Moral Identity And Moral Judgment In Relation To The Dark Triad Of Personality

INTRODUCTION 1.1 DARK TRIAD In 2002 Paulhus and Williams made an attempt to organize the literature of socially aversive personalities which fall in the normal range of functioning. They found that three traits are most common i.e. Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Subclinical Psychopathy. All these traits have an enormous literature and if we go through this literature we can found emphasis on single construct. Dark Triad of personality is a group of three personality traits that are Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy. All these traits are interpersonally aversive (Regoli, Hewitt and Delisi, 2011; Campbell and Miller, 2011; Leary and Hoyle, 2009). Dark Triad of personality refers to those three personality constructs which are theoretically distinct but empirically overlap (Furuhun and Trickery, 2011; Paulhus et al 2002). The empirical overlapping between them is indicative that these three constructs have something in common. Confusion among these three members of Dark Triad is inevitable, at a subclinical level conceptual resemblance is quite evident. 1.1.1 EMERGENCE OF DARK TRIAD The concept of Narcissism and Psychopathy has its origins in clinical literature. The narcissistic personality is clinically defined as a personality characterized by lack of empathy, a sense of entitlement, grandiose self-view and egotism. There are certain theorists like Heinz Kohut who associate this personality with the protection of damaged shame and weak self (Kohut 1977). Narcissism is the oldest construct in Dark Triad and its origin can be traced to Greek myth of narcissus who was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection. The DSM IV-TR,