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The Effect of Narcissism on Mental Well-Being in Middle Aged People

Article · October 2015

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 Indian Journal of Social Science Researches
Vol. 12, No. 1 & 2, March & October, 2015, pp. 31-34
ISSN : 0974-9837

The Effect of Narcissism on Mental Well-Being in Middle Aged

People

Namrata Dixit*, Ashok Kumar Patel** and Shraddhesh Kumar Tiwari***

In today’s world of technology people are becoming more self- centered rather being others’ oriented, which
leads to narcissism and consequently end up with broken relationships. Nowadays, this is a major problem
in our society. The present study was designed to address the narcissism effect on mental well being. Sixty
middle ages participants were administered Narcissistic Personality Inventory and mental well-being
questionnaire along with a demographic information sheet. On the basis of narcissism inventory score,
they were classified in two categories. Results revealeda significant effect of narcissism on mental well
being. It is observed that high narcissistic people have high levels of mental well-being in comparison to
low narcissistic people. It was also found that significant differences exist in narcissism score and its seven
component namely authority, self-sufficiency, superiority, vanity, entitlement, exhibitionism and
exploitations.

Keywords: Narcissism, mental well-being, middle age people

Excessive self love is known as narcissism. It to maintain a grandiose self view.
is a personality trait that involves an activity that Raskin,Novacek, & Hogan(1991) report that
is done for pleasure. Narcissistic personality is narcissism is a kind of high self esteem. However,
described as dramatic emotional behavior which Campbell, Rudich, &Sedikides, (2002) suggests
is similar to anti social personality. People with that it is an unrealistic positive view about
narcissistic personality believe that they are oneself. Recently, Sedikides, Rudich, Gregg,
better than others, fantasizing about power, Kumashiro and Rusbult (2004) have given the
success and attractiveness exaggerating their evidence that self esteem and narcissism are
achievement or talents. This term was first positively correlated. Self esteem functions as a
introduced in psychology with the mediator of narcissism and psychological health.
psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud in “On DSM-5 describes it as narcissistic personality
Narcissism” (1914) who wrote that narcissism disorder described characterized by people who
personality comes from failure to differentiate self possess exaggerated sense of self-importance,
from external objects in very young babies or they expect to recognize themselves as
mental disorder case. There are various views superiorwithout any achievement, exaggerations
about narcissism. According to American of talentsandachievements, being preoccupied
Psychological Association (2013) clinical fantasies about brilliance, success, power,
narcissism reflects a pervasive pattern of beauty, belief that they can be understood by the
grandiose as a self focus and self-importance people with equal specialty, requirement of
whileMorf&Rhodewalt(1993) states that constant admiration, sense of entitlement,
excessive self focus on one self is a matter of expectation to be favored and compliance
subclinical narcissism and it is a sustained effort without any question, tendency to take

* Counselor, NavUdayMansikSwasthyaSansthan, The Richmond Fellowship society,Lucknow, U. P. INDIA

** Clinical Psychologist (Corresponding Author), Department of Neurology, Room No. 91, Clinical Epidemiology
Unity, AIIMS, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, INDIA-110029; Email: ashok.patel95@yahoo.com
*** DindayalUniversity, Gorakhpur, U.P. INDIA
32 Dixit, Patel & Tiwari

advantage of others without recognizing the studies were done on middle age people who
feelings of others, envious nature, haughty and have got maximum life achievements, settled with
arrogant behavior. Narcissistic personality personal goals and matured with life experiences.
disorder may also include features like having Thus, the present study was planned to address
confidence but it’s not the same as it crosses the the effect of narcissism on psychological well
border of healthy confidence.You put yourself on being in middle age people. The specific
a pedestal and value yourself more than others. objectives of the study were as followed:
Various studies have supported the fact that · To examine the effect of narcissism
high narcissistic people are psychologically on mental well-being of middle age participants.
unhealthy. Bogart, Benotsch and Palovic (2004), · To explore the relationship between
for example, found that normal narcissistic people the dimensions of narcissism and mental well-
act as they are in psychological problems and being among middle age participants.
reports emotional high and low. Kernis (2001) has
shown that these individuals have unstable self- Method
esteem, and are highly dependent on their social Participants:Participants of this study were
interactions. Narcissism is also found to be 60 middle aged (age range 40-55 years) male and
related to jealous and fearful of closeness female. All the respondents were well versed in
(Rhodewalt and Morf 1998), aggressiveness both the languages.
(Stuck and Sporer 2002), to threatening feedback Measures and Procedure:
that may have implicit self conception of which
Narcissistic Personality Inventory(Raskin
they are ashamed (Tracey and Robins 2003).
and Hall, 1979): It consists of 40 forced-choice
Orth&Veciano (2015) states that the concept of
items, each having 2 bipolar statements. The
self esteem and narcissism share some clear
respondents had to select the best suited
overlap and both are involve in positive self
statement for him. This scale also measures 7
evaluation as well as inflated and unrealistic
component of narcissism including- Superiority,
positive (Campbell and Foster 2007). Baumeister
Authority, Exploitativeness, Vanity, Self-
and Voh (2001) argued that narcissistic people are
Sufficiency, Exhibitionism and Entitlement.
addicted to self esteem and display high
Inventory has been reported to possess good
entitlement- a global tendency towards feelings
psychometric properties.
of superiority and deservingness (Bosson et al
2008). Another side of self view is that high self Mental Well-Being Scale (Warwick,
esteem is more realistic (Murk 2013). Kernis Edinburgh, 2007): It was developed in Warwick
(2003), Mruk (2013) indicated that high self- and Edinburgh University. It comprises 14
esteem is associated with interpersonal problems statements having a 5 point rating scale. The
entitlement or superiority. They argued that high scale has been reported to have good
self-esteem is not dependent to others to regulate psychometric properties.
their self views. Morf, Weir and Devidoh (2000) Results
compared with low and high narcissist people Obtained data on narcissism scale and mental
and found that high narcissist people relish direct well-being were calculated. On the basis of
competition against others. participants’ responses on narcissism scale, they
Most of the studies reviewed above have were classified into high and low narcissism
been conducted on children, young adults and personalities. T test was computed to examine the
patients in context of narcissism, psychological effect of narcissism personality on mental well-
well-being and health related issues. None of the being of participants.
 Narcissism and mental well-being 33

Table 1: Effect of narcissism on mental well- being (r=.54, p<.01), vanity and mental well-being
being (r=.55, p,.01),and exhibitionism and mental well-
Narcissism being (r=.63, p<.01). Overall score of high
t(58)
narcissism is also significant positively
High Low
correlated(r=.78, p<.01) with mental well being.
Mean SD Mean SD
Discussion
Well-being 61.00 6.71 48.27 8.88 6.26**
The present study was designed to address
**  P<0.01 the narcissism effect on mental well-being. Sixty
Table 1 above presents the effect of narcissism middle ages participants were administered
on mental well-being of middle aged people. It is Narcissistic Personality Inventory and mental
evident from the table that participants with high well-being questionnaire along with a
narcissism show significantly higher (t(58)= 6.26, demographic information sheet. Findings of the
P< 0.01) level of mental well-being (Mean= 61.00, study reveals that people having high narcissism
SD= 6.71) as compared to participants with low have higher mental well-being as compared to
narcissism (Mean= 48.27, SD= 6.71). people with low narcissism who have lower
Table 2: Correlation coefficient of dimensions mental well-being. Results also showed that high
of narcissism with mental well-being narcissists have greater mental well-being so
they can be deployed on a job which demands
Dimensions of Mental Well Being
Narcissism public speaking, stage performances or meeting
new people. These results, therefore, are in
Authority .53**
contrast to other research findings that have
Self Sufficiency .40**
supported the fact that high narcissistic people
Superiority .54** are psychologically unhealthy. Bogart, Benotsch
Vanity .55** and Palovic (2004), for example, found that normal
Entitlement .19
narcissistic people act as they are in
psychological problems and reports emotional
Exploitations .26
high and low. The contradictory finding of this
Exhibitionism .63** study is indicative of some unique characteristics
Narcissism (Total score) .78** of middle aged people and warrant for more
careful future researches on the topic.
 
** P<0.01 The findings of the study are interesting and it
To explore the relationship between opens the door for further researches in the same
dimensions of narcissism and mental well-being, domain. Since the mental well-being of low
a product moment correlation coefficient was narcissists is comparatively low therefore they
calculated. The results of this calculation can be counseled to achieve the optimum level of
presented in table 2 above indicate a significant narcissism which may help them to improve the
correlation of authority, self-sufficiency, mental well-being. Since the present research is
superiority, vanity, exhibitionism and total conducted on a small sample, the results cannot
narcissism with mental well-being. The results, be generalized. Thus a more careful study with
thus, show that authority is positively significant diverse population sample is required.
correlated with mental well being (r=.53, p<.01). References
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