The dark tetrad and trait emotional intelligence: Latent profile analysis and relationships with PID-5 maladaptive personality trait domains

Abstract

Dark traits and emotional intelligence play a key role in contemporary personality theory. Still, the relationship between these models deserves clarification, especially regarding the latent profiles characterized by a mixture of traits from both models. The present research used a person-centred approach to explore the latent profiles derivable from dark traits measured through the Short Dark Tetrad (SD4; Jones & Paulhus, 2014) and trait emotional intelligence measured through Wong and Law's (2002) Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), in two non-clinical samples, from Romania (N = 311) and the UK (N = 222), respectively. We tested the invariance of the solution across the two samples, then how the emerging profiles relate to PID-5 maladaptive trait domains by using linear modeling. We found that a 3-profile solution represented the data best, with two profiles showing SD4 values close to the mean and comparatively high and low values across the WLEIS facets, respectively, whereas the third profile was characterized by high SD4 values and values of emotional intelligence close to the mean. Significant differences between the profiles were found in maladaptive personality trait domains. Implications for theory and research are discussed.