Validación del cuestionario short dark triad (SD3) en la población en la población española

Abstract

Psychopathy has been broadly studied solely in prison environments. Since its beginning in the eighties with Hare and his Psychopathy Checklist (PCL:1980) to the present-day Psychopathy has always been strictly related to delinquency. Although Psychopathy is a significant hazard factor for recidivism, more specifically for violence, it does not mean that psychopaths are potential criminals. Currently, there is a new approach gathering strength towards the study of Psychopathy with non-prison inmates and not merely restricted to forensic environments (prisons and courts) or clinical (Hare and Neumann, 2009), rather than subclinical settings. In other words, this new approach focus on the general population (Benning, Patrick, Bloni-gen, Hicks y Iacono, 2005; Hall y Benning, 2006) and other areas as varied as labor, business, politics (Babiak, 2007; Boody, 2013; Cleckley, 1941; Garrido, 2000; Hare, 1993) and partner relationships (Pozueco, Moreno, Blázquez y García-Baamonde, 2014; Savard, Brassard, Lussier y Sabourin, 2015), among others. Always searching for the figure of the “successful” psychopath as people who lack a persistent antisocial record or violence history, and hence, facilitating the inspection of the nature and the etiological mechanism of Psychopathy without this criterion contamination (Hall, and Benning, 2006). This new approach to Psychopathy has its origins in the most contemporary approximations, which seek for a standard and an integrative model of personality incorporating various phenotypic factors. These factors are less focused on the antisocial assessment and its explicit behavior, avoiding the most social repulsive traits and orientating in these same characteristics, but those that were normal. The mentioned models are revolutionary since they incorporate new themes and different perspectives. For example, the neuro-etiologic fundamentals, which help give a better comprehension of the successful psychopath’s figure without referring to psychopathology or any mental disorder, and considering that one of the underpinning assumptions about Psychopathy is the absolute lack of any type of psychopathological condition (Cleckley, 1941). Thus, Short Dark Triad (SD3) measure was created as a useful instrument to abstract the concept of Psychopathy from other different angles to the current measurements which is not apprehend all its essential content, treating of annex important domains pure empirically. The theorical framework encompassed in this research aiming to validate the Short Dark Triad - is the Dark Triad of Personality (Paulhus and Williams, 2002). The Dark Triad of Personality examines the three traits simultaneously that study the most socially aversive phenotypes (Kowalski, 2001), since these three constructs, in varying degrees, are what most define the idea of Psychopathy in healthy and normal population samples putting into context its distinctive nature. Narcissism, whose key element is grandiosity combined with deficit of impulsivity-self-control and callous-unemotional, closely entwined with the thrill-seeking, reckless, insensitive manipulation to obtain the typical criminal behavior (Hare and Neumann 2008), absence of morality, lack of remorse to the actions that harm others (Hicks et al., 2007; Newman, McCoon, Vaughn & Sadeh, 2005) and high self-esteem, considering themselves as a special beings with unrealistic ideas focusing exclusively on themselves. Psychopathy, is the construct more closely connected to the delinquency and is distinguished by low empathy and superficial charm, being smug and feelings of superiority to others, with a constant prevailing thrill-seeking, impulsiveness, reactiveness, a small response to fear and low anxiety. In Machiavellianism, the main goal is interpersonal manipulation. That is the manipulative act per se, it is what satisfies them as Machiavellian people consider other people as mere instruments to reach their own targets and social charming to be able to use and influence the rest in an insensitive and unemotional way, cold-hearted, cynical, Nevertheless, they try to keep a good reputation so that they are not exposed or their social status is compromised. In comparison to other countries (such as United States, The Netherlands or United Kingdom), in Spain there is not a large scientific community researching Psychopathy. Consequently, the progress in this study is limited by the lack of information, surveys, self-report measures and other tools in the Spanish language. In addition, the proper concept of Psychopathy is constantly misunderstood, which creates a conceptual confusion overlapping or over-diagnosing Psychopathy with the antisocial disorder, dissocial, behavioral, and even with schizophrenia in the Spanish law courts. Without mentioning the economic costs that can generate to keep psychopaths in the penal system, indirect expenses, and other criminal social costs that can be added (it could be around 20% as an overall spending in countries as United States). Moreover, Psychopathy is a paramount predictor of recidivism in general (Hemphill et al., 1998) and one of the more common disorders in the society (1-3% of Spanish citizens can be psychopaths). For all the reasons described above, we want to contribute to the cause by validating a Spanish version of the SD3 to have more tools, and thereby, improving the study of Psychopathy in the Spanish territory.