Results and Comments
The SSIS was the first stand-alone measure of sadistic personality in normal samples. Although the original
paper did not provide predictive behavioral data, subsequent studies have done so. Its main limitation is the
assumption of unidimensionality.
SHORT SADISTIC IMPULSES SCALE
Please respond to each statement by circling ‘A’ for agreement or ‘D’ for disagreement
1. Hurting people would be exciting A D
2.I have hurt people because I could A D
3.I wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone A D
4.I have hurt people for my own enjoyment A D
5.I have humiliated others to keep them in line A D
6.I would enjoy hurting someone physically, sexually or emotionally A D
7.I enjoy seeing people hurt A D
8.I have fantasies which involve hurting people A D
9.Sometimes I get so angry I want to hurt people A D
10.People would enjoy hurting others if they gave it a go A D
Notes : Total score is the number of ‘A’ (agreement) choices.
Reverse scored item (R).
Reproduced with permission.
2. Varieties of Sadistic Tendencies (VAST)
(Paulhus, Jones, Dutton, & Klonsky, 2011 ).
Variable
Like the SSIS (O’Meara et al., 2009), the VAST was designed to assess the sadistic personality, that is, a trait-
like proclivity toward sadistic behavior. However, the VAST (Paulhus et al., 2010) makes a distinction between
direct sadism (enjoyment of harming others physically or verbally) and vicarious sadism (enjoyment of observing
others being harmed).
Description
A wide variety of sadistic behaviors were assembled and whittled down by rational and empirical methods
(Paulhus et al., 2011 ). Comprising 16 items, the instrument is subdivided into Direct and Vicarious subscales. The
subscales can be combined to yield a total VAST score.
Sample
Paulhus et al. (2010) reported four studies with a total sample size of 889. Together, they included 433 college
students and 456 respondents from Mechanical Turk.
Reliability
Internal Consistency
The authors reported Cronbach alpha coefficients for the subscales ranging from .77 to .83 for Direct Sadism
and .81 to .84 for Vicarious Sadism. Alpha values for the total VAST ranged from .85 to .92 ( Paulhus et al., 2011 ).
Test/C0Retest
No test /C0retest reliability coefficients have been reported to-date.584 20. MEASURES OF DARK PERSONALITIES
V. VICES AND VIRTUES