PSYO3280 Machiavellianism and Narcissism

Origins of Machiavellianism (Christie 1954)

Disdain for morality, interpersonal manipulation, cynical perspective, liars

Adjectival Description of Machiavellianism Construct

Domineering, impersonal, manipulative, utilitarian, deceitful, tough-minded

Mach-IV (Christie & Geis, 1970)

Anyone who trusts completely is asking for trouble, wise to flatter important people

Short-term vs Long-term consequences of Mach

Lying works in short term, antisocial behavioured people move around more

Nature vs nurture of Mach

It is a blend of both

Nomological Network of Mach

Dominance without nurturance

DSM pathology and Machs

Overlap between many personality disorders, particularly antisocial and borderline

Sandbagging

Display low ability to induce an opponent to reduce effort, AKA strategic faking

Sandbagging? Competitive situation, low Mach

YES - sandbagging strategy

Sandbagging? Competitive situation, high Mach

NO - dominance strategy, even to failure

Prime Situation for Machs

Ability to improvise, emotionally-charged situation, face-to-face contact

How do Christie & Geis describe Machs?

Manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less, and persuade others more

Jonason et al (2008) - Mach Sex Behaivour

More short-term sex, more sexual partners, diverse range of sexual interest

The Dark Triad

Narcissism & Psychopathy correlate significantly, Machivellianism correlates moderately

Baughman et al (2014) - sexual fantasy

Psychopathic people enjoy sex that hurts others and is impersonal (more so than machs or narcs)

Buckels et al (2014) - internet trolls

Trolls have high scores of mach, narc, psycho, and sadism

DSM Definition of Narcs

Haughty/arrogant behaviour, grandiose, interpersonal exploitativeness, need for admiration, deficient empathy, envy, sntitlement, fantasies of success, strong feeling of uniqueness

Raskin & Terry (1988) - Measuring narcs

The higher the score, the more narcissistic

The Narcissism Epidemic

Sky-high levels of narcissism and low-levels of empathy peaked from 1985 to 2006

Bianchi (2014) - Unemployment and narcissism

The higher the unemployment rate, the less narcissism

Davenport et al (2014)

Narcs have a significant tendency towards social media

Peak age of narcissism

15-18 years old

Social Learning Model of Narcissism (Brummelman)

Pedestalization type of parenting (nurturing self esteem gone wrong), fairly stable across lifetime

Psychodynamic Model of Narcissism (Kernberg)

Move through life surrounded in bubble. Invalidation, failure, rejection, stress all burst this bubble. Incredibly aggressive when bubble bursts, and it will reinflate.

Origins of Narcs

Comes from childhood abuse/severe inadequacy - sense of grandiose develops in compensation

Zeigler-Hill et al (2006) - Self esteem in Narcs

Extremely high explicit self-esteem, incredibly low implicit self-esteem (though sometimes its just narcissism through and through)

Behaviour-Genetics Model of Narcissism

Narcissism is an inherited personality trait (40-60%), congregates in families

Narcissistic Rage (Busman and Baumeister)

Aggression is a means of defending view of self against someone who seeks to contradict view

Effects on Aggression in Narcs

Praise decreases aggression; Ego threats increase aggression

Aggression due to rejection in Narcs

Leads to more manipulative, coercive, assaultive behaviours (including sexually violent behaviours)

Pathological Narcisssism

Involves lack of separation between actual and idealized self

Raskin et al (1988) - Personal pronouns and Narcs

Narcissism is associated with increased use of word “I” and decreased use of word “we”

Pincus and Lukowitsky (2010) - Pathological Narcs

Splits off into narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability

Narcissistic Grandiosity (Pincus & Luko)

Overt/covert expression: entitlement rage, exploitativeness, grandiose fantasy, self-enhancement

Narcissistic Vulnerability (Pincus & Luko)

Overt/covert expression: contingent self-esteem, hiding the self, devaluing

Widiger (1998) - Gender differences in Narcs

Biased (application of) diagnostic criteria, histrionic PD vs narcissistic PD, could be definition problem or diagnosis problem

Intrapsychic Self-Enhancement

67-96% report themselves better than their peers

Narcissism and Academics

Not associated with higher grades, but is associated with feelings of academic acheivement

Narcissistic Self-Esteem Meta-analysis

Correlation of .29 between narcissism and self-esteem; self-esteem is variable though and incredibly liable

Narcissism and Emotional Functioning

Intense and variable affect: grandiose euphoria to bleak depression to intense anger

Interpersonal Patterns of Narcs

Interpersonal behaviour is most salient and malignant features of pathology

Relationships for Narcs

Characterized by “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac; game-playing romantic style with aversion to partner dependence

McNulty and Widman (2014) - Sexual narcissism

Sexual exploitation & entitlement, lack of sexual empathy, grandiose sense of sexual skill, high infidelity

McCullough et al (2003) - Victimization of Narcs

Narcissistic people perceive, recall, and report being victimized more frequently