Joshua D. Miller

Introduction This study explores the associations among narcissistic traits, interpersonal behaviors, and aggression using repeated, situation‐based measurement. We examine narcissism's relations with aggression across three levels of its theorized hierarchy (level 1: narcissism; level 2: grandiose vs. vulnerable narcissism; level 3: antagonism, agentic extraversion, and narcissistic neuroticism). Methods Using an experience‐sampling approach, the current study examined the effects of narcissism and its finer‐grained components on daily affective experiences and aggressive behaviors in the context of interpersonal interactions. Data were collected from 477 undergraduate students who were instructed to complete four prompts a day for ten consecutive days. Results Narcissism at the global construct level positively predicted multiple indices of episodic aggression (i.e., aggressive temper, aggressive urge …

Sex differences in psychopathology are well-established, with females demonstrating higher rates of internalizing (INT) psychopathology and males demonstrating higher rates of externalizing (EXT) psychopathology. Using two waves of data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N= 6,778 at each wave), the current study tested whether the relations between sex and psychopathology might be accounted for by structural brain differences. In general, we found robust, relatively consistent relations between sex and structural morphometry across waves. Relatively few morphometric brain variables were significantly related to INT or EXT across waves, however, with very small effect sizes when present. Next, we tested the extent to which each morphometric brain variable could account for the associations of sex with INT and EXT psychopathology. We found a total of 26 brain regions that accounted …

Objective Associations between dimensions of narcissism and aggression have been well-documented in Western samples. We aimed to generalize findings regarding the validity of one-, two- (Grandiose Narcissism, GN, and Vulnerable Narcissism, VN), and three-factor models (Agentic Narcissism, Agent; Neurotic Narcissism, Neuro; Antagonistic Narcissism, Antag) of narcissism and associations with aggression to Chinese offender and nonoffender samples. Methods Our preregistered study used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a novel methodological approach, relative weights analysis (RWA) in an offender (N = 485) and a community (N = 578) sample from China to examine the generalizability of narcissism dimensions, and within-study meta-analysis using 9 samples (N = 3520, and 282 effect sizes) to examine links between narcissism dimensions and aggression. Results The two-factor model …

Many measures, varying in breadth and length, have been constructed to measure narcissism. In recent years, super-short forms have become popular in research settings. Although brief measures hold some advantages, their brevity can come at psychometric costs. Participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (N = 473) completed long and brief narcissism measures and criterion measures in a randomized order. Short forms were examined and compared to long forms in terms of their completion times and psychometric properties. Generally, the short forms demonstrated adequate internal consistency, variable convergence with each other, mostly moderate to strong convergence with long forms, and appropriate convergence with external criteria. These findings suggest that some short forms may be used when efficiency of survey administration is particularly important without significant psychometric …

Objective The present study examined the hierarchical structure of self‐reported fearlessness and compared this structure to external criterion measures. Background Fearlessness is often discussed in relation to clinical and personality research. However, there is a paucity of research focusing on its empirical structure, in particular with self‐report measures. Method Using a preregistered analytical approach, we employed Goldberg's 2006 “bass‐ackward” factor analysis on self‐reported trait fear and fearlessness items to uncover the hierarchical structure of the construct. The final sample consisted of 619 participants and 562 informants. Results By assessing fit statistics and interpretability of the factors, we found a six‐factor model fit the data best. The six‐factor solution emerged as comprehensive and included components labeled Assertiveness, Low Anxiety, Sociability, Recklessness, Openness to Action …

Based on the evidence from cross-sectional studies, there is an ongoing debate whether personality traits and personality functioning are redundant (e.g., because these constructs are strongly correlated). However, some questions regarding their overlap can only be addressed using longitudinal data. In this Registered Report, we examined the (co)development of the Big Five personality traits and personality functioning using longitudinal data from individuals who had recently experienced a negative life event (N = 1,151). Personality functioning was less rank-order stable than conscientiousness and less mean-level stable than all Big Five traits except neuroticism. Furthermore, the developmental trajectory of the level of personality functioning was particularly similar to the developmental trajectory of neuroticism. Our results show that personality functioning and most Big Five personality traits differ in their …

Objective We sought to factor analyze a broad array of aggression measures to identify a comprehensive, coherent factor structure for this construct. Background Measures and models of trait aggression have multiplied to the point of incoherence. Method In Study 1, a diverse sample of 922 undergraduates completed a battery of items acquired from 42 self‐report aggression questionnaires. In Study 2, we administered a curated item pool to another diverse sample of 1447 undergraduates, alongside criterion measures. Results We curated an initial item pool of 734 items down to 289 items that exhibited sufficient variability, were not redundant with other items, and possessed strong loadings onto a central ‘trait aggression’ factor. These remaining items were best characterized by a six‐factor structure, which captured relational, angry, violent, retaliatory, intimate partner, and alcohol forms of aggression. We …

According to sociocognitive theories, aggression is learned and elicited through a series of cognitive processes, such as expectancies, or the various consequences that an individual considers more or less likely following aggressive behavior. The current manuscript describes a measurement development project that ultimately yielded a 16‐item measure of positive and negative aggression expectancies suitable for use in adult populations. Across two content generation surveys, two preliminary item refinement studies, and three full studies, we took an iterative approach and administered large item pools to several samples and refined item content through a combination of empirical (i.e., factor loadings, model fit) and conceptual (i.e., content breadth, non‐redundancy) considerations. The Aggression Expectancy Questionnaire displays a four‐factor structure, as well as evidence of convergent and divergent …

Difficulties with emotion regulation are observed across psychiatric diagnoses, including psychotic disorders. Past studies using trait self-report indicate that people with schizophrenia (SZ) are less likely to use adaptive emotion regulation strategies and more likely to use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies than controls (CN). However, more recent evidence using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) indicates that regulation effectiveness and adaptiveness may vary across strategies. The present study aimed to systematically understand abnormalities in state-level emotion regulation strategy selection, effectiveness, and adaptiveness in SZ compared to CN using EMA. Participants (n= 50 SZ; n= 53 CN) completed 6 days of EMA surveys assessing emotional experience, emotion regulation, and symptoms. Results indicated that SZ selected interpersonal emotion regulation and avoidance more often …

There is ongoing debate concerning the distinctiveness of the dark factor (D)—the shared core of the dark triad (and other “dark” traits including sadism and paranoid personality disorder)--and agreeableness-antagonism (AA)—a basic personality trait. D is described as “the general tendency to maximize one’s individual utility—disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking disutility for others—accompanied by beliefs that serve as justifications”(Moshagen et al., 2018, p. 657). Although similar to AA, Moshagen and colleagues (2018) that D is a broader construct and accounts for variance beyond personality traits. For example, Hilbig and colleagues (2020) examined the D factor, general traits, and several “dark” traits (ie, narcissistic, antisocial, paranoid, and borderline personality disorder) in a large, longitudinal study and reported that the D factor was able to account for unique variance in the dark traits beyond HEXACO traits. After comparing latent D and AA factors, Moshagen et al.(2020) concluded that, although the two yielded correlational profiles that were virtually opposite one another (rICC=-. 97), D was a functionally distinct construct due to its ability to account for more variance in certain outcomes, such as cheating and internet trolling. On the other hand, Lynam, Miller, Vize and colleagues have published several papers showing little evidence for the distinctiveness between D and AA. Using a broader measure of AA than that employed by Moshagen et al.(2020) Vize and colleagues (2021) examined the similarity between D and Agreeableness in a set of both preregistered and exploratory analyses. First, they jointly factor …

The triarchic model of psychopathy conceptualizes psychopathy as underlain by three distinct trait domains: Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition. In addition to the original Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM), several alternative measures of the TriPM have been developed from existing personality inventories, including the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised, which assesses five-factor model traits. Although proponents of the TriPM have suggested that the FFM domains require reconfiguration to capture the content of the triarchic domains, others have argued that the Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition are well-captured by traditional FFM domains. The goal of this paper is to examine the convergence between the triarchic and FFM domains, and to evaluate the extent to which reconfiguring the domains provides additional incremental variance in psychopathy-related outcomes. In the present study, 431 …

Fearlessness is often discussed in relation to clinical and personality research. However, there is a paucity of research focusing on its empirical structure, in particular with self-report measures. The present study examined the hierarchical structure of self-reported fearlessness and compared this structure to external criterion measures. Using a pre-registered analytical approach, we employed Goldberg's (2006)" bass-ackward" factor analysis on self-reported trait fear and fearlessness items to uncover the hierarchical structure of the construct. The final sample consisted of 619 participants and 562 informants. By assessing fit statistics and interpretability of the factors, we found a six-factor model fit the data best. The six-factor solution emerged as comprehensive and included components labeled Assertiveness, Low Anxiety, Sociability, Recklessness, Openness to Action, and Adventurousness. Criterion variables measuring boldness, fear, anxiety, psychopathy, basic personality traits, and impulsivity, were correlated with the factor scores at each factor level of the model. The findings from this study elucidate how trait fearlessness unfolds at varying levels and how these factors relate to and diverge from various outcomes.

Changes in narcissistic traits (e.g., entitlement) following the ceremonial use of ayahuasca were examined across three timepoints (baseline, postretreat, 3-month follow-up) in a sample of 314 adults using self- and informant-report (N = 110) measures. Following ceremonial use of ayahuasca, self-reported changes in narcissism were observed (i.e., decreases in Narcissistic Personality Inventory [NPI] Entitlement-Exploitativeness, increases in NPI Leadership Authority, decreases in a proxy measure of narcissistic personality disorder [NPD]). However, effect size changes were small, results were somewhat mixed across convergent measures, and no significant changes were observed by informants. The present study provides modest and qualified support for adaptive change in narcissistic antagonism up to 3 months following ceremony experiences, suggesting some potential for treatment efficacy. However …

This special issue presents 12 invited articles on quantitative and methodological issues of particular importance in the study of personality disorders (PDs). The special issue includes manuscripts on issues related to open science (ie, registration continuum), sampling practices, concerns with the application of PD research and diagnoses to minoritized populations, best practices for addressing comorbidity and heterogeneity, aligning experimental, behavioral tasks used in PD work with Research Domain Criteria constructs, studying PDs using ecological momentary assessment, as well as other longitudinal approaches. Additional manuscripts cover the need to think carefully about response validity in data collection, recommendations for the ongoing use of factor analysis, concerns and recommendations for the search for elusive and typically underpowered moderators, and a review of the clinical trial literature as …

Personality researchers have posited multiple ways in which the relations between personality traits and life outcomes may be moderated by other traits, but there are well-known difficulties in reliable detection of such trait-by-trait interaction effects. Estimating the prevalence and magnitude base rates of trait-by-trait interactions would help to assess whether a given study is suited to detect interaction effects. We used the Life Outcomes of Personality Replication Project dataset to estimate the prevalence, nature, and magnitude of trait-by-trait interactions across 81 self-reported life outcomes (n ≥ 1350 per outcome). Outcome samples were divided into two halves to examine the replicability of observed interaction effects using both traditional and machine learning indices. The study was adequately powered (1 − β ≥ .80) to detect the smallest interaction effects of interest (interactions accounting for a ΔR2 of …

Objective The present study examined the hierarchical structure of Conscientiousness across three large samples using item‐level analyses. Background Conscientiousness is among the strongest predictors of individual differences in major life outcomes. Yet decades of work understanding the optimal lower‐order structure of Conscientiousness has not rectified the differences that remain among existing models and measures. To precisely measure its relations to major life outcomes, it is necessary to work toward a comprehensive, replicable conceptualization of the construct's structure. Methods The present pre‐registered study used three samples (Ns = 446, 406, & 424) to explore the domain's latent structure with item‐level “bass‐ackward” factor analyses and evaluate the resulting structure's interpretability, parsimony, and replicability. Participants completed self‐report measures of Conscientiousness …

This study examines the congruency between the recently introduced Dark Factor of Personality (D) and Antagonism (A; low Agreeableness) from the Five-Factor Model of personality. Using two samples (Ns of 365 and 600), we examined simple zero-order correlations between D and A (rs of .69 and .64). In addition, we used a range of relevant external criteria (e.g., antisocial behavior, aggression, domains and facets of personality, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [DSM] personality disorders [PDs], impulsivity, and political skill) to examine the degree of absolute similarity in the relations that D and A bear to these criteria. These similarity coefficients were then compared with the similarities produced by measures of constructs different from D and A but similar among themselves (i.e., psychopathy and narcissism in both samples, plus depression in Sample 1). The degree of similarity between D …

Partialing is a statistical approach researchers use with the goal of removing extraneous variance from a variable before examining its association with other variables. Controlling for confounds through analysis of covariance or multiple regression analysis and residualizing variables for use in subsequent analyses are common approaches to partialing in clinical research. Despite its intuitive appeal, partialing is fraught with undesirable consequences when predictors are correlated. After describing effects of partialing on variables, we review analytic approaches commonly used in clinical research to make inferences about the nature and effects of partialed variables. We then use two simulations to show how partialing can distort variables and their relations with other variables. Having concluded that, with rare exception, partialing is ill-advised, we offer recommendations for reducing or eliminating problematic …

The personality constructs psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, collectively described as the Dark Triad (DT), all reference socially aversive behavioral tendencies. Each construct is theorized to have features that differentiate it from others. Unfortunately, existing measures of the DT suffer from several problems. The present study compared newly developed measures of psychopathy (Super-Short Form of the Elemental Psychopathy Assessment), narcissism (Super-Short Form of the Five-Factor Narcissism Inventory), and Machiavellianism (Super-Short Form of the Five-Factor Machiavellianism Inventory [FFMI-SSF] based on the Five-Factor Model of personality)—collectively referred to as the Five-Factor Model Antagonistic Triad Measure—to existing DT inventories using a sample of undergraduate students (N = 516). As predicted, FFMI-SSF showed better divergence from measures of psychopathy and …

Research has challenged the assumption that personality pathology is “ego-syntonic” or perceived favorably and consistent with one's self-image. The present study employed a community sample (n = 401) to examine relations between self-rated maladaptive personality and liking of maladaptive traits in self and others as well as meta-perception of personality pathology (i.e., how likable participants believe others find maladaptive traits). In general, individuals with higher self-rated maladaptive traits provided higher ratings of the likability of these traits in themselves and others. However, as hypothesized, comparison of liking ratings for high scorers and the rest of the sample revealed that individuals who score high on most pathological personality traits do not “like” these traits (or rate others as “liking” them) but simply dislike them less. Results support a dimensional view of ego-syntonicity.