Call for papers for special issue "Dark Traits in Applied Context"

02.04.2021

Research on the Dark Triad traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy; Paulhus & Williams, 2002) has become a popular topic in personality psychology. The popularity of this area of research has led to new traits being proposed (e.g., sadism and spitefulness) in hopes of expanded the breadth of coverage of this dark space but also simultaneous attempts to reduce with the emergence of the Dark Dyad and the Dark Factor of Personality (D). The field tends to be characterized by five themes: (1) the Dark Triad in the context of life history theory and mating; (2) measurement issues; (3) the Dark Triad in the context of basic personality traits along with its relations with other candidates and antisocial behavior as their main characteristic; (4) gender differences; and (5) organizational psychology (Dinić & Jeveremov, 2019). However, compared to the others, the Dark Triad traits within the organizational setting has received the least attention along with other applied domains like cyberpsychology, political psychology, ecological psychology, and sport psychology. Furthermore, although we know that dark traits can be associated with “toxic” social outcomes, there are still open questions about the mechanisms through which dark traits are related to these outcomes and the interplay between dark traits and contextual factors that contribute to adverse outcomes. And last, there are still questions of the potential functional and adaptive utility of dark traits in different contexts.

This special issue of Primenjena psihologija will consider submissions in the form of quantitative or qualitative research or systematic literature reviews, related to relevant topics in the applied context. Studies that investigate contexts in which dark traits are toxic and contexts in which they could be adaptive are welcome. For this topical issue, we seek contributions considering, but not limited to, the following areas:

- Dark traits in the context of the organizational setting: How dark traits affect workplace outcomes and under which organizational conditions (e.g., competitive climate); how dark traits differ across various professions and how they are related to job demands

- Dark traits in the context of intimate relationships: How dark traits affect relationship outcomes at different stages of relationships development, in offline and online contexts

- Dark traits in the forensic context: Mechanisms through which relations between dark traits and the tendency towards risky and antisocial behaviors could be explained

- Dark traits in the context of health and intervention: How dark traits affect physical and mental health and risk behaviors in order to provide cues for intervention

- Dark traits in the context of the pandemic: mechanisms through which dark traits are related to emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to the pandemic in different phases of the pandemic; how they are related to COVID-19 conspiracy theories and how they affect behavior.

References

Dinić, B. M., & Jevremov, T. (2019). Trends in research related to the Dark Triad: A bibliometric analysis. Current Psychology. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00250-9

Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 556–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6

Deadline for the submission of papers is September 15, 2021.

Accepted papers are to be published in Vol. 14, No. 4 (December 2021). The authors are requested to submit their papers in English electronically via http://primenjena.psihologija.ff.uns.ac.rs/index.php/pp. For all necessary information regarding manuscript preparation, please check the Instruction for authors section.

Sincerely,
Bojana Dinić and Peter K. Jonason
Guest Editors