Soldiers of misfortune: levels of the dark tetrad, aggression, and Schadenfreude in military and corporate personnel
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- Title
- Soldiers of misfortune: levels of the dark tetrad, aggression, and Schadenfreude in military and corporate personnel
- Creator
- Lydia Rowland-Greenstone
- Supervisor
- Dr. Marina Rachitskiy.
- Date
- 2017
- Abstract
- Background: Antisocial individuals are defined as those who externalise harmful behaviour towards others (Susman, Peckins, Bowes & Dorn, 2017) and display abnormal moral reasoning (Marshall, Watts & Lilienfeld, 2016). With the majority of the literature focusing on behavioural aspects (e.g. aggression), there is a gap in the literature regarding how antisocial personalities (e.g. Dark Tetrad) and negative emotions/feelings (e.g. Schadenfreude) could be channeled into socially acceptable life choices through vocations (Furnham, Hyde & Trickey, 2014a). Castle and Hensley (2002) noted specifically that the military environment is a social context in which individuals can transfer aggressive and reckless behaviour. Aims: The current study aimed to identify associations between the Dark Tetrad, aggression and Schadenfreude in military and corporate personnel. Method: 131 British males from military, corporate and other vocations were recruited. Participants were asked to complete an online survey consisting of the Short Dark Triad questionnaire (SD3; Paulhus & Jones, 2014), the Assessment of Sadistic Personality questionnaire (Plouffe, Saklofske & Smith, 2017), the Buss-Perry Aggression questionnaire (Bryant & Smith, 2001) and an author-generated measure to evaluate Schadenfreude. Results: A one way MANCOVA was used to explore the hypotheses that military personnel will report higher levels of Dark Tetrad characteristics, aggressive behaviour and Schadenfreude. Results suggest vocation had a significant effect across antisocial measures. Military personnel scored higher on levels of the Dark Tetrad and aggression, compared to corporate personnel, who scored higher than controls. Discussion/Implications: Although those scoring high on the Dark Tetrad tend to be viewed as antisocial, this study suggests that such antisocial tendencies could be channeled into vocations that utilise these tendencies for prosocial purposes. The findings are discussed with regard to how society could utilise individuals who are high on antisocial measures as contributing members of society.
- Subject
- Soldiers--Psychology|Employees--Psychology|Personality and occupation|
- Psychology
- Extent
- 114 pages ; 31 cm
- Format
- Publisher
- Regent's University London
- degree
- MSc Psychology
- Language
- English
- Date Issued
- 2017
- Type
- Thesis & Dissertation
- Rights Holder
- Regent's University London & Lydia Rowland-Greenstone
- Item sets
- Theses or Dissertation