Dark Personality, Paranormal Beliefs, And Mental Well Being Among Young Adults And Middle Adults

Abstract

The present study explored the relationship between dark personality, paranormal beliefs, and mental well-being among young adults and middle adults. The correlational cross-sectional research design was used. A sample of (n) 200 young and middle adults with an age range of 20 years to 65 years (M = 35.33, SD = 14.59), including 112 women and 88 men, was accessed by employing stratified random sampling. A self-constructed demographic sheet, the Short Dark Tetrad Scale, the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale, and the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form were used for assessment. The findings highlighted that all the dark personalities were positively related to paranormal beliefs, whereas paranormal beliefs were found to be positively related to mental well-being. The results also showed only psychopathy dark personality as a positive predictor of mental well-being, while paranormal belief did not predict it. The results also highlighted significant differences in young and middle adults in terms of dark personalities, precognition-related paranormal beliefs, and mental well-being. Further gender differences in sadism, witchcraft-related paranormal beliefs, and mental well-being were also reported. The present research has an important contribution to the field of social psychology, highlighting the role of dark personality and paranormal beliefs in determining the mental well-being among young and middle adults.

Keywords: Dark personality, paranormal beliefs, mental well-being, young adults, middle adults.