Philip A Vernon

• Western University

The WHO estimates that nearly one in three women are subjected to abuse by their partner. This paper aimed to evaluate the extent to which low emotional intelligence might contribute to a woman's participation in an abusive relationship. Three hundred and eight one adult women completed the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue), which...

This study investigates the Dark Triad in relation to the Big Five facets and the putative redundancy of Machiavellianism and psychopathy. A sample of 442 participants completed measures of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, as well as the Big Five. Bivariate correlations and multivariate regression analyses with age, sex, and facets of...

Behavioral genetics as applied to psychology concerns the use of genetic methods in scientific research to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in human behavior. Hundreds of twin studies converge on the finding that individual differences in virtually every personality trait that has been examined are primarily attributable...

Fundamentally, individual differences can be attributed to genetic differences and to differences in the environment. Genetic effects can be either additive or non‐additive, while environmental effects are either shared or non‐shared. A genotype‐environment interaction occurs either when the way in which a genotype expresses itself varies as a func...

For decades, the Big 5 model of personality has dominated as one of the most popular and widely used models of personality. The current article reviews the development and prevalence of the Big 5 model and explores the position of other personality variables not (or not fully) encompassed by this model, to see what lies ‘beyond the Big 5’. We start...

Humor and Borderline Personality - Retraction - B. E. Atkinson, J. A. Schermer, R. A. Martin, N. G. Martin, M. T. Lynskey, T. J. Trull, P. A. Vernon

Our study examines attachment-related differences in the use of dating applications (dating apps). We collected online survey data regarding people’s attachment orientation and dating app preferences. People with a more anxious attachment orientation were more likely to report using dating apps than people lower in anxious attachment; people with a...

A previous meta-analysis (Van der Linden et al., Psychol Bull 143:36–52, 2017) showed that the General Factor of Personality (GFP) overlaps with ability as well as trait emotional intelligence (EI). The correlation between trait EI and the GFP was so high (ρ = 0.88) in that meta-analysis that these two may be considered virtually identical construc...

The three socially malevolent personality traits, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, which make up the Dark Triad, were examined in relation to socially desirable responding and self-monitoring based on self- report responses from volunteer participants. Although the prediction that self-monitoring would be positively correlated with Ma...

The present study examined the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating) and loneliness in Australian adult twins. At the phenotypic level, the two adaptive humor style dimensions (affiliative and self-enhancing) were found to correlate negatively with...

This study investigated how vocational interests are related to the Dark Triad – a cluster of three socially malevolent personality traits that include Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Participants completed self-report measures of vocational interests, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Narcissism correlated positively wi...

We examine the relationship between the general factor of personality (GFP) and emotional intelligence (EI) and specifically test the hypothesis that the GFP is a social effectiveness factor overlapping conceptually with EI. Presented is an extensive meta-analysis in which the associations between the GFP, extracted from the Big Five dimensions, wi...

The current study investigated relations between PTSD symptoms and the Dark Triad personality traits. The sample in this study consisted of 309 participants (124 males; 185 females) from the general population in Canada, aged 18 to 79 years (M = 33.6, SD = 12.3). Participants completed the Short-D3 − a measure of the Dark Triad (psychopathy, narcis...

The present study examined the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating) and four dimensions of borderline personality disorder (affective instability, identity disturbance, negative relationships, self-harm) as well as a total borderline personality d...

The present study investigates whether self-esteem and entitlement moderate the relation between jealousy (cognitive, emotional, behavioral) and the Dark Triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy). To test this question, 453 participants (311 females, 140 males, 2 unidentified) between the ages of 17 to 81 years (M = 33.19, SD = 10.32) compl...

Substance use is frequently perceived as a problematic behavior associated with negative social, psychological and physiological consequences. Despite the perception that substance use constitutes problematic behavior, previous literature on the personality characteristics of substance users is scarce. The majority of past research has focused on c...

The purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between the General Factor of Personality (GFP) — a personality dimension proposed to be at the top of the personality hierarchy, and the Dark Triad personality dimensions — a cluster of three antisocial personality traits, including: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. A s...

The goal of the present investigation was to assess whether the Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy) add significantly to the prediction of misconduct and the propensity to engage in high-stakes deception. Self-report scores were collected (n. = 464) via the Short-D3 assessing the Dark Triad traits, the Comprehensive Miscon...

Phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between various reaction time measures and intelligence were examined in a sample of six-year-old twin children (N = 530 individuals). Univariate genetic analyses conducted on the same-sex pairs (101 monozygotic (MZ) pairs and 132 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) pairs) demonstrated that the intelligence m...

Research on the Dark Triad of personality has supported the notion that Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy represent distinct but related traits. This study investigated the relation between each of the Dark Triad traits and scores on the Interpersonal Guilt Questionnaire (IGQ: O’Connor, Berry, Weiss, Bush, & Sampson, 1997). Each of the...

The phenotypic (observed), genetic, and environmental correlations were examined in a sample of adult twins between the four factors and global score of the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire (TEIQue) and the seven vocational interest factors of the Jackson Career Explorer (JCE). Multiple significant correlations were found involving the wo...

This article reports the first behavioral genetic study of relationships between alexithymia and four styles of humor: affiliative, self-enhancing, self-defeating, and aggressive. A total of 509 MZ pairs and 264 DZ pairs of twins completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). Consistent with our predic...

The relationship between self-report abilities and measured intelligence was examined at both the phenotypic (zero-order) level as well as at the genetic and environmental levels. Twins and siblings (N = 516) completed a timed intelligence test and a self-report ability questionnaire, which has previously been found to produce 10 factors, including...

The present study (N = 462) examined the relationship between the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and deception in domain-general and domain-specific contexts. As predicted, psychopathy and Machiavellianism were linked to the propensity to lie in different contexts, including mating and academic dishonesty. P...

The present study explored the links between the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and sexual fantasies in a sample of Canadian undergraduates (N = 643). Among the Dark Triad traits, psychopathy was the most strongly correlated with overall sex drive as well as fantasies containing exploratory, impersonal, and...

Collectively referred to as the Dark Triad; Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy are subclinical personality traits that have been associated with a number of antisocial behaviours. The present study investigated the relation between each of these traits, vengefulness, empathy, and trait forgiveness. The sample consisted of 219 undergradua...

The present study reports on the development and validation of the Vices and Virtues Scales (VAVS), which assesses individual differences in the propensity to engage in the seven deadly sins. Item-level analyses, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted on two independent samples of adults. Results indicated that...

The Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality full-length (SNAP) and short versions (SNAP-SRF and SNAP-ORF) were developed as measures of normal-range and more pathological personality traits. This study investigated the validity of the SNAP Brief Self-Description Rating Form (SNAP-BSRF), an alternative version of the SNAP Self-Description...

The present study reports on the development and validation of the Vices and Virtues Scales (VAVS), which assesses individual differences in the propensity to engage in the seven deadly sins. Item-level analyses, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted on two independent samples of adults. Results indicated that...

The present study is the first behavioral genetic investigation of the Dark Triad traits of personality, consisting of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, and the variable of mental toughness, reflecting individual differences in the ability to cope when under pressure. The purpose of this investigation was to explore a potential explana...

The current research investigates the heritability of two of the most common response styles: acquiescence bias (tendency to agree or disagree with survey items regardless of the items' actual content) and item keying (differential responding related to the use of regular- and reverse-keyed items). We estimated response styles from a common persona...

The present study examined the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between a general factor of personality (GFP) and four humor styles: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating. Participants were 571 same-sex adult twin pairs. Individuals completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and a short form of the NEO p...

The present study is the first to assess phenotypic correlations between alexithymia and the Dark Triad traits of personality in a community sample, as well as the common genetic and environmental factors underlying these correlations. Participants were 232 North American adult twin pairs who completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Se...

The current study investigated relations between the perceived ability to deceive and the Dark Triad personality traits in two samples. In study 1, the sample consisted of 1074 participants (329 male, 745 female) aged 17–71 years (M = 22.96, SD = 6.92). Participants completed the perceived ability to deceive scale, in which they were asked to estim...

This replication study examines relations between alexithymia and trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) at the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental levels. A sample of 1,444 same-sex twin pairs (850 MZ pairs and 594 DZ pairs) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. A subset of 494 same-sex twin pairs (287 MZ pairs and 207 DZ pairs) had earl...

In this chapter, 4 approaches to the investigation of biological correlates of intelligence are described covering (1) anatomical or structural head size and brain volume estimates, (2) psychophysiological event-related potentials, (3) nerve conduction velocity, and (4) cerebral glucose metabolic rates. The goals of this chapter are threefold. Firs...

A General Factor of Personality (GFP) was extracted in two studies in order to examine its relationship with political variables. Only one of nine phenotypic associations between the GFP and variables measuring left–right political orientations was significant, which suggests that people who score highly on the GFP are not typically “left” or “righ...

Presently the conventional structure of personality, the Five-Factor Model (FFM), has faced criticism for inadequately capturing the full range of existing traits, particularly those reflecting antisocial behavior. The FFM has also not received sufficient application of genetically informed analyses to its extraction and validation. We explored the...

The purpose of this study was to examine the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental relationships between multiple dimensions of Type A behavior and personality. Adult twins (N=247 pairs) completed a self-report personality measure and a work style questionnaire that measured six facets of Type A behavior: impatience, anger, work involvement, time...

The mothers of 603 pairs of 3- to 13-year-old twins in Korea completed the Emotionality, Activity, Sociability (EAS) Temperament Survey and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in reference to their twins. Principal factor analysis of the seven scales comprising these measures yielded a general factor on which all the scales had moderate to...

The current study is the first to directly investigate relationships between the Dark Triad personality traits and bullying behaviours. We also sought to design a reliable measure of bullying for use with an adult sample. The sample consisted of 657 participants (203 males; 454 females), aged 18 to 70 (M = 23.1, SD = 8.65). Participants completed t...

Two hundred undergraduate students completed paper-and-pencil measures of the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) and the Humor Styles Questionnaire, which taps two adaptive (affiliative and self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive and self-defeating) styles of humor. The first purpose of the study was to replicate rel...

This study compared the validity of 2 different self-report approaches to the assessment of psychopathy in nonforensic samples: the Psychopathy Resemblance Index (PRI), derived from a measure of normal personality functioning, and the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP), developed specifically to assess the maladaptive traits associated with psycho...

The present study provides evidence supporting the presence of a General Factor of Personality (GFP), which has been proposed to represent the apex of the hierarchy of personality traits. Furthermore, the construct validity of this general factor is assessed to address recent criticisms suggesting that the GFP may merely be a statistical artefact r...

The present study is the first to examine relationships between alexithymia and trait emotional intelligence (trait El or trait emotional self-efficacy) at the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental levels. The study was also conducted to resolve inconsistencies in previous twin studies that have provided estimates of the extent to which genetic an...

The present research examined the extent to which relations between social values and personality are due to shared genetic or environmental factors. Using the Rokeach (1973) Value Survey and a scoring key from Schwartz and Bilsky (1990), seven value scores (enjoyment, achievement, self-direction, maturity, prosocial, security, and restrictive conf...

The Dark Triad of personality, comprising Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, was investigated in relation to the Supernumerary Personality Inventory (SPI) traits, because both sets of variables are predominantly distinct from the Big Five model of personality. Correlational and principal factor analyses were conducted to assess the rela...

This study presents the first behavioral genetic investigation of the relationships between trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy) and the Dark Triad traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. In line with trait EI theory, the construct correlated positively with narcissism, but negatively with the ot...

The relationship between self-report abilities and personality was examined at both the phenotypic (zero-order) level as well as at the genetic and environmental levels. Twins and siblings (N = 516) completed self-report ability and personality questionnaires. A factor analysis of the ability questions revealed 10 factors, including politics, inter...

This study investigated phenotypic correlations between mental toughness and humor styles, as well as the common genetic and environmental effects underlying these correlations. Participants were 201 adult twin pairs from North America. They completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire, assessing individual differences in two positive (affiliative, sel...

In this study, four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, self-defeating) were assessed in conjunction with a measure of the HEXACO model of personality, in order to gain greater insight into the etiology of these humor styles, and to situate them better in the framework of human personality. Participants were 664 monozygotic twin...

We investigated the relationships between trait emotional intelligence (trait EI; TEIQue-SF) and the Big Five personality dimensions (NEO-FFI) in two Dutch samples. Results were consistent with studies conducted with the full forms of the inventories in North America and Britain. Neuroticism was the strongest correlate of trait EI in both samples,...

This study reports the first behavioral genetic investigation of a nonverbal measure of the Big Five and its relationship with a traditional verbal measure. Participants (N = 592 adult twins) completed the Five-Factor Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Monozygotic twins were more alike on all domains of t...

The present study investigated correlations between four humor styles and the Dark Triad traits of personality. Participants were 114 pairs of adult twins from North America who completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, and the MACH-IV. Results revealed that participants who...

The present study investigated the location of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy) within the context of the HEXACO model - a more comprehensive personality framework than the conventional Big Five structure. A total of 666 MZ and 526 DZ adult twin pairs from the United Kingdom completed the short form of the Tr...

The correlation between general intelligence (g), a general factor of personality (GFP), and social desirability was examined in a sample of 507 siblings. Each sibling within a pair was examined separately, creating two groups. Individuals had completed an omnibus personality inventory measuring 20 personality traits as well as a timed, group admin...

This article provides a behaviour genetic heritability analysis of several political issues, including social and economic conservatism, general interest in politics, attitudes toward the major Canadian federal parties, federal party identification and national vote choice. Substantial genetic effects were found for four of six political attitude s...

The purpose of the present study was to determine if a general factor of personality (GFP) could be extracted from the six dimensions of the HEXACO model and four factors of trait emotional intelligence. Participants were 1,192 pairs of twins (666 MZ pairs, 526 DZ pairs) between the ages of 19 to 86 years, who completed the Trait Emotional Intellig...

In three studies, a General Factor of Personality (GFP) was found to occupy the apex of the hierarchical structure. In Study 1, a GFP emerged independent of method variance and accounted for 54% of the reliable variance in a multitrait-multimethod assessment of 391 Italian high school students that used self-, teacher-, and parent-ratings on the Bi...

Two studies were conducted to see whether a general factor of personality (GFP) could be extracted from different measures of personality. Using samples of twins in both studies also allowed an assessment of the extent to which genetic and/ or environmental factors contributed to individual differences in the GFPs that were found. In Study 1, princ...

The present study is the first behavioral genetic investigation of relationships between the Dark Triad of personality--Machiavellianism, narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy--and moral development. Participants were 154 monozygotic twin pairs and 82 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs. Higher scores on Machiavellianism and psychopathy were positively...

Research on materialism has been conducted from numerous theoretical perspectives. Of particular interest has been an examination of environmental factors and situational paradigms that promote materialistic values. Conversely, empirical behavior genetic studies exploring possible genetic contributions to materialism are nonexistent in the literatu...

The present study is the first behavioural genetic (BG) investigation of mental toughness, as measured by the 48-item mental toughness (MT48) questionnaire, and the first BG investigation of relationships between mental toughness and the Big-5 factors of personality. Participants were 219 pairs of adult monozygotic and dizygotic twins from across N...

This article reports the first studies to investigate the genetic and environmental components of correlations between humor styles and trait emotional intelligence. In two independent adult-twin samples, significant phenotypic correlations were found between four humor styles (affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating) and five t...

This study reports the first behavioral genetic investigation of the extent to which genetic and/or environmental factors contribute to the relationship between the Big Five personality factors and trait emotional intelligence. 213 pairs of adult monozygotic twins and 103 pairs of same-sex dizygotic twins completed the NEO-PI-R and the Trait Emotio...

Numerous models of emotional intelligence (EI) have proposed the existence of hitherto undiscovered mental abilities, competencies, and skills. The theory of trait emotional intelligence suggests that the content domains of these models invariably contain permutations of personality traits. The two studies in this article examine the heritability o...

The purpose of the present study was to examine the scale properties of a modified version of the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS; Jackson, 1977) and to examine the heritability estimates of the 34 vocational interest scales and resulting factor scores. Two modifications to the questionnaire were conducted. The number of items was reduced...

Four hundred and fifty six pairs of adult twins completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire – which measures two positive and two negative styles of humor – and the NEO-PI-R, which measures the Big-5 personality traits. Univariate behavioral genetic model-fitting revealed that individual differences in the two positive humor styles (affiliative and se...

One thousand and seventy three pairs of adult monozygotic (MZ) twins and 895 pairs of same sex adult dizygotic (DZ) twins from the United Kingdom (UK) completed the Humor Styles Questionnaire: a 32-item measure which assesses two positive and two negative styles of humor. MZ correlations were approximately twice as large as DZ correlations for all...

This study reports the results of a large scale literature review of research studying the relationship between intelligence and speed of information-processing. Data from 172 studies, with a total of 53,542 participants, were analyzed to find the mean correlations between a variety of intelligence and mental speed measures. Additionally, effect si...

This study reports the first behavioral genetic investigation of the three Dark Triad variables (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and their relationships with the Big 5 personality traits. A total of 278 adult twins completed questionnaire measures of the Dark Triad and the Big 5. Consistent with some previous studies, we found signif...

One of the longest-standing debates within psychology concerns the extent to which we can identify biological factors in the prediction of individual differences in personality. Factors may include ‘acquired’ states, such as disease (e.g., Balsis et al., 2005; Lyons et al., 2004; Menza et al., 1990; Netter & Rammsayer, 1991; Ogawa, 1981), drug use...

This study examined the correlates of self-estimated levels of the eight abilities of Gardner's (1983) “multiple intelligences” framework. Participants (N = 200) estimated their own levels of the eight abilities, completed two maximum performance tests of each ability, and provided self-ratings of their personality characteristics. As observed in p...

We carried out two studies to test the hypothesis that genetic and environmental influences explain population group differences in general mental ability just as they do individual differences within a group. We estimated the heritability and environmentality of scores on the diagrammatic puzzles of the Raven's Coloured and/or Standard Progressive...

Phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations between measured intelligence and caregiver-provided ratings of personality were examined in a sample of 4- to 6-year-old twin children (N=680 individuals). Personality ratings were factor analyzed. Five factors were extracted and labelled: agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousne...

We test the hypothesis that polymorphisms of the brain regulator genes MCPH1 and ASPM contribute to variations in human brain size and its correlates. We measured general mental ability, head circumference and social intelligence in 644 Canadian adults (496 Caucasians, 36 Orientals, 84 Mixed Race/Other and 28 Blacks; 257 men and 387 women). The gen...

Gardner [Gardner, H. (2006-this issue). On failing to grasp the core of MI theory: A response to Visser et al. Intelligence] criticized some aspects of our empirical examination [Visser, B. A., Ashton, M. C., & Vernon, P. A. (2006-this issue). Beyond g: Putting multiple intelligences theory to the test. Intelligence] of his “Theory of Multiple Inte...

We investigated Gardner's “Theory of Multiple Intelligences” in a sample of 200 adults. For each of the hypothesized eight “intelligence” domains–Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Naturalistic–we selected two tests based on Gardner's description of its content. Factor analysis reve...