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Vulnerable Dark Triad Personality Facets Are Associated with Religious Fundamentalist Tendencies
journal contribution
posted on 2016-03-01, 00:00 authored by H F Unterrainer, J Ruttinger, Andrew Lewis, Jeromy AnglimJeromy Anglim, A Fink, H P KapfhammerBackground: This study explores the possibility that religious fundamentalism (RF) may be linked to deficits in personality structure, which is in contrast to the general assumption that religiosity and spirituality are positively related to mature personality development. Sampling andMethods: To test this hypothesis, 327 (232 female) college students completed the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being together with the Innsbrucker Religious Fundamentalism Scale. In addition, the ‘vulnerable dark triad' of personality (‘vulnerable narcissism', subscale of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory; ‘secondary psychopathy', subscale of Levenson's Self-Report Psychopathy Scale; ‘borderline personality', of the Borderline Personality Inventory) was assessed. Results: In general, the relation between spirituality and healthy personality functioning was confirmed. In addition to greatly overlapping with ‘general religiosity' (p < 0.001), RF was also relevantly predicted by narcissistic (‘hiding the self') and borderline (‘primitive defenses') personality facets (p < 0.05 for both). Conclusions: Based on these preliminary data, we conclude that specific structural deficits in personality might lead to more rigorous variants of religious/spiritual beliefs such as RF. Further research in clinical surroundings as well as in religious extremist groups is recommended.
History
Journal
PsychopathologyVolume
49Issue
1Pagination
47 - 52Publisher
KARGERLocation
SwitzerlandPublisher DOI
ISSN
0254-4962eISSN
1423-033XLanguage
EnglishPublication classification
C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2016, KargerUsage metrics
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