General Factor of Personality and Its Relationship with the Dark Triad and Social Intelligence in Slovenian Adolescents

Abstract

The general factor of personality (GFP) represents the shared variance between personality traits that yield social adjustment and acts as a core personality disposition. In the present study, the existence of GFP in a sample of 249 Slovenian adolescents aged 15–19 years was investigated, and the relationship between GFP, the Dark Triad, and social intelligence was researched. The study used three self-report questionnaires to measure the Big Five, the Dark Triad, and three dimensions of social intelligence. It was found that, in adolescents, GFP exists (although in a somewhat different composition than in previous studies) and is negatively correlated with Machiavellianism and psychopathy and positively correlated with social skills and social awareness. GFP acts as a significant positive predictor of all social intelligence dimensions, and Machiavellianism acts as a significant positive predictor of social information processing and social skills. It can be concluded that GFP and, to a certain extent, perhaps some manipulative tendencies positively predict how an individual functions in society. With these findings, the study contributes to the understanding of the (hierarchical) structure of personality and its association with behavior in social interactions, which is one of the most important developmental tasks in adolescence.

Adaptation of the Short Dark Triad (SD3) to Spanish Adolescents

“…The descriptive results indicated average values for dark personality traits among the participants, similar to the results of recent studies involving the adolescent population and young adults [ 61 , 62 ]. Regarding sex differences, male adolescents had higher levels of dark triad traits than female adolescents, confirming the differences based on gender that have been observed cross-culturally in the adult population [ 56 , 63 , 64 ].…”