The Light Triad of Personality: A Review of Foreign Studies

51

Abstract

The relevance of the problem is due to the importance of identifying integrated characteristics of a person, which would reflect his typical modes of behavior, activity and relationships to the world around him. Such characteristics include the concepts of Dark (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy) and Light (faith in humanity, humanism, Kantianism) personality triads. And, if the Dark Triad of traits has been actively studied in psychology for more than 20 years, the Light Triad has recently received the status of an independent psychological problem. Nevertheless, it aroused great interest in modern psychology, which led to the appearance of a significant number of publications. The article provides an overview of a number of modern foreign studies of the traits of the Light Triad of personality in the period from 2018 to 2024. Various approaches to identifying the features of the Light Triad and to developing diagnostic tools are considered. The main directions of research of the Light Triad are identified and characterized: the study of the manifestations of the features of the Light Triad depending on economic, political and cultural conditions; study of the relationship between the Light Triad traits and value orientations and life satisfaction; studying the relationship between the traits of the Light Triad and people’s behavior, including behavior on the Internet; traits of the Light Triad and the problem of leadership, etc. Disputable issues identified during the analysis of research on the traits of the Light Triad of personality are discussed.

General Information

Keywords: Dark Triad, Light Triad, machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, belief in humanity, humanism, Kantianism

Journal rubric: General Psychology

Article type: review article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/jmfp.2024130302

Acknowledgements. The author expresses his gratitude to the editorial board of the journal and reviewers for valuable comments on the article.

Received: 27.03.2024

Accepted:

For citation: Maralov V.G. The Light Triad of Personality: A Review of Foreign Studies [Elektronnyi resurs]. Sovremennaia zarubezhnaia psikhologiia = Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology, 2024. Vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 18–30. DOI: 10.17759/jmfp.2024130302. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Vladimir G. Maralov, Doctor of Psychology, Professor of the Department of Psychology, Cherepovets State University, Cherepovets, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9627-2304, e-mail: vgmaralov@yandex.ru

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