The Revised Assessment of Sadistic Personality (ASP-8): Evidence for Validity across Four Countries

Abstract

Subclinical sadism, characterized by infliction of cruelty, aggression, or humiliation on another for subjugation or pleasure, provides important information in the prediction of aversive behaviors that have implications for individuals’ and society’s well-being worldwide. Given sadism’s universal relevance, it is imperative that researchers ensure valid and reliable trait measurement not only among English-speaking individuals, but also cross-nationally among countries in which sadism remains relatively understudied. The objective of the current research was to validate the revised version of the Assessment of Sadistic Personality (ASP-8) (Plouffe et al., 2017) across samples of Russian (n = 1087, M_age = 37.36, SD = 10.36), Greek (n = 1195, M_age = 35.64, SD_age = 13.08), Serbian (n = 443, M_age = 28.10, SD_age = 6.60), and British (n = 511, M_age = 28.50, SD_age = 11.62) adults. Overall, results supported the reliability, dimensionality, and scalar/partial scalar measurement invariance of the ASP-8 across cross-national samples. Convergent and discriminant validity were mostly supported through correlations with general personality traits, the Dark Triad, emotional intelligence, mental toughness, depression, anxiety, stress, satisfaction with life, aggression, and attitudes toward social groups. Based on our findings, we recommend the use of the ASP-8 in future investigations of aversive traits.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Data availability statement

Data are available from the first author upon reasonable request.

Notes

1 As a supplemental analysis, we conducted tests of gender invariance aggregated across countries. We found evidence for configural, metric, and scalar invariance (see Table S5 of Supplemental Materials).

2 It is common for RMSEA to indicate poor fit in models with small df (Kenny et al., 2015). See Discussion section for more information.

Additional information

Funding

This research was partially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia [Grant No. 179006].