The narcissistic mask: An exploration of 'the defensive grandiosity hypothesis'

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Personality and Mental Health

Publication Date

5-1-2013

Abstract

Narcissism has been conceptualized as involving attempts to defend against negative self-schemata (implicit negative beliefs about one's own self-worth). This idea has been termed the 'mask model of narcissism'. This study explores the mask model, examining the association between extreme narcissistic personality traits and performance on a task purported to assess the influence of negative self-schemata. Participants (n=232) from the UK and the UAE completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and also performed an incidental learning task involving the surprise recall of self-referential adjectives (traits). A greater recall of negative adjectives was viewed as indicative of negative self-schemata. Looking at the sample as a whole, there were no associations between narcissistic traits and negative adjective recall. However, amongst those scoring in the upper quartile of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, narcissism scores were positively correlated with the recall of negative adjectives even after controlling for age and memory. Narcissism may reflect self-enhancement strategies rooted in negative self-beliefs. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ISSN

1932-8621

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Volume

7

Issue

2

First Page

160

Last Page

167

Disciplines

Life Sciences

Keywords

article, cultural factor, defense mechanism, female, human, male, narcissism, personality test, physiology, psychological aspect, psychological model, psychological theory, recall, self concept, student, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, young adult, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Defense Mechanisms, Female, Great Britain, Humans, Male, Mental Recall, Models, Psychological, Narcissism, Personality Inventory, Psychological Theory, Self Concept, Students, United Arab Emirates, Young Adult

Scopus ID

84879788006

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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