The Dark Triad: The Common Manipulative Traits.
The understanding of how the brain controls human behavior and rationality.
Psychology is a scientific study of the human mind, the understanding of how the brain controls human behavior and rationality. The study of psychology dates back centuries ago, holding prominent ties to Ancient Greek philosophy and later philosophical theorists from then on.
What are some common manipulative traits of a person?
Philosopher, and mathematician, Rene Descartes, a 17th-century French theorist; is arguably one of the first modern philosophers to have impacted the study of psychology. Descartes, one of the many to speculate the mechanisms of the mind. He is regarded as the “…father of modern philosophy…” and is significant for theorizing the idea of dualism; the physical aspect of the body and spiritual aspects of the mind are two separate entities and that the body was just a physical housing for the brain, while the mind is not subjected to the laws of the universe.
According to Descartes’ philosophy, the physical representation of the brain does not follow the same laws as the spirit of the mind; the brain is tangible while the mind chooses to perceive information based on prior knowledge.
Wilhelm Wundt, a mid-1800 German philosopher, and physician, was the first to assert themselves as a noteworthy psychologist. Significantly, Wundt derived psychology from the scientific study of philosophy and biology, which was greatly debated among scientists. His connection of psychology through the scientific philosophical and biological studies of human behaviors is outlined in his book, “Principles of Physiological Psychology,” 1874. In 1879, Wundt founded the world’s first school of psychology; the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany. He is renowned for opening the first laboratory dedicated to the research of psychology and is thus regarded as the “…father of psychology…”
Wilhelm Wundt’s school became associated with the idea of the term, “…Structuralism…” the understanding of the basic components of human cognition, behavior, culture, and experience. Despite its misrepresentation of Wundt’s teachings, this term, formally coined by his student, Edward B. Titchener, greatly impacted future philosophers and philosophies from then on. “…Functionalism,” for example, was the term made important by Robert K. Merton and founded by William James.
Functionalism is a sociological theory that explains social order and emphasizes the various institutions that construct it.
It is a perspective that is based largely on the works of Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons also the American perspective of Charles Darwin and William James.
Regarded as the “Father of modern psychiatry,” Philippe Pinel, the first theorist to coins himself as a psychiatrist, a mid-1700 to the mid-1800s French physician, was the first to perform moral treatments. He approached patients with mental disorders on humane psychosocial care. Based on patients who displayed “…mania sans délire…” individuals who had no intellectual problems but a profound deficit in behavior, he would describe them as morally insane or delirious. This is significant because he created a distinct separation from individuals who displayed cases of confusion in the mind or spirit and their intellect. Pinel also differentiated patients with psychotic behaviors. Due to his actions during this time, he impacted the procedures of many privately owned and run asylums that were built for the mentally insane positively. He justified the odd behaviors of these patients by identifying their use of alcohol, drug abuse, marked cruelty, antisocial acts, irresponsibility, and immorality as causation.
Discussion
The Dark Triad is a term coined by Paulhus and Williams (2002) that constellates three socially aversive personality traits; narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, which all share the common traits of self-promotion, emotional coldness, gas-lighting (degradation of power for the control of others) and aggressiveness. The concept of the Dark Triad underlines the undesirable traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. It assumes that narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy’ malevolent qualities overlap — Machiavellianism (nurtured to be this way) and psychopathy (born that way) are closely related to each other, while narcissism is related to psychopathy, however, still emphasizing that they are all conceptually distinct.
Machiavellism is a term that dates back to the 16th century and comes from the Italian Renaissance. It is a political theory summarized by Niccolo Machiavelli and was viewed as the means necessary to maintain political power as depicted in his political treatise, “The Prince.” He wrote “The Prince,” in the 1500s, encouraging “…the end justifies the means…” behavior, especially among politicians. Machiavellism behavior has been integrated into the political and social life of every culture such as Europe, Ancient India, Ancient China, and among chiefdoms. One of the reasons why it is found everywhere is the universal need for a social system with an effective leader; it was used by twentieth-century great tyrants such as Stalin, Hitler, and Mao.
The malevolent qualities of individuals who score high on Machiavellianism are depicted to have: anti-social tendencies, self-absorption, strategic tactics, self-beneficial, and antagonistic behaviors, and detachment exploitation.
Manipulation is a core element to their personality, they succeed at the manipulation of people through intimidation, dominance, power, persuasion, self-disclosure, and flexible adaptation.
Narcissus, a handsome Greek youth, was a hunter in Greek mythology. He was the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. The tale of Narcissus is famously known for the cause and result of his suicide. He was seen as very beautiful and many fell for him, however, he showed little interest to others and displayed contempt and was proud to disdain those that loved him. In an earlier version of this tale, according to Ovid, nymph Echo rejected his love for her. Nemesis, the goddess of revenge and retribution, learned that Narcissus’ rejection struck revenge on Narcissus as punishment for his behavior. As a result, this rejection affected his ego immensely, so great that upon walking by a pool of water and crouching down to drink some, he became entranced by his own reflections and irrationally made the decision to kill himself for he saw it as an object of desire that he could not have. Thus, the origin of the psychological term “narcissism.” However, this term was brought to life around the 19th century when it was introduced in analytic literature. Given the great preoccupation with the subject, and it became used more than any other term.
The malevolent qualities of individuals who score high on narcissistic models are depicted to be full of self-enhancing admiration, self-defensive rivalry, self-absorption, grandiose exhibition, and described to be manipulative and have antagonistic aspects.
Evagrius Ponticus, A fourth-century monk, wrote “The Seven Deadly Sins,” of narcissism during Ancient Greece, to categorize seven different characteristics of Narcissists, as a way to fully detail Narcissists:
- Shamelessness (thick-skinned and processes shame in unhealthy ways).
- Magical Thinking (known as distortion and illusion — to put forth a falsified image of themselves).
- Arrogance (the act of degrading, debasing, or diminishing someone else to maintain their own sense of superiority).
- Envy (as a way of securing their own sense of superiority they project their own insecurities onto others).
- Entitlement (to hold unreasonable expectations of particularly favorable treatment and the failure to comply with others).
- Exploitation (the act of mentally abusing another to supply happiness and peace of mind for themselves).
- Bad boundaries (to not recognize a personal separation from others and viewing the existences of others is for their purposes of supplying their own needs).
Psychopathy, a 19th-century term, was coined by a 19th-century German psychiatrist, J.L.A. Koch, as the study of psychopathology. J.L.A. Koch speculated that psychopathic tendencies are constituted in an individual at birth. During the 19th century, the term loosely encompassed those who were weak-minded, depressed, insecure, or shy. By definition, psychopaths define individuals who have lost sight of moral judgment. In modern terms, this definition is correct, however, it modified to be more specific; a mental disorder that describes an individual with a lack of empathy or remorse.
The construct of psychopathy is closely related to antisocial personality disorder and sociopathy. The malevolent qualities of individuals who score high on Psychopathy are depicted to be full of superficial charm, manipulation, grandiose self-worth, pathological deception, and lack of responsibility.
The overall portrayal of the Dark Triad shares the commonality of poor behavior; they are deceitful, domineering, lack a sense of moral responsibility and compassion or remorse, full of self-interest, seek prestige or status and admiration. Most significantly the Dark Triad manipulates others to get what they want. An example of how these personality disorders may manipulate others to supply their self-interest is by mirroring or mimicking others to manufacture a false sense of connection or bond with the other person. These manipulative disorders mirror and mimic people’s gestures, facial expressions, posture, and even tone to stimulate a deep sense of connection. This type of behavior feeds the other person’s desires and deceives them into perceiving the mimicker as genuine and understanding, essentially disrupting their conscious judgment. In 1999 Tanya L. Chartrand, marketing, psychology, and neuroscience professor, and John A. Bargh, a social psychologist, hypothesized that people unconsciously mimic each other already to increase their likeability. They conducted three lab experiments that required people to mimic the social behaviors of their friends and even strangers.
The experiment is what is now known as the “Chameleon Effect.” Scientific studies have shown that those who use the “Chameleon Effect,” lead to an increase in sales, settlements, and profit up to 67%, which is more than those that don’t, being at 12.5%.
The psychological technique is often seen wielded by many retail sellers, car dealers, during job interviews, consumers, etc. As a result, these manipulative techniques help people gain a certain degree of status.
Despite the negative occurrences, the silver lining of all of these traits is that these personality types may obtain prestige and rise in ranks from their manipulative tactics. However, it is still important for those around them and themselves to recognize their behavior. Since these personality types lack moral judgment, they are unable to identify the construct of society. Their behaviors make them more likely to break the laws, become con-artist, etc. Society imposes these types of people, as displayed in their core system; those with these personality disorders become criminal offenders, in mental and psychiatric facilities.
However, in today’s modern era, there are few of these facilities, and those that remain, lack the care that dated ones once possessed; resulting in the mass use of self-medication. This abuse of drugs, alcohol, etc. has led them into prison. Thus, if those around them, and individuals with these personality disorders understand the cause and result of their behaviors, it will help them rehabilitate. If they can rehabilitate successfully they become autonomists. When autonomy is gained they can self-govern within society's expectations, ending this moral dilemma.
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