Exploring how the Dark Tetrad is associated with coping: An intensive longitudinal daily diary approach

Abstract

Personality is broadly defined as a stable and enduring configuration of cognitions, emotions, and behaviours that influence how an individual experiences everyday life. The Dark Tetrad describes a cluster of subclinical and socially aversive, “dark” personality traits (i.e., Psychopathy, Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Sadism). Personality, including varying degrees of dark personality traits, can influence the way that one copes. Coping consists of methods that one employs to deal with stressors or their associated emotional responses, and these methods can be adaptive or maladaptive. Although much research has examined how individuals higher in Dark Tetrad traits react to and experience stress, less research has been conducted directly examining how they cope with stress. The current study sought to evaluate and clarify how individuals higher in Dark Tetrad traits cope with daily stressors and to address stark methodological gaps in the literature. It was hypothesized that those with higher levels of Dark Tetrad traits would endorse greater maladaptive coping strategies (i.e., emotion-focused and avoidant/disengaged coping) in stressful daily situations compared to those with lower levels of Dark Tetrad traits. Undergraduates (N=359) were recruited for an intensive longitudinal (daily diary) study. Participants completed self-report measures on baseline personality, followed by a short daily survey each day for 14 days that evaluated stressors experienced over the last day and the methods that participants used to cope with them. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that hypotheses were generally supported, such that individuals higher in Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and Sadism endorsed more emotion-focused and avoidant/disengaged coping, whereas, those higher in Narcissism endorsed a combination of all types of coping (both adaptive and maladaptive). However, there were very few interactions between personality and daily stress to predict coping. [...]