Dark personality, forgiveness and coping styles among military officials and civilians

Abstract

The Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy) have always been linked to the negative aspects of behavior and personality. As these dark traits in the dark triad have been called as the sub-clinical for of the socially aversive personalities there must be some adaptive and brighter side to these traits. This study aims at measuring the difference between the manifestations of the dark triad and its correlation with Forgiveness and Coping styles among the Military officials and the Working Civilians. The research was conducted on total 120 samples (60 Military Officials ; 60 Working civilians) using THE SHORT DARK TRIAD by Paulhus and Jones (2011) for measuring the dark personality traits, Brief COPE by Carver (2013) for measuring the coping styles and HEARTHLAND FORGIVENESS SCALE by THOMPSON, SNYDNER & HOFFMAN (2003) for measuring the forgiveness. The results indicated no major difference in the prevalence of the dark traits in military officials and civilians. The findings suggested a negative correlation between Machiavellianism and forgiveness and Psychopathy and forgiveness. There was a positive correlation of the dark traits with Avoidant coping. Regression analysis also suggested that dark traits were the predictors of the level and modes of forgiveness as well as the coping styles. Further, factor wise analysis have been discussed in the study. Implications and Limitations of the study are also discussed.