Psych 2B Flashcards
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)
A pervaisive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy
what is the prevalence of NDP
6.2%
DSM-5 NPD criteria
- grandiose sense of self-importance
- preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power brilliance, beauty. CONT…
Personality dimension of Narcissism
- Narcissism exists on a spectrum
- narcissism is used as a dimension of measure in personality and social psychology, and its relation to personal, social, and mental health outcomes.
Narcissism and wellbeing
Sedikides et el., (2004)
- narcissism is inversly related to sadness, depression, loneliness, anxiety, and neuroticism
- positively related to subjective wellbeing and couple wellbeing, a finding fully accounted for by self-esteem levels
- inflated and often unrealistic positive self-esteem is fundamental to narcissism, but is fragile
Narcissism and relationships
- Narcissists prefer a “ludic” (game-playing love style
- They demonstrate low commitment in dating relationships
- they satisfy their (low) intimacy needs by selecting or marrying admiring partners
- Narcissists experience relatively high couple wellbeing within such relationships
Vulnerable Narcissism (VN) and Grandiose Narcissism (GN) similarities
both involve:
- self-absorption
- a preoccupation with maintaining a positive self-image and gaining others’ approval
- sensitivity to criticism
self-regulation
- changing the self with respect to some reference value
- setting goals, evaluating performance, feedback and adjusting
- personality is like problem solving
- important aspect of Bandura’s cognitive-social theory
regulatory focus theory
- two systems for self-regulation exist within individuals: promotion and prevention
- any goal can be framed in terms of either promotion or prevention
Promotion regulatory focus
- concern with the attainment of positive outcomes
- strategic approach behaviour
- eagerness
- consideration of multiple alternatives
- concern with ensuring hits, and minimising misses
Chronic vs momentary focus
- both regulatory systems exist within every individual
- environmental or contextual factors may lead us to be promotion or prevention-focussed at any given time
- But individuals can be chronically promotion or prevention focussed
- this personality diff can come from diff childhood experiences
- parents who focus on nurturance (promotion)
parents who focus on security (prevention)
narcissism and self-regulation
- Morf & Rhodewalt: narcissism isn’t static but involves dynamic self-regulatory processes
- Narcissits grandiose self-concept construct is fragile and relies on continual positive validation
- narcissists will seek and create validation opportunities
narcissism and regulatory focus
- a promotionfocus is especially relevant to understanding self-regulation and narcissism
People high in VN?
- dislike and avoid competition due to desire to appear empathic, responsive and helpful
- fear being perceived as a failure
- consciously experience feelings of inadequacy and incompetence
- may try to win others’ attention and affection by being good people, and avoid competition to avoid failure, criticism, and rejection
- less research on VN than GN
