The Relationship between Life Positions and Dark Sides of Personality

Abstract

In recent years, many studies have been conducted on the concept of the dark triad but there are not many studies in the literature in which the concept of life positions and the concept of dark triad are examined together. In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between university students' life positions and dark triad personality traits. Relational survey model was used in this quantitative study. The study group of the research consisted of a total of 307 university students, 246 (80.1%) of whom were female and 61 (19.9%) of whom were male, studying in Konya province. "Personal Information Form", "Life Positions Scale" and "Abbreviated Dark Triad Scale" were used to collect data. SPSS 21.00 package program was used to analyze the data collected. According to the results of the study, a significant relationship was found between some sub-dimensions of university students' life positions and sub-dimensions of dark triad personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy). It was observed that there was a negative relationship between the I'm OKEY-You're OKEY life position and the dark triad personality traits, whereas there was a generally positive relationship between the other three life positions (I'm OKEY-You're not OKEY, I'm not OKEY-You're OKEY and I'm not OKEY-You're not OKEY) and the dark triad personality traits. In addition, as a result of the regression analysis, it was seen that life positions predicted the dark triad personality traits. Research results are discussed in the light of the related literature and suggestions are presented for future researchers.

Keywords

• Life positions
• Dark Triad personality traits
• University students

References

1. Akkoyun, F. (2001). Transactional analysis: A transactional analysis approach in psychology. (2nd ed.). Ankara: Nobel Publishing.
2. Alisinaoglu, F. (1995). Investigation of some variables that affect university students' perception of ego states and parental attitudes. (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Ankara University, Ankara.
3. Anne, M., & Boholst, F. A. (2021). Life positions and depression: The role of convictions. Psychological Reports, 124(3), 1015–1030. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294120928273
4. Berne E. (1962). Classification of positions. Transactional Analysis Journal, 1, 23.
5. Boholst, F. A. (2002). A life position scale. Transactional Analysis Journal, 32, 28-32.
6. Boholst, F. A., Boholst, G. B., & Mende, M. M. B. (2005). Life positions and attachment styles: A canonical correlation analysis. Transactional Analysis Journal, 35(1), 62–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/036215370503500108
7. Corey, G. (2009). Transactional analysis. Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (8th ed.). Retrieved from http://www.acadiau.ca/.
8. Dayhan, H. T. (2023). The effect of attachment styles, self-efficacy and some demographic variables on dark triad personality traits in adults (Master's thesis, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University).

9. Demircioglu, H., Tercan, H., Serin, G., Yuksel, R., Gokbayrak, S., Gurevin, G., Okten, O., & Ipek, Z. (2019). Examination of parents' life positions in terms of various variables. International Journal of Education Technology and Scientific Researches, Vol: 4, Issue: 8, pp. (65-77).
10. Dixit, V., & Shukla, A. (2016). The psychological life positions of youth in the context of nirbhaya incident. Journal of Psychosocial Research, 11(1), 33.
11. English, F. (1995). "Loneliness and the four life positions": Comment. Transactional Analysis Journal, 25(3), 293–294.
12. Erdogan, B. (2018). Comparison of aggression and risk-taking behaviors of university students with dark triad personality traits and those who show self-injurious behavior. (Unpublished Master’s Thesis). Istanbul: Istanbul University, Institute of Forensic Medicine.
13. Fedotov, I. A., & Surkova, P. M. (2022). Studying the life position of clients with various psychopathological conditions. Transactional Analysis in Russia, 1(1), 28-33.
14. Ferris, G.R., & King, T.R. (1996). Politics in human resources decision: A walk on the dark side. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 24, 52-59.
15. Filiz, M., Budak, O., & Erdal, N. (2023). Investigation of the relationship between dark triad personality traits and happiness levels of health education students. Adam Academy Journal of Social Sciences, 13(2), 483-503. https://doi.org/10.31679/adamakademi.1208124
16. Foster, J.D., & Campbell, W.K. (2007). Are there such things as narcissists in social psychology? A taxometric analysis of the narcissistic personality inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 43,1321-1332.
17. Francis, L. J., & Crea, G. (2021). Psychological predictors of professional burnout among priests, religious brothers, and religious sisters in Italy: The dark triad versus the bright trinity? Pastoral Psychology, 70(4), 399–418. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-021-00951-8
18. Hare, R.D., & Neumann, C.S. (2009). Psychopathy: Assessment and forensic implications. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 54, 791-802.
19. Harris, T. A. (2014). I’m OKEY-You’re OKEY. Şahin M (Trans.). Istanbul: Okuyan Us Publishing.
20. Isgor, Y. I., Kaygusuz, C., & Ozpolat, A. R. (2012). Life positions scale language equivalence, reliability and validity analysis. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 47, 284-291.
21. Jonason, P. K., & Webster, G. D. (2010). The dirty dozen: a concise measure of the dark triad. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 420.
22. Karababa, A. (2016). Transactional analysis in adolescents loneliness in terms of ego states, life positions and human values (Doctoral dissertation, Necmettin Erbakan University (Turkey)).
23. Karababa, A. (2019). Life positions as predictor of life satisfaction among university students. Journal of Abant Izzet Baysal University Education Faculty, 19(2), 530.
24. Karamehmetoglu Cemberci, M. (2019). Life positions and basic psychological needs as determinants of relationship satisfaction in spouses. (Master's thesis, Instute of Social Sciences).
25. Karasar, N. (2013). Scientific research method. Ankara: Nobel Publishing.
26. Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., & Tsukayama, E. (2019). The light vs. dark triad of personality: Contrasting two very different profiles of human nature. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 467.
27. Konur, N. T. (2018). Examining the mediating role of ontological well-being between life positions and depression in individuals diagnosed with substance abuse (Master's thesis, Instute of Social Sciences).
28. Miller, J. D., & Campbell, W.K. (2008), Comparing clinical and social-personality conceptualizations of narcissism. Journal of Personality, 76(3), 449-476.
29. O’Boyle, E. H., Forsyth, D., Banks, G. C., Story, P. A., & White, C. D. (2015). A metaanalytic test of redundancy and relative importance of the Dark Triad and FiveFactor Model of Personality. Journal of Personality, 83(6), 644-664.
30. Omur, E., & Esgin, A. (2021). Transactional analysis: examination of marital adjustment/satisfaction in terms of ego states. Journal of Social Sciences in Theory and Practice, 5(1), 11-24. https://doi.org:10.48066/kusob.878161
31. Ozsoy, E., & Ardıc, K. (2017). Investigation of the effect of the Dark Triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy) on job satisfaction. Management and Economics, 24(2), 391- 406.
32. Ozsoy, E., Rauthmann, J.F., Jonason, P.K., & Ardıc, K. (2017). Reliability and validity of the Turkish versions of Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD-T), Short Dark Triad (SD3-T), and Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS-T). Personality and Individual Differences, 117, 11-14. https://doi.org:10.1016/j.paid.2017.05.019
33. Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(6), 556-563.
34. Rauthmann, J. F., & Kolar, G. P. (2012). How “dark” are the Dark Triad traits? Examining the perceived darkness of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(7), 884-889.
35. Sabir, S. The effect of parental attitudes on depression, basic psychological needs and life positions (Master's thesis, Instute of Social Sciences).
36. Saltoglu, S., & Irak, D. U. (2020). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Turkish Psychology Articles, 23(45), 42-62.
37. Sherry, S.B., Hewitt, P.L, Besser, A., Flett, G.L., & Klein, C. (2006). Machiavellianism, trait perfectionism and perfectionistic self-presentation. Personality and Individual Differences, 40(4), 829-839.
38. Stewart, I., & Joines, V. (2018). Transactional analysis today: A new introduction to transactional analysis (F. Akkoyun, Trans. Ed.). Ankara: Eksi Books.
39. Tabacknick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics. Boston: Pearson.
40. Toplu-Yaslıoglu, D., & Atılgan, O. (2018). Dark triad scale: Adaptation, reliability and validity study. Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Journal of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, 5(3), 725-739.
41. Tozar, M. Z. (2019). Life satisfaction of university students according to dark triad personality traits (Master's thesis, Hacettepe Universty Instute of Educational Sciences).
42. Wiesner, V. (2004). An examination of the relationships between affective traits and existential life positions. University of North Texas.
43. Yagmurlu, O. (2018). The relationship of life positions with positive mental health and psychopathology (Master's thesis, Instute of Social Sciences).