Psychopatic Traits in Interpersonal Relation

Abstract

The subject of interest in the presented text is the possible relationship between a number of personality traits of the individual and its functioning in social relation. Dealing with the psychopathic features of personality and their importance in social relations, the authors pay attention to psychopathy, as well as narcissistic features and Machiavellianism in individual’s activity. These three traits since the beginning of the 21st century have aroused vivid interest of researchers and therapists attempting empirical verification of hypotheses in this area. It is also worth indicating. The above-mentioned categories of behavior form the dark triad of personality. Researchers draw our attention to clinical interpretations regarding diagnostic criteria enabling the recognition of psychopathic features and the broader dark triad. This sometimes carry on to referring to the concept of sub-clinical psychopathy that does not meet the diagnostic criteria used in the classification of mental disorders. The authors also try to interpret the negative role of these features in social relations.