Detecting crucial strategies and emotional cues of dark triad female offenders in UK.

Nadia Jasmine Razouki

Coventry University

MSc. Psychology

Word count 1084

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3

1.2 Psychopathy (lack of empathy) ................................................................................... 3

1.3 Machiavellianism (a manipulative attitude) ................................................................ 4

1.4 Narcissism (excessive self-love) ................................................................................. 4

2. Research Aim ..................................................................................................................... 5

3. Research Question .............................................................................................................. 5

4. Methodology....................................................................................................................... 5

The Analytical Approach ....................................................................................................... 5

Data Collections ..................................................................................................................... 6

5. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 9

6. Reference .......................................................................................................................... 10
 1. Introduction

The Dark Triad (2002) which was first coined by Paulhus & Williams, a concept that was

constructed by three personality variables – psychopathy (lack of empathy),

Machiavellianism (a manipulative attitude), and narcissism (excessive self-love), which are

all traits of anti-social behaviour such as selfishness self-centredness, callousness, and

manipulation. (Chung.k, 2017). Individuals with dark personality characteristics have a

boosted ability to detect emotion of vulnerable victims which makes it easier for the

individual to use manipulation and exploitation.

The research on strategies used by Dark Triad female offenders is limited, and identifying

emotion cues is vital, this has led to the current study of ‘what strategies and emotional cues

do dark triad female offenders in the UK use. While the three personality theories linked to

each other the relationship between them is uncertain, it’s been crisised that each personality

trait represents a different part of dark personality, that’s why it is crucial to understand each

individual trait as its self.

1.2 Psychopathy (lack of empathy)

Psychopathy is the most aggressive and hostile of the subcomponents of the Dark Triad. This

inability to feel empathy and their passion for crime enable psychopaths to be experts in

targeting, manipulating and exploiting others who are vulnerable and are seen beneficial to

the psychopath without any remorse. Psychopaths highly focus on the use facial expressions
to determine the emotional state of an individual and determine an individual’s personality.

Even though psychopaths have an ability to detect facial expressions of others, they have

difficulties in understanding the emotions behind the expressions (Dolan & Fullam, 2006).

1.3 Machiavellianism (a manipulative attitude)

On the contrary to narcissism and psychopathy, Machiavellianism, is not registered in either

the DSM or ICD manual. The theory of Machiavellianism formed in 16th century by author

Niccolo Machiavelli, whose literature outlined his perspective of people as untrustworthy and

malevolent. One of the core factors of Machiavellian is manipulation, which contains sub

characterisation of anti-social behaviour such as deceit ingratiation, persuasion, intimidation,

dominance and power, or self-disclosure. J.Blais and S.Pruysers, (2017)

1.4 Narcissism (excessive self-love)

Narcissism was first recognised as a disorder in 1980s, is a steady personality that consists of

many characteristic’s such as lack of empathy, grandiosity, self-love, dominance and desire

for power (Campbell, Hoffman, Campbell, & Marchisio, 2011; Wai & Tilipoulos, 2012). To

be diagnosed as narcissistic, an individual must show a minimum of five out of nine criteria

listed in the DSM-IV-TR (APA, 1994). Regardless of the number of the present personality

disorders being removed from the DSM-5, narcissism has continued to be listed in this

mental illness diagnostic manual which emphasis vitality as a psychological concept that

needs closer observation. Narcissism is the only Dark Triad variable that’s registered in in the

DSM-IV-TR (APA, 1994). Narcissists focus highly on showing a level of self-esteem,

however their natural self-esteem is very unstable and depends mainly on maintain social

approval.

To gain an in-depth understanding of the Dark Triad, the study will examine the links

between the
Subcomponents and their characteristics.

2. Research Aim

The aim of the research is to gain the:

 Ability to identify and evaluate the core meaning of dark triad female offenders.

 Ability to identity the crucial emotional (non-verbal) cues of dark triad female

offenders.

 Ability to identify key strategies female offenders use with their victims.

 Ability to gain in-depth knowledge on the subcultural 5 personality traits associated

with the dark triad.

3. Research Question

The research question is:

What strategies and emotional cues do dark triad female offenders in the UK use?

4. Methodology

4.1The Analytical Approach

With the nature of this research in mind, the qualitative data approach is revised

primarily to state the vital factors of the project. Followed by applying the quantitative

method to run the sample data essential with the support of analytical statistical analytics

such as SPSS. The Qualitative analysis is implemented initially as it is appropriate for the

initial persistence of this study. Once the data has been collected, the thematic analysis

(coding and categorization) is conducted; from this the significant factors of the study can be

established. The quantitative technique will be applied to provide the sample data required.

Quantitative research uses measurement as its fundamental principle which carries many

advantages including permitting satisfactory differences and variations to be detected.

4.2Data Collections

4.3Participants

The respondents were 50 female offenders between the ages of 17 and 40.

4.4Materials

4.4.1Videos

For the study stimuli, fifteen videotaped clips were used. Every clip comprised of a

person (the target) chosen for videotaping based on an extremely high (top 5%) or low

(bottom 5%) on the Rathus Assertiveness Scale score. The vulnerability measure and the

various traits evaluated included Big 5 characteristics, anxiety, and self-esteem, one minute

description of him/herself, depression, and interpersonal trust. Respondents were told to

imagine meeting a stranger for the first time and discussing themselves with the stranger for

about one minute. The same research assistant filmed the clips in the same room. The clips

has varied lengths ranging from 27 to 132s, however, clips weren’t changed, regardless of the

absence of institutionalization being a potential issue, as the researcher information amount

shared by each target was significant to the evaluation of his/her characteristics. Each clip at

that point was apportioned into four different modalities including a sound video, a small

video portion, just the sound bit, furthermore, a composed variant (transcript; making 60

conceivable clips).

4.4.2 Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-III (SRP-III)

The SRP-III is a self-report questionnaire with 64-items that takes advantage of the

four aspects of psychopathy that include the PCL-R (hard effect, criminal propensities,

whimsical way of life, and relational control). The SRP-III utilizes a 5-point Likert-type scale

(from emphatically disagree to firmly concur); scores are included (after reverse scoring the

assigned things). The sixteen items scores in each subscale are then arrived at the midpoint of

to get a mean. The four subscales mean at that point fills in as the SRP-III aggregate score.
This score is out of 5, with 5 being the most noteworthy conceivable score and 1 being the

least conceivable score. The psychopathy self-report measures have been esteemed solid in a

setting of research (Miller, Jones, and Lynam, 2011). The psychopathy self-report measures,

like the PCL-R, associated altogether with externalizing practices, for example, against social

conduct and substance manhandle (Jones and Miller, 2012). The SRP-III, made for use with

community tests (rather than wrongdoer tests), has been appeared to have great concurrent

and separate legitimacy (Williams and Paulhus, 2004). It has likewise been found to have a

four-factor structure like the PCL-R (Mahmut, Menictas, Stevenson, and Homewood, 2011).

The SRP-III is accepted to catch the basic highlights of psychopathy.

4.5Measures

The Dark Triad Dirty Dozen is a self-report questionnaire of 12-items measuring the

three Dark Triad attributes (Jonason and Webster, 2010).respondents are requested to rate

how they concurred (1 = Unequivocally dissent; 7 = Firmly concur) with articulations, for

example, "I have a tendency to control others to get my direction" (Machiavellianism), "I

tend to need regret" (psychopathy), and "I tend to need others to appreciate me" (narcissism).

An average of the items was done to make each measurement. A composite score was built of

the three dull qualities by utilizing the mean qualities from the majority of the items. For

encouraging intelligibility, all measures of the dim attributes utilizing the Messy Dozen are

named as takes after: DD Machiavellianism, DD psychopathy, and DD narcissism. High

scores speak to high degree in every one of the dull characteristics or, on account of the

composite, a high level of the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen core.

Machiavellianism was measured by The Mach-IV (Christie and Geis, 1970). The

Mach-IV comprises of 20 things that reflect mindsets and conclusions about individuals and

distinctive circumstances (e.g., "Never tell anybody the genuine reason you accomplished

something except if it is valuable to do as such"). Members were asked for to rate to what
degree they concur with every announcement on a 6-point Likert scale: 1 = firmly concur, 6 =

emphatically oppose this idea. The Machiavellianism score was registered by outlining the

methods over the 20 things, a high score speaking to high level of Machiavellianism.

The short form of the Eysenck's Identity Questionnaire Amended was utilized to

quantify extraversion (e.g., "Do you more often than not step up with regards to making new

friends?"), neuroticism (e.g., "Do you ever feel 'only hopeless' for no reason?"), and

psychoticism (e.g., "Would you like other individuals to fear you?"). The Eysenck survey

comprises of 12 things for every quality (constrained double answers: Yes or No). The score

for every one of the identity characteristics was processed as the aggregate of the 12 things,

with yes reactions coded as 1 and no reactions coded as 0. In this way, a high score speaks to

high degree in every one of the three identity characteristics. As expressed in the Presentation

area, Eysenck's psychoticism scale has, anyway incompletely, been recommended as mostly

taking advantage of the sensation-chasing/intensity part of psychopathy.

The short form of the Narcissistic Identity Stock was utilized to likewise gauge

Narcissism (Ames, Rose and Anderson, 2006). The instrument comprises of 16 sets of things

(one steady and one conflicting with narcissistic conduct in each match) for what members

are told to pick, for each combine, one thing that comes nearest to portraying their own

particular sentiments and convictions about themselves. The narcissism score was registered

as the whole of the 16 things, with narcissism-reliable reactions (e.g., "I extremely jump at

the chance to be the focal point of consideration") coded as 1 and narcissism-conflicting

reactions coded as 0 (e.g., "It makes me awkward to be the focal point of consideration").

Hence, a high score speaks to high level of narcissism.

4.6 Procedure

Observers watched/tuned in to/and read 8 of the conceivable 60 videos (the videos

were haphazardly chosen, yet spectators were never given a similar target twice). They were
presented to every one of the four of the modalities, so every member watched two video

clips with sound, watched two video clips without sound, tuned in to two sound clasps, and

read two transcripts. The identity/passionate attributes that the eyewitnesses were requested

to survey are an immediate impression of the identity characteristic measures that the

objectives in the clasps finished about themselves before shooting. Subsequent to finishing

the clasp/identity rating part of the errand, onlookers rounded out the Dark Triad measures.

5. Conclusion

Dark Triad individuals are increasingly skilled at manipulation because they continually form

new strategies to deceive and manipulate others.

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