Narcissism, Personality, And Culture: An Investigation

Relationship between Narcissism, Personality, and Culture

Discuss about the Psychology for Individual and Social Development.

In my observations I have also noted that narcissism can be positively correlated to self-esteem although the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), considered to be a growing weakness of character among individuals is defined as lack of empathy, need for admiration and a developed trait of grandiosity (Foster, Campbell & Twenge, 2003). However, the researchers focussing on Personality/Social Psychological issues, are focussing on sub-clinical or normal narcissist. These are the individuals who have been found to display a few of the characteristics of NPD, but they do not necessarily conform to a complete diagnosis of NPD. In this paper, when I refer to the term narcissist, I am referring to the Personality/Social Psychological disorders.

Another aspect which is central to individuals is that of Culture and Development and these are seen across an individual’s lifespan, playing a crucial role in shaping the self of the individual (Hotchkiss, 2008). My research has also shown that an individual’s Personality and Character has been observed to change as the individual ages, especially as the individual moves from adolescence to young adulthood. My research has also shown that Culture has the capability of exerting great deal of pressure on shaping the personality of an individual (Goodman & Leff, 2011). I have also observed that many authors argue that culture can strongly influence an individual’s personality and views of self (Halverson, Kohnstamm & Martin (ed), 2014).

The goal of this investigation, which has been conducted by me, is twofold. The first goal was to collect recent data on narcissism from an inclusive sample of selective participants as compared to what is generally and typically found in the narcissism literature (Wilson &Sibley, 2011). Specifically, the data on narcissism collected by me was from individuals who represented a wide spectrum of age and of ethnic identity categories from di?erent sectors of the society. The second goal concerned the testing of different hypotheses and eventually conduct an exploratory analyses about narcissism based on this diverse yet inclusive sample of respondents (Dombek, 2016). My precise aim was to determine whether age, ethnic identity and social status are related to narcissism. I was also aiming at authenticating the previous research theories that men are usually found to display more narcissism compared to women (Walsh & Osipow (ed), 2014). Before I state my specific results, I would like to briefly address the general issues concerning narcissism and how these relate to other psychological constructs management (Hotchkiss, 2008).

Relationship between Narcissism and Age

I have already stated that the purpose of my investigation was to seek answers related to questions which established connection between narcissism, age, and culture. The first concern related to establishing a relationship between narcissism and its possible dependence on age of the respondent (Hotchkiss, 2008). I was more specifically focusing on the question: ‘Are younger individuals more narcissistic than the older individuals?’ It is commonly perceived that narcissism is less likely to change with age, especially after the individual has crossed adolescence age (Dombek, 2016). Although, during adolescence, an individual may undergo some personality changes, a large section of researchers feel that the individual’s personality becomes stable during this period. This has also been established by analyses of correlational consistency after the age of 30 (Hotchkiss, 2008).

I proceed further to the issue of an individual’s personality and this gathers importance as this has created considerable debate among researchers working on personality: Does personality get set in plaster after a certain age or can it change after attaining that certain age? My research establishes that an individual’s personality construct of narcissism, does change across the individual’s lifespan. I have come across at least three reasons which confirm that this assertion may be true:

• What most clinicians term as ‘disorder burnout’ (Insight, n.d.).
• Incorporation of objective failure into the individual’s self-concept (Goodman & Leff, 2011).
• Cultural changes which are responsible for birth cohort e?ects (Rosowsky, Abrams & Zweig (ed), 2013).

So far, I have focused on the reasons behind my hypothesis that reported narcissism is likely to decline in older respondents. However, this assumption may oblique certain important cultural and regional di?erences in narcissism. (Walsh & Osipow (ed), 2014), the Chinese are found to be more narcissistic than Americans, whereas the Japanese are less narcissistic than the Americans. As for my other presumption that men are more narcissistic than women has been well established by the other researchers (Foster, Campbell & Twenge, 2003; Wilson &Sibley, 2011). In fact, my data also collaborates this hypothesis when I found an average correlation of .18 (males higher than females) between gender and narcissism across 20 samples with 317 respondents. Thus, my final hypothesis is established that the male respondents in the present investigation will be found to report more narcissism as compared to the female respondents (Halverson, Kohnstamm & Martin (ed), 2014). I am sure that the data collected in this study, which has been obtained from a large yet diverse sample of individuals, will other researchers in establishing the generalized ability of this reliable research (Campbell & Miller, 2011).

Narcissistic personality, which can be characterised by the self-inflated view of the individual, their efforts which are aimed at self-enhancement and their social extraversions which are coupled with lack of intimacy can be found in abundance among the narcissists. In this regard, my findings of the New Zealand’s convicted murderer Clayton Weatherston made for exciting reading. Weatherston’s basis of defence was built on the statement that ‘his offence can be better understood if taken in perspective of his fragile narcissism’. In the case of Weatherston, the psychiatric expert engaged by the prosecution, testified in the court that Weatherston indeed displayed a strong Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). It was also testified that this explained his actions which resulted in the murder as he perceived them as threats to his self-esteem (Costa & McCrae, 2013). Lifetime prevalence for clinical narcissism may vary from around 1% to 6%, with males more likely to receive the diagnosis management (Walsh & Osipow (ed), 2014).

Character and Personality over Lifespan

In my view, among the other most effective measures which can be found while conducting the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), relate to the fact that the respondents be confronted to the question – ‘Whether or not the set of statements applies to them’. In my analysis use of NPI has been made extensively across a range of diverse respondents and also in testing a range of theoretical propositions (Foster, Campbell & Twenge, 2003; Wilson &Sibley, 2011). All my research was conducted after seeking ethical approval for the studies.

Respondents in my sample study were asked to respond to a wide range of personality measures, and many of these varied across the different versions of my survey. My survey included the 40-item Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) (Goodman & Leff, 2011). Scale of Cronbach’s alpha for my sample was .84 (M = 32.94, SD = 13.05). in my survey, as part of the demographic section, the respondents’ were divided in three categories on the basis of their estimated incomes-before-tax – (a) if it was below $20,000 a year or $384 a week; (b) if their increments were in $20,000 reaching to $100,000 pa, making the income between ‘$100,001 and $150,000 a year or $1924 to $2884 a week; and finally (c) if it was more than $150,000 a year or $2885 a week(Wilson &Sibley, 2011).

During the course of my research, I was confronted with this question on many occasions – ‘What does it mean that younger people are significantly more narcissistic than their elders? I can with some authority, after carrying out this research that the meaning this statement conveys is ‘that negative aspects of narcissism can be found most commonly among that group which is less equipped to deal with the ill-effects of narcissism. I also believe that treating the extreme manifestations of narcissism through pathology is a good reason for controlling narcissism. It is also manifested through research that age and narcissism are closely related traits and can become a potential risk factor for engaging the individual’s in sexually coercive behaviour, increased levels of prejudice, self-interest at the expense of the common good, aggression, conduct disorders in youth and counter-productive work behaviour (Goodman & Leff, 2011), not to mention the excessive distress and stress which results from seeking continuous affirmation for those who experience clinical levels of narcissism (Rosowsky, Abrams & Zweig (ed), 2013; Campbell & Miller, 2011).

Culture and Personality

In both of my research categories, my conclusion was that men were consistently on a higher level than women in ascertaining narcissism (Halverson, Kohnstamm & Martin (ed), 2014). I can also state with affirmation that this gender difference occurs across the entire age range especially that men of a given age are, on an average, higher in narcissism compared to women of that age group. It is also established by this research that men, in all age groups, lag behind women, of the same age group, in terms of decreasing levels of narcissism by approximately 10 to 15 years. This can be stated as, given that narcissism decreases with age, a 30 year old man will show the same level of narcissism as can be found in a 20 year old woman (Halverson, Kohnstamm & Martin (ed), 2014).

Despite all the research on the topic, the question still remains, as to whether gender differences in narcissism are driven by gender role socialization? This was ably and appropriately reflected in a small portion of the much viewed popular news programme INSIGHT. The following transcript retrieved from https://www.sbs.com.au/ news/sites/ sbs.com.au.news/files/transcripts/363531_insight_narcissism_transcript.html answers the question raised above.

Jenny Brockie, the anchor of the talk show, asked the following question to Prof. W. Keith Campbell, who runs the ‘Behavioural and Brain Sciences Program’ at the University of Georgia and has also written a book called The Narcissism Epidemic and I quote:

“Keith, do you think there’s a connection between the online environment that we’re talking about here and the kind of narcissistic traits that you’re saying you’re finding as a researcher in young people and the increase in narcissism?”

“I mean certainly that people who are narcissistic use social media to make themselves look good and to be connected. So in the research we’ve done, people who are narcissistic have broader social networks, they’re more self-promoting in their photos, more self-promoting in their descriptions of themselves. I mean there’s a study even done on personal email addresses and people who are narcissistic get addresses like ‘fascinatingking200’, things like that – so even more salacious and self-enhancing email addresses – so it certainly has an impact on individuals use of these media”. Unquote.

My samples showed a significant negative relationship between age and narcissism measure –

Gender: t(315) = -5.272, p<.05

Age: t(315) = .823, p>.05 r(317)=.18, p<.001.

However, consistent with my expectation that a quadratic age term can explain additional variation in narcissism, I conducted tests as per the regression model for determining the line of best fit with regard to the curvilinear association between narcissism and age for men and women. I made a comparative analysis of my studies. In the first analysis I included the Deprivation Index as a covariate for the neighbourhood in which the respondents lived (Walsh & Osipow (ed), 2014). In my second analysis I included gender as the covariate. My results showed that these two covariates were in a position to control the main effect of difference in the affluence or income when conducting the examination of association between age and narcissism (Wilson &Sibley, 2011) (Refer to Table-1 & 2 in the Appendix).

Mean Rates of Narcissism by Gender and Age

	Gender	Age
Female	Male	18-25	26 and above
M	SD	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
Narcissism	.20	.16	.31	.18	.24	.17	.22	.17

An independent measures t-test was conducted to determine if there was difference rates of narcissism for males and females. Results showed that males scored an average of 31 years of age (SD = 0.18), while females scored an average of 20 years of age (SD=0.16). This difference was (significant/not significant) significant.

An independent measures t-test was conducted to determine if there was difference rates of narcissism for young (18-25) and old (25 and above) people. Results showed that young individuals scored an average of 24 years of age (SD = 0.17), while old individuals scored an average of 22 years of age (SD=0.17). This difference was (significant/not significant) not significant.

References

Berke, J.H. (2012). Why I Hate You and You Hate Me: The Interplay of Envy, Greed, Jealousy and Narcissism in Everyday Life. London: Karnac Books.

Campbell, W.K. and Miller, J.D. (2011). The Handbook of Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Theoretical Approaches, Empirical Findings, and Treatments. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Costa, P.T. and McCrae, R.R. (2013). Personality in Adulthood: A Five-Factor Theory Perspective. New York: Routledge.

Dombek, K. (2016). The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Foster, J.D., Campbell, W.K. and Twenge, J.M. (2003). Individual Differences in Narcissism: Inflated Self-Views across the Lifespan and around the World. Journal of Research in Personality, 7, 469-486. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00026-6

Goodman, L.C. and Leff, B. (2011). The Everything Guide to Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Professional, reassuring advice for coping with the disorder – at work, at home, and in your family. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Halverson, C.F. Kohnstamm, G.A. and Martin, R.P. (ed). (2014). The Developing Structure of Temperament and Personality From Infancy To Adulthood. New York: Psychology Press.

Hotchkiss, S. (2008). Why Is It Always About You?: The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Insight, Narcissism: Episode Transcript. Retrieved and adapted from: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/sites/sbs.com.au.news/files/transcripts/363531_insight_narcissis m_transcript.html on 18/04/18)

Rosowsky, E., Abrams, R.C. and Zweig, R.A. (ed). (2013). Personality Disorders in Older Adults: Emerging Issues in Diagnosis and Treatment. New Jersey: Routledge.

Walsh, W.B. and Osipow, S.H. (ed). (2014). Career Counselling: Contemporary Topics in Vocational Psychology. New Jersey: Routledge.

Wilson, M.S. and Sibley, C.G. (2011). ‘Narcissism creep?’: Evidence for Age-Related Differences in Narcissism in the New Zealand General Population. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 40, 3, 89-95.