The relationships between triarchic psychopathic traits and value orientations in men and women

Abstract

This study was aimed to explore the relationship between triarchically conceptualized psychopathic traits and different value orientations. Participants were 180 male and 216 female Croatian university students. Self-report data were collected by using the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM) and Value Orientation Scale. As predicted, meanness was negatively related to conventional and self-realization value orientation, and positively to hedonistic value orientation in both men and women, thus suggesting that meanness is the central component of psychopathy operating similarly across gender. Additionally, the results revealed some gender differences in the role of triarchic psychopathy components in value acquisition. In women's sample only, hedonistic value orientation was related to higher boldness and higher disinhibition. Only in men's sample, several interactions were found between psychopathic components predicting value orientations. The negative effect of disinhibition on self-realization and conventional values was more pronounced when associated with high boldness. In addition, the negative effect of disinhibition on the acquisition of self-realization values emerged only under the high meanness conditions, while the opposite trend was demonstrated for low meanness condition. Thus, gender moderated some of the psychopathy-values relationship, although this effect was small.