance during their university years.

The dark triad and depressive symptoms among chinese adolescents: moderated mediation models of age and emotion regulation strategies

Dark Triad has been found to relate with depressive symptoms, but the underlying mechanism was rarely investigated. In the present study, we examined the mediating effect of two emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and the moderating effect of gender and age. 709 Chinese adolescents aged 12-18 years (M = 14.54, SD = 1.70;55.3% girls) filled out the Dirty Dozen, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the 10-item of Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. As expected, Dark Triad was related with increased levels of depression and emotion regulation strategies acted as mediators in these associations. Suppression mediated the relationship between Machiavellianism and depression. Reappraisal and suppression mediated the link between psychopathy and depression. Reappraisal mediated the association between narcissism and depression. Besides, age moderated the effect of Machiavellianism on reappraisal, suggesting Machiavellianism had a negative impact on reappraisal for younger adolescents, but not for older adolescents. Age also moderated the effect of reappraisal on depression, indicating the negative effect of reappraisal on depression was stronger for younger adolescents than for older adolescents. These results address how Dark Triad traits affect depression via emotion regulation strategies and indicate the effectiveness of Dark Triad and emotion regulation strategies may change across age groups.

A Comprehensive and Person-Centered View of the Association Between the Dark Triad and Youth Mental Health

Using a dual person-centered approach, the current study examined the Dark Triad profiles and mental health profiles among a large-scale sample of high school students. The study also simultaneously examined whether the emerging Dark Triad profiles could diverge in mental health profiles, delineating a thorough, and person-centered view of this association. To achieve these research aims, 1,640 Chinese high school students (M age = 16.78; SD = 0.68; 57.6% females) participated in this study, and they were uniformly instructed to complete a set of well-established questionnaires. Results from latent profile analyses revealed five Dark Triad profiles-low Machiavellianism-psychopathy (7.4%), benevolent (61.7%), highly malevolent (6.7%), low narcissism (8.8%), and malevolent (15.4%)-and the following four mental health profiles: flourishing (37.7%), vulnerable (16.4%), troubled (33.9%), and highly troubled (12.4%). Moreover, results from multiple multinomial regression analyses showed that, among all five empirically derived Dark Triad profiles, students with the low Machiavellianism-psychopathy profile exhibited the highest probability of being "flourishing," whereas those with the low narcissism profile showed the highest likelihood of being "highly troubled."

Sex differences in the Dark Triad are sensitive to socioeconomic conditions: the adaptive value of narcissism in the UK, Greece, and China

Research has shown that levels of the Dark Triad (i.e., traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) vary across sex and age, with males and younger people reporting higher scores. The Dark Triad has also been found to be associated with personal economic status. We investigated whether sex and age differences in the Dark Triad varied across countries of different socioeconomic conditions. We further explored whether the dark traits predicted personal income to different extent across countries. We utilized three samples from the UK, Greece, and China (total N = 5,854), whose socioeconomic status varied from more to less developed according to the Human Development Index. Men scored higher than women on the Dark Triad, with the magnitude of sex differences being largest in the UK, followed by Greece and China. Younger people scored higher than older people on the Dark Triad, with the effect of age varying across countries. Narcissism positively predicted income, with its predictive power being significant in China and Greece but null in the UK. The results are consistent with the view that Dark Triad traits may be adaptive responses to environmental challenges. Specifically, the results suggest that sex differences in the Dark Triad and the relation between narcissism and personal income are responsive to socioeconomic conditions at the country level.

The development of social value orientation: Attachment styles, number of siblings, age, and a comparison of measures

Nearly 25 years ago, four studies examined the development of social value orientation (SVO) and uncovered that SVO was related to specific and general adult attachment, the number of siblings, and age. However, some of these findings have been challenged by two recent replication studies. The present (pre-registered) research extends these replication studies and the original research by using multiple measurements of both SVO and adult attachment on two large samples that allowed us to detect small effect sizes. With online samples ( N = 1446 and 2644) from MTurk and Prolific, we replicated earlier findings that prosociality was associated with a greater level of secure attachment and a lower level of avoidant attachment. Moreover, prosociality was positively related to the number of siblings, especially sisters, as discovered by Study 3 of the original study. However, we failed to replicate the significant relation between SVO and age. Generally, we conclude that prosocial orientation is associated—even if modestly—with secure and avoidant attachment and the number of siblings, but the link with age is a question open to future investigation.

The psychological and socio-political consequences of infectious diseases: Authoritarianism, governance, and nonzoonotic (human-to-human) infection transmission

What are the socio-political consequences of infectious diseases? Humans have evolved to avoid disease and infection, resulting in a set of psychological mechanisms that promote disease-avoidance, referred to as the behavioral immune system (BIS). One manifestation of the BIS is the cautious avoidance of unfamiliar, foreign, or potentially contaminating stimuli. Specifically, when disease infection risk is salient or prevalent, authoritarian attitudes can emerge that seek to avoid and reject foreign outgroups while favoring homogenous, familiar ingroups. In the largest study conducted on the topic to date (N > 240,000), elevated regional levels of infectious pathogens were related to more authoritarian attitudes on three geographical levels: across U.S. metropolitan regions, U.S. states, and cross-culturally across 47 countries. The link between pathogen prevalence and authoritarian psychological dispositions predicted conservative voting behavior in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and more authoritarian governance and state laws, in which one group of people imposes asymmetrical laws on others in a hierarchical structure. Furthermore, cross-cultural analysis illustrated that the relationship between infectious diseases and authoritarianism was pronounced for infectious diseases that can be acquired from other humans (nonzoonotic), and does not generalize to other infectious diseases that can only be acquired from non-human species (zoonotic diseases). At a time of heightened awareness of infectious diseases, the current findings are important reminders that public health and ecology can have ramifications for socio-political attitudes by shaping how citizens vote and are governed.

A Tale of Peaks and Valleys: Sinusoid Relationship Patterns Between Mountainousness and Basic Human Values

Mountains—mythic and majestic—have fueled widespread speculation about their effects on character. Emerging empirical evidence has begun to show that physical topography is indeed associated with personality traits, especially heightened openness. Here, we extend this work to the domain of personal values, linking novel large-scale individual values data ( n = 32,666) to objective indicators of altitude and mountainousness derived from satellite radar data. Partial correlations and conditional random forest machine-learning algorithms demonstrate that altitude and mountainousness are related to increased conservation values and decreased hedonism. Effect sizes are generally small (| r| < .031) but comparable to other socio-ecological predictors, such as population density and latitude. The findings align with the dual-pressure model of ecological stress, suggesting that it might be most adaptive in the mountains to have an open personality to effectively deal with threats and endorse conservative values that promote a social order that minimizes threats.

Age and gender differences in socially aversive (“dark”) personality traits

The strong overlap of personality traits discussed under the label of “dark personality” (e.g., psychopathy, spitefulness, moral disengagement) endorses a common framework for socially aversive traits over and beyond the dark triad. Despite the rapidly growing research on socially aversive traits, there is a lack of studies addressing age-associated differences in these traits. In the present study ( N = 12,501), we investigated the structure of the D Factor of Personality across age and gender using local structural equation modeling, thereby expressing the model parameters as a quasi-continuous, nonparametric function of age. Specifically, we evaluated loadings, reliabilities, factor (co-)variances, and means across 35 locally weighted age groups (from 20 to 54 years), separately for females and males. Results indicated that measurement models were highly stable, thereby supporting the conceptualization of the D factor independent of age and gender. Men exhibited uniformly higher latent means than females and all latent means decreased with increasing age. Overall, D and its themes were invariant across age and gender. Therefore, future studies can meaningfully pursue causes of mean differences across age and between genders.