Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine the relative contributions of psychopathy and
self-monitoring to the prediction of self-presentation tactics (behaviours that individuals use
to manipulate their self-image). Psychopathy is composed of two main factors: Factor 1,
which includes manipulativeness and shallow affect, and Factor 2, which includes
irresponsibility and anti-social behaviours. Self-monitoring is a personality trait that
distinguishes between those who adapt their behaviour to fit different social situations (high
self-monitors) and those who behave as they feel regardless of social expectations (low selfmonitors).
It was hypothesized that self-monitoring would moderate the relationship
between psychopathy and self-presentation tactics. One hundred and forty-nine university
students completed the Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974), the Self-Report Psychopathy
Scale - Version III (Paulhus et aI., in press), the Self-Presentation Tactics scale (Lee, S., et
aI., 1999), the HEXACO-PI (a measure ofthe six major factors of personality; Lee, K., &
Ashton, 2004), and six scenarios that were created as a supplementary measure of the selfpresentation
tactics. Results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that
self-monitoring did moderate the relationship between psychopathy and three of the selfpresentation
tactics: apologies, disclaimers, and exemplification. Further, significant
interactions were observed between Factor 1 and self-monitoring on apologies and the
defensive tactics subscale, between Factor 2 and self-monitoring on self-handicapping, and
between Factor 1 and Factor 2 on exemplification. Contrary to expectations, the main effect
of self-monitoring was significant for the prediction of nine tactics, while psychopathy was
significant for the prediction of seven tactics. This indicates that the role of these two
personality traits in the explanation of self-presentation tactics tends to be additive in nature rather than interactive. In addition. Factor 2 alone did not account for a significant amount of
variance in any of the tactics, while Factor 1 significantly predicted nine tactics. Results are
discussed with regard to implications and possible directions for future research.
