Varieties of Sadistic Tendencies (VAST)
Psychology: Personality1 sample item
About this scale
Most people do not want to hurt other people, yet there are those that enjoy being cruel (i.e., sadism). Hence, it is a personality trait that deservers study (for an excellent overview, see Buckels et al., 2013 ). Note that Sadism refers to the personality trait and Cruelty refers to the actual behavior that sadistic people carry out ( Buckels et al., 2013, p.2207 ).
Sample item(s)
“Survey code includes 34 item lines. Open PsyToolkit to review wording and permissions.”
Notes
Psychology field scale. Check the PsyToolkit page and original paper for use rights before fielding.
Source & citation
D. L. Paulhus & D. N. Jones (2015). Measuring dark personalities via questionnaire. In G. J. Boyle, D. H. Saklofske & G. Matthews (Eds.), Measures of personality and social psychological constructs (pp.562-594). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. | Buckels, E. E., Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2013). Behavioral confirmation of everyday sadism. Psychological Science, 24, 2201-2209. | Scale also available via Professor Paulhus's website .
Source. Scale details are summarised from the publication cited above. Always consult the original source for the full item set, scoring, and permission to use.
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