The Cross-cultural adaptability of the short dark tetrad (SD4)
Psychometric properties across latent variable models and gender in Romanian samples
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21623735 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nóra Bajcsi (0009-0002-9603-1807, Nottingham Trent University), Emanuele Fino (0000-0002-5095-6014, Queen's University Belfast, corresponding author), Simona A Popușoi, S Popusoi (0000-0002-5393-1672, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University), Andrei Corneliu Holman (0000-0001-9309-3821, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 9515-9525 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1046-1310 • E-ISSN: 1936-4733 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12144-025-07692-4 |
| OpenAlex | W4409188221 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 46 |
The Short Dark Tetrad (SD4; Paulhus et al., European Journal of Psychological Assessment , 37 (3), 208–222, 2021) is a self-report measure of antagonistic or ‘dark’ traits. It assesses Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the Romanian version of the SD4 in two undergraduate samples from a Romanian university ( N = 729). Four models were evaluated and tested using confirmatory, bifactor, and exploratory approaches. Multiple-group analysis was used for gender invariance testing. Spearman’s correlations assessed the measure’s criterion-related validity, specifically, associations with social dominance and sexual risk behavior, expecting positive correlations for all antagonistic traits, stronger for psychopathy. The results showed that a reduced 12-item confirmatory model is the best fit to the data. The hypothesis of a general “dark” factor of personality, tested through the bifactor model, was not supported. The exploratory model showed several cross-loadings, especially for Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Correlations with social dominance were similar across traits, while correlations with sexual risk behavior were highest for psychopathy, though only slightly higher than for sadism. In conclusion, several issues relevant to model fit and construct validity challenge the generalizability of the SD4 to the Romanian context and call for an alternative approach to the assessment of antagonistic traits across linguistic and cultural contexts
Adaptability · Botany · Latent variable · Latent variable model · Linguistics · Romanian · Statistics · Structural equation modeling · Tetrad · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Cultural Differences and Values · Personality Traits and Psychology · Psychology · Social Psychology · Ecology
Identification of Confirmatory Factor Analysis Models of Different Levels of Invariance for Ordered Categorical Outcomes
The “Why” and “How” of Narcissism
The Core of Darkness
Development and Preliminary Validation of a Self-Report Measure of Psychopathic Personality Traits in Noncriminal Population
Evaluating bifactor models
Screening for Dark Personalities
Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3)
The dark triad
Multiple-Group Invariance with Categorical Outcomes Using Updated Guidelines
The Assessment of Sadistic Personality
Sensitivity of Goodness of Fit Indexes to Lack of Measurement Invariance
Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis
Seeking important people and taking revenge
Dark triads, tetrads, tents, and cores
Introducing the Shorter Dark Tetrad for Muslim Societies (SD4-MS)
Internet trolling and everyday sadism
Gender differences in narcissism
The Dark Triad of personality
Social dominance orientation
Screening for dark personalities in Portugal
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |