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Summary MHS4503 - Narcissistic Personality Disorder
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Summary of all articles on narcissistic personality disorder (MHS4503)
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NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER (CLUSTER B)NARCISTISCHE PERSOONLIJKHEIDSSTOORNIS
Source: DSM-V (APA, 2015)
Een pervasief patroon van grandiositeit (in fantasie of gedrag), behoefte aan bewondering en gebrek en
empathie, beginnend op jongvolwassen leeftijd en aanwezig in uiteenlopende contexten, zoals blijkt
..uit vijf of meer van volgende kenmerken:
o Heeft een opgeblazen gevoel van eigen belangrijkheid (overdrijft bijvoorbeeld de eigen
prestaties en talenten, verwacht te worden erkend als superieur, zonder de bijbehorende
prestaties).
o Is gepreoccupeerd met fantasieën over grenzeloos succes, grenzeloze macht, genialiteit,
schoonheid of ideale liefde.
o Gelooft dat hij of zij bijzonder en uniek is en alleen kan worden begrepen door of moet
omgaan met andere bijzondere mensen of mensen (of instellingen) met een hoge status.
o Heeft een excessieve behoefte aan bewondering.
o Heeft het gevoel bijzondere rechten te hebben (onredelijke verwachtingen over een speciale
voorkeursbehandeling, of dat er automatisch wordt voldaan aan zijn of haar verwachtingen).
o Exploiteert anderen (maakt misbruik van anderen om zijn of haar eigen doelen te
verwezenlijken).
o Heeft een gebrek aan empathie: is niet bereid de gevoelens en behoeften van anderen te
erkennen of zich ermee te identificeren.
o Is vaak afgunstig op anderen of gelooft dat anderen afgunstig zijn op hem of haar.
o Toont zich arrogant of hooghartig in houding of gedrag.
NARCISSISM, SOCIAL REJECTION AND AGGRESSION
Source: Twenge & Campbell (2003)
Across four studies, narcissists were more angry and aggressive after experiencing asocial rejection
than were non-narcissists. In Study 1, narcissism was positively correlated with feelings of anger and
negatively correlated with more internalized negative emotions in a self-reported, past episode of
social rejection. Study 2 replicated this effect for a concurrent lab manipulation of social rejection. In
Study 3, narcissists aggressed more against someone who rejected them (i.e., direct aggression). In
Study 4, narcissists were also more aggressive toward an innocent third party after experiencing social
rejection (i.e., displaced aggression). Narcissists were not more aggressive after social acceptance.
Self-esteem plays little role in predicting aggression in response to rejection. These results suggest that
the combination of narcissism and social rejection is a powerful predictor of aggressive behavior.
Narcissism and aggression
In general, narcissism is a complex trait that includes inflated views of self, intrapsychic and
interpersonal strategies for maintaining these inflated self-views, and poor relational functioning.
Confrontations with failure can be accompanied by anger. When narcissists fail, they distort their
own positive contributions to tasks and blame others for failures. They derogate competitors and
individuals who give them unflattering feedback. In short, when narcissists confront evidence that
disagrees with their self-views, they externalize blame. Thus, they may be likely to react to threats
with anger (an externalizing emotion) rather than sadness or anxiety (both internalizing emotions).
1
, Compared to non-narcissists, narcissists report lower levels of empathy, intimacy, communion, caring,
commitment and selflessness. Instead of intimacy, narcissists seem willing to use or exploit
relationships with others for their own ends. The link between threatened egotism (i.e. inflated self-
views) and aggression has been extensively documented across a range of situations. Low self-esteem
is not a cause of violence; violence is often a response to ego threats by persons with inflated self-
views. In sum, there is solid evidence that narcissists respond to failure feedback by aggressing against
the sources of those threats. However, the aggressive responding has not been shown to extend to non-
involved others.
Social rejection and aggression
It would seem logical that people would respond to social rejection with prosocial and appeasing
behavior. However, research suggests that social rejection instead allows the expression of
aggressive impulses. On average, people react to social exclusion with aggression. However, there are
necessarily individual differences in how aggressively people respond to rejection; the study proposes
that narcissism is one of these moderating individual differences.
The present study
The authors hypothesize that narcissists will respond to social rejection with increased anger and
aggression, based on several grounds. First, social rejection is likely to be perceived by narcissists as
an ego threat. Thus, social rejection should result in aggression. Likewise, social rejection implies
disrespect, and narcissists’ response to social rejection should include anger and aggression. Finally,
this prediction is consistent with the behavior observed in several of the school shooters. On the other
hand, the authors note that it is possible that narcissists will emerge relatively unscathed by social
rejection. This may be the result of the narcissists’ relative disinterest in close relationships or their
immunity to rejection from those whom they do not perceive as having high social status. Four studies
were used to examine these hypothesis;
o Study 1: participants recalled a past event in their lives when they experienced social rejection
and then reported their mood during these events (both externalized and internalized).
o Study 2: the authors manipulated social rejection in the laboratory and then measured feelings
of anger versus internalized emotions.
o Study 3: the authors measured direct aggression (i.e. aggression against members of the
rejecting group) following social rejection.
o Study 4: the authors measured displaced aggression (i.e. aggression toward an innocent third
party) following social rejection.
Study 1
Did narcissists report more anger following social rejection? Anger was positively correlated with
narcissism when controlled for internalized negative affect. In addition, internalized negative affect
was negatively correlated with narcissism when we controlled for anger. In sum, narcissists feel more
anger and less internalized negative affect after a reported, past rejection experience.
In contrast, the self-esteem measures
were not correlated with anger when
controlled for internalized negative
affect. This effect also occurred when
narcissism, the self-esteem composite,
and internalized negative affect were
regressed on anger (table); narcissism
predicted feelings of anger, whereas self-
esteem did not.
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