The Adaptiveness of Antisocial Personality Traits: Obtaining Reputation, Resources, and Reproduction Through Bullying Daniel Provenzano, B. A. (Honors) Child and Youth Studies Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Faculty of Social Science, Brock University St. Catharines, Ontario © Daniel Provenzano, 2016 Abstract Adolescents may compete with each other for access to adaptive outcomes (e.g., social, material, and sexual resources) that have reliably led to survival and reproduction in the ancestral past. However, adolescents may have varying levels of success in securing adaptive outcomes depending on their personality. For instance, antisocial personality traits may provide adolescents with competitive advantages through the use of antisocial behaviours such as bullying. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate if adolescents with certain personality traits may use bullying to express those traits adaptively to gain favourable outcomes. A sample of 231 adolescents (113 males, Mage = 14.60, SD = 1.57) completed self-report questionnaires on personality, bullying involvement, social dominance, material resources, and sexual behaviour. Mediation analyses were conducted and offered mixed support for hypotheses. Bullying partially mediated the relation of Honesty-Humility and Agreeableness with social outcomes, although both personality factors also had direct effects on material outcomes and indirect effects on sexual outcomes through bullying. Furthermore, there were no significant partial mediations between Emotionality and any of the adaptive outcomes. Results provide support for the adaptive function of bullying and suggest that adolescents with lower Honesty-Humility and lower Agreeableness may increase the willingness to use bullying to obtain social and sexual goals. Keywords: adolescence; bullying; personality; reputation; resources; reproduction ii Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Tony Volk, for passing on your knowledge and expertise and providing me with endless research opportunities and insightful career and life advice. The door to your office was always open whenever I had questions about research and you allowed this thesis to be my own work, but steered me in the right the direction whenever you thought I needed it. Your application of the zone of proximal development worked like a charm. You literally provided bulletin board material in the first month of graduate school that motivated me to publish research. And although I went to the “dark side” (i.e., clinical psychology) to continue my graduate experience, I never would have made it there without your mentorship first. I would like to thank my internal committee members, Dr. Zopito Marini and Dr. Drew Dane, for your thoughtful comments and suggestions that helped to improve and polish my thesis. I would also like to thank my external examiner, Dr. Shelley Hymel, for bringing a non-evolutionary approach to my thesis that challenged me to think about bullying behaviour from a different perspective. To the Volk Developmental Science Lab (Ann, Prarthana, Kim and honourary lab member Natalie), there was a lot of laughs and fun, but we always managed to get research done. It was really enjoyable spending the last two years with like-minded people. In addition, I would especially like to thank Ann for taking the time to help me countless times in every way possible, having the patience to put up with the hundreds of questions I asked, and for always maintaining a positive attitude and atmosphere in the lab. Of course, none of this research would have been possible without the help of hundreds of parents, coaches, and especially adolescents across the Niagara region. Thank you for allowing me to conduct research with you to learn a little bit about your life experiences. Finally, a special thank you to my family for encouraging me in all of my pursuits and allowing me to choose my own path in life. I always knew that you believed in me and wanted the best for me. This thesis is dedicated to Kristen Potter. iii Table of Contents ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………..….iii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………..........iv LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………....vii LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………….viii LIST OF APPENDICES………………………………………………………………....ix INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………...1 Personality and Adaptive Outcomes……………………………………………...2 Social Dominance………………………………………………………...4 Materialism……………………………………………………………….6 Sex…………………………………….……………………………...…..9 Bullying From an Evolutionary Perspective…………………………………….13 Reputation (e.g., Social Dominance)……………………………………15 Resources…………………………………….………………………….17 Reproduction…………………………………….………………………19 Bullying and Personality…………………………………….………………......22 Current Study…………………………………….……………………………...24 MATERIAL AND METHODS…………………………………….…………………...25 Participants…………………………………….………………………………..25 Measures…………………………………….………………………………….25 Bullying…………………………………….…………………………...25 Social Dominance………………………………….……………………26 iv Resources..................................................................................................26 Reproduction…………………………………….……………………....27 Personality…………………………………….………………………....27 Peer Valued Characteristics………………….………………………….28 Likeability...........................…………………………………….……….28 Popularity.…………………………………….…………………………28 Procedure…………………………………….…………………………………..28 RESULTS…………………………………….…………………………………….……29 Preliminary Analyses…………………………………….……………………...29 Missing Data…………………………………….………………………29 Multivariate Assumptions…………………………………….…………29 Correlations…………………………………….………………………………..30 Mediation Analyses…………………………………….………………………..32 Social Dominance…………………………….………………………….33 Resources…………………………………….…………………………..36 Reproduction…………………………………….……………………….39 DISCUSSION…………………………………….……………………………………...42 Social Dominance…………………………….………………………………….42 Resources…………………………………….…………………………………..46 Reproduction…………………………………….……………………………….50 Implications…………………………………….………………………………...55 Theory…………………………………….……………………………...55 Practice…………………………………….…………………………….56 v Limitations and Future Directions for Research………....………………………58 Conclusions...………………………………….…………………………………61 REFERENCES..................................................................................................................62 APPENDIX........................................................................................................................89 vi List of Tables Table 1. Means and Standard Deviations for all Independent and Dependent Variables............................................................................................................................31 Table 2. Spearman Correlations Between all Independent and Dependent Variables......32 Table 3. Mediation Effects of Bullying on the Relationship between Honesty-Humility and Social Dominance.......................................................................................................33 Table 4. Mediation Effects of Bullying on the Relationship between Agreeableness and Social Dominance.......................................................................................................34 Table 5. Mediation Effects of Bullying on the Relationship between Emotionality and Social Dominance.......................................................................................................35 Table 6. Mediation Effects of Bullying on the Relationship between Honesty-Humility and Resources....................................................................................................................36 Table 7. Mediation Effects of Bullying on the Relationship between Agreeableness and Resources....................................................................................................................37 Table 8. Mediation Effects of Bullying on the Relationship between Emotionality and Resources....................................................................................................................38 Table 9. Mediation Effects of Bullying on the Relationship between Honesty-Humility and Reproduction...............................................................................................................39 Table 10. Mediation Effects of Bullying on the Relationship between Agreeableness and Reproduction...............................................................................................................40 Table 11. Mediation Effects of Bullying on the Relationship between Emotionality and Reproduction...............................................................................................................41 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Bullying partially mediates the relationship between Honesty-Humility and social dominance.........................................................................................................33 Figure 2. Bullying partially mediates the relationship between Agreeableness and social dominance..........................................................................................................................34 Figure 3. Bullying does not partially mediate the relationship between Emotionality and social dominance.........................................................................................................35 Figure 4. Bullying does not partially mediate the relationship between Honesty- Humility and resources......................................................................................................36