Dominance/Submission Test

You are here because one of your friends linked you to their Dominance/Submission Test result:

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Results:

Your friend tends 8.33% more toward dominance than submission.
Your friend tends 1.91% more toward dominance than the average person.

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Explanation of Traits:

Aggression is behavior intended to harm or demean others. People who score high on aggression may tend to engage in physical or non-physical aggression, be it shouting or breaking things, name-calling, bullying, or swearing. They may also intentionally harm others through gossiping, exclusion, or purposefully stressing them out.

Hostility is nurturing antagonistic feelings or ill will toward others. Individuals high in hostility often dislike others and assume the worst about them, their motives, and their intentions. People high in hostility are often impatient, stubborn, maliciously competitive, and cynical. They may feel like they are the only ones in their social circle who are affecting justice by calling others out on their illicit motives and bad behavior.

Dominance refers to the inclination to seek power and influence over others. People high in dominance tend to be arrogant, self-centered, conceited, and manipulative. Many also have superiority complexes and a furtive narcissism, believing they are the only ones who know how to run things; indeed that they should always be in charge. They usually go to great lengths to showcase their power and instill themselves in positions of authority and control.

Diffidence is the feeling of awkwardness, apprehension, or lack of comfort at having to fend for oneself. In their relations to others, individuals high in diffidence tend to doubt themselves excessively. They appear timid or weak, which indeed often encourages others to take charge or boss them around. Diffident individuals are unassertive and have low self-confidence; they tend to be especially shy when in unfamiliar situations; they may choose to avoid challenging social situations whenever possible as a way to alleviate their anxieties.

Self-abasement is characterized by low self-esteem, which one seeks to compensate for by self-humiliation. People with a tendency to self-abase tend to belittle and humiliate themselves as a reflection of the shame and low self-esteem that they feel on the inside. Often, one finds people high in self-abasement engaging in extreme submission to the will of another who makes them feel safe. Many also associate punishment from loved ones with redemption and the prospect of acceptance and improvement.

Unworthiness is the recurring feeling on the inside that one is lacking in value or merit. People high in this trait tend to feel that they are incompetent or inadequate, sometimes even to the point of telling themselves that “there is no use in trying” preferring to nurture their passivity since (in their internal monologue) they will never make it anyway. They often feel that they do not deserve genuine love, and they are, at the same time, often afraid of disappointing others, always attempting to fit into the plans or script of another person’s needs. People high in unworthiness also tend to focus on their own negative qualities, have difficulties accepting compliments, and be likely to struggle with sadness, shame, or anxiety every day of their lives.

References

Plouffe, R. A., Smith, M. M., & Saklofske, D. H. (2019). A psychometric investigation of the Assessment of Sadistic Personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 140, 57–60.
O'Meara, A., Davies, J., & Hammond, S. (2011). Short Sadistic Impulse Scale.
Atkinson, B. (2017). The SELF-DISS: A comprehensive measure of self-defeating interpersonal style. Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4896.
McCutcheon, L.E. (1995). Further validation of the self-defeating personality scale. Psychology Reports, 76 (3), 1135-1138.