The Dominance Behavioral System: Explicating Its Psychopathological Structure and Personality Relations

Mania, narcissism, antisocial personality disorder/psychopathy, and substance use disorders have been linked theoretically through Johnson, Leedom, and Muhtadie’s (2012) dominance behavioral system (DBS). The structure of widely used measures of these forms of psychopathology was examined in two phases to determine the extent to which they cohered to define dimensions related strongly to dominance. In Phase 1, the item-level structure of the Hypomanic Personality Scale (Eckblad & Chapman, 1986) and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Terry, 1988) was examined concurrently both in (a) community adults currently receiving psychiatric treatment (N = 737), and (b) university undergraduates (N = 487). These analyses yielded Self-Assurance, Lability, Exhibitionism, and Manipulativeness factors across samples, with an additional Body Confidence factor emerging in the student data. In the Phase 2 analyses using these same samples, the structure of a wider range of mania, narcissism, antisocial personality disorder/psychopathy, and substance use disorder measures was examined, including factor-based scales modeling the emergent Phase 1 factors. These additional analyses yielded a replicable four-factor structure of Social Ascendancy, Antisociality, Negative Affectivity, and Substance Use across samples, with Social Ascendancy (defined primarily by measures of grandiose narcissism and boldness) being strongly related to traits defining a dominant personality style. Antisociality (defined by measures of antagonism and disinhibition) also was related to dominance to some degree, but Negative Affectivity (defined by vulnerable narcissism and affective lability measures) and Substance Use were weakly related to dominance. Based on these results, grandiose narcissism dimensions assessing content related to elevated extraversion (e.g., leadership, exhibitionism) appear especially closely related to dominance. Considering the degree to which forms of psychopathology theoretically linked via the DBS actually are defined by dominance has the potential to sharpen their conceptualization and measurement, given that some forms are more clearly linked to dominance than are others.