Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Question 1

Narcissistic Personality Disorder - descriptions

Answer 1

• Rank s-> earliest description ‘the being in love with oneself’
• Freud - > developmental issues where self-love/primary narcissism in infants fails to be outward directed to others

Question 2

DSM -5:

Answer 2

• 3 main symptoms:
• Grandiose sense of self -importance -> overestimate abilities
• Excessive need for admiration entitlement , self-esteem very fragile
  -Lack of empathy

Question 3

selfie Beh

Answer 3

• Singh et al->
• Narcissism corresponds well with social networking beh where grandiosity correlated most strongly
  -excessive need for admiration + grandiosity

Question 4

Depressive tendencies

Answer 4

• Watson -> various depression measures pos correlated with NPD severity
• more severe NPD more likely to more show depression

Question 5

Lack of empathy

Answer 5

• unwilling to recognise others feelings + needs
• emotional coldness +lack of reciprocal interest
• recognise needs but see them as weaknesses + vulnerability
• low emotional + cog empathy

Question 6

Antisocial personality disorder

Answer 6

-APD lack empathy + are callus, cynical of feelings + suffering g others
-Willemsen et al-> psychopathy ratings increase as likelihood of depression decreases

Question 7

NPD + empathy - Neurobiological differences

Answer 7

-Schulze et al ->
-ppts with NPD had smaller regions associated with empathy (medial prefrontal cortex, anterior insula etc)

Question 8

NPD + lack of awareness

Answer 8

-Cooper et al-> more narcissistic ppts, less aware of their narcissm

Question 9

NPD treament

Answer 9

• very few successful controlled studies
• main treatment is psychotherapy

Question 10

NPD prevalence

Answer 10

-High prevalence with substance abusers (6.2%)
- more common clinical populations than in community (2 %) -> snows NPD can be help -seeking
-Ronningstam -> more likely to divorced + unemployed
- declines with age

Question 11

NPD is biopsychosocial

Answer 11

-Heritable component accounnting for 40% of variance
- Narcissistic traits are increasing over time
- cohort effect -> sociocultural changes in parenting practices influence narcissism levels it increase depends on permissiveness + over indulgence

Question 12

modernity + Narcissism

Answer 12

-characteristics of modern soc promote greater focus on self
- may support expressive individualism
-individualistic values can shade into narcissism
-Lasch-> modern soc encourages indivs to focus on the self + loosen ties with community, amplifying narcissistic traits + producing fragile self-concepts

Question 13

Narcissism + psychotherapy

Answer 13

• Cushman-> criticises psychotherapy for promoting individualistic values
• Those who are grandiose + seeking attention may find talking therapy becomes part of the problem

Question 14

Problematic personality + NPD

Answer 14

-Rutter + Smith -> indies with problematic personality are at greater risk of dev mental disorders
- costed + widiger-> patients with personality disorders have low agreeableness , low consciousness + high neuroticism
- Remit with highly structured therapies that are designed to deaI with emotion dysregulation + impulsivity

Question 15

NPD + self esteem

Answer 15

-rely excessively upon others for self-esteem + emotional regulation
- characterised by fragile self-esteem
- low implicit (automatic) self esteem + high explicit (reflected) self- esteem

Question 16

NPD + shame

Answer 16

• Horowitz + Runningstam -> indies with narcissism try to avoid shame + engage in strategies (aggression, perfectionism)
  -Ritter et al-> explicit State shame + proneness sig higher in NPD