The Darker Aspects of Motivation: Pathological Personality Traits and the Fundamental Social Motives

Abstract

Basic personality traits (e.g., agreeableness) have been found to be associated with various social motives. In the present studies, we were interested in determining whether the pathological personality traits captured by the Personality Inventory for the DSM-5 (PID-5) were associated with certain fundamental social motives (e.g., self-protection, disease avoidance, status seeking). In Study 1, we examined the associations between the pathological personality traits and the fundamental social motives in a sample of 311 community members. Negative affectivity had positive associations with a range of fundamental social motives (e.g., self-protection, disease avoidance). Detachment had positive associations with social motives that involved separation from others (i.e., disease avoidance and independence) and negative associations with various social motives that involved closeness with others (e.g., mate retention, kin care). Antagonism had positive associations with social motives that involved direct so...