Machiavellianism and personality dysfunction

Abstract

Machiavellianism (MACH) is associated with a variety of traits in normals which, when extreme, may indicate personality dysfunction (e.g. psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism, psychopathy, narcissism, paranoia, hysteria). Based on a dimensional conceptualization of personality and personality disorders we further examined in a student sample the extent to which MACH is associated with personality dysfunction. We employed the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) [Hyler, S. E. (1997). PDQ-4 and PDQ-4+ instructions for use. New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute] as a dimensional measure of the personality disorders included in the DSM-IV. As predicted MACH is positively associated with the PDQ-4+ total score, an index of general personality dysfunction. In addition, MACH is positively associated with most of the specific personality disorder scales, and most strongly with the borderline, paranoid, negativistic (i.e. passive-aggressive) and antisocial scales. Finally, although sex differences were obtained on some of the PDQ-4+ measures, there is no evidence that participant sex moderates relations between MACH and personality dysfunction.