1 University of Skövde, Sweden.
6 Network for Empowerment and Well-Being, Sweden.
Assessment. 2019 Jan;26(1):3-16. doi: 10.1177/1073191117701192. Epub 2017 Apr 6.
In the past decade, extensive interest has been directed toward the Dark Triad (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy), popularly assessed by the Short Dark Triad (SD3). Nevertheless, relatively little research has been conducted on the SD3's factor structure. We investigated the SD3's psychometric properties in three studies with three independent samples, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses ( N = 1,487; N = 17,740; N = 496). In all three studies, Machiavellianism and psychopathy items displayed large general factor loadings, and narcissism larger specific factor loadings. In subsequent studies, two- and three-factor models fitted the data similarly, with the best fitting model being a bifactor model with items from Machiavellianism and psychopathy modelled as one specific factor, and narcissism as a second specific factor. On this basis, we suggest that the SD3 does not seem to capture the different mental processes theorized to underlie the similar behaviors generated by Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Additionally, we recommend the use of a single SD3 composite score, and not subscale scores, as subscales contain small amounts of reliable variance beyond the general factor.
在过去的十年中，人们对黑暗人格三联征（即马基雅维利主义、自恋和精神病态）产生了浓厚的兴趣，通常可以通过短式黑暗人格三联征（SD3）来评估。然而，关于 SD3 的因子结构的研究相对较少。我们在三个独立样本的研究中使用探索性和验证性因子分析来研究 SD3 的心理测量特性（N=1487；N=17740；N=496）。在所有三个研究中，马基雅维利主义和精神病态项目显示出较大的总因子负荷，而自恋则显示出较大的特定因子负荷。在随后的研究中，两因素和三因素模型对数据的拟合程度相似，最佳拟合模型是双因素模型，其中马基雅维利主义和精神病态项目被建模为一个特定因素，自恋为第二个特定因素。在此基础上，我们认为 SD3 似乎无法捕捉到马基雅维利主义和精神病态所产生的类似行为背后的不同心理过程。此外，我们建议使用 SD3 的单个综合得分，而不是子量表得分，因为子量表除了总因子之外还包含少量可靠的方差。
