Narcissism And Self-efficacy: Similarities And Differences

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether there is any relationship between Narcissism and self-efficacy, to see if participant who score high on Narcissism also score high on Self efficacy. For the present investigation a sample of 60 were selected and is segregated into 3 age group, Adolescents (10M 10F) , Young Adulthood ( 10M 10F), Middle Adulthood ( 10M 10F). Correlation Analysis, t-test and ANOVA was done on the data using Mega Stats. It was hypothesized that people having traits of Narcissism will not be high on Self efficacy. From the results obtained it is observed that there is a significant low positive correlation between Narcissism and self efficacy, which means people having narcissitic trait will be high on self efficacy. The results also show that there is no significant gender difference in the scores of Narcissism and Self- efficacy.

Introduction

One of the main reasons to conduct this research was because if we notice in this era where people are so much just into themselves and don’t care about others, individuals are so self-obsessed. It is not bad to self-love or being self-obsessed but it can be harmful if it exceeds a particular border, and we call this term as Narcissism. I wanted to know whether being narcissists or having high narcissistic traits can lead to any positive benefits to individuals, whether their performance towards their goals increases or do their self efficacy increases, and that’s when I started to look upon different journals and site to read about the relationship between Narcissism and self efficacy and that is when I found that till date that there has being only 1 research conducted on Narcissism and self efficacy and since that research was published in APA journal I could only read the abstract and didn’t have access to the whole research. And that’s when I decided to conduct the research on this topic.

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Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one’s idealized self image and attributes. Narcissism is characterized by a grandiose sense of self-importance, a lack of empathy for others, a need for excessive admiration, and the belief that one is unique and deserving of special treatment.

Narcissism is characterized by an inflated self-image and addiction to fantasy, by an unusual coolness and composure shaken only when the narcissistic confidence is threatened, and by the tendency to take others for granted or to exploit them. The disorder is named for the mythological figure Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection. ( Rhodewalt, F )

In 2008 psychologist Jean M. Twenge of San Diego State University and her colleagues found that narcissism scores have been climbing among American college students in the U.S. for the past few decades. Although the data are controversial, these scholars argue that we are living in an increasingly narcissistic culture. Some of the opprobrium heaped on narcissists is surely deserved. Yet research paints a more nuanced picture. Although narcissists can be difficult and at times insufferable, they can also make effective leaders and performers. Moreover, because virtually all of us share at least a few narcissistic traits, we may be able to learn something about ourselves from understanding them. Lilienfeld, S.O., Arkowitz, H. (2013)

One of the research by Grijalva, E., Newman, D. A., Tay, L., Donnellan, M. B., Harms, P. D., Robins, R. W., & Yan, T. (2015) , shows us the results that Men tend be more Narcissistic then women,

On the other hand Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997). Self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to exert control over one's own motivation, behavior, and social environment. These cognitive self-evaluations influence all manner of human experience, including the goals for which people strive, the amount of energy expended toward goal achievement, and likelihood of attaining particular levels of behavioral performance. Unlike traditional psychological constructs, self-efficacy beliefs are hypothesized to vary depending on the domain of functioning and circumstances surrounding the occurrence of behavior. ( Carey, M.P., Forsyth, A.D )

Since Narcissism is all about excessive self love and belief that one is unique it is thought that people who are having Narcissism trait will be high on Self efficacy since they would have a high confidence in themselves that they have capacity or an ability to complete a certain tasks. If narcissism trait people only think about themselves and considers themselves to be in a need for admiration that means they will be very particular about completing their own tasks with a lot of confidence and perfectness.

But according to the only research conducted to investigate the relationship between Narcissism and Self efficacy titled The moderating role of Narcissism on the Reciprocal relationship between self- efficacy and performance,6(2), 199-214 by APA showed the result that when Narcissism was high, performance had no relationship with subsequent self efficacy. (Beattie, S., Dempsey, C., Roberts ,R., Woodman, T., & Cooke, A., 2017 )

Our results indicate that people belonging to middle adulthood score more in self efficacy then other age groups, and this results follows the previous study that has been taken place on Age, Socioeconomic Status, and Exercise Self-Efficacy, which also shows us the results that individuals belonging to age group of 45 years to 65 years score more on self efficacy. Clark, D.O

Objectives of the study

To investigate the relationship between Narcissism and Self efficacy.

Hypotheses

• H1 There will be no significant relationship between the scores of Narcissism and self efficacy
• H2 There will be no significant gender difference in the scores of Narcissism and self efficacy.
• H3 There will be no significant difference in the score of narcissism and self efficacy among different age group.

Method

A total of 60 participants participated in the study. 60 participants were divided on the basis of their age i.e 20 adolescent ( age 12-20 years), 20 young adulthood ( age 21-40 years) and 20 middle adulthood ( 41-60 years). Each age group consisted of 10 males and 10 females as respondents. And all the participant are residents to Mumbai City.

Tools used

NPI- 16 Subclinical narcissism Ames, D.R., Rose, P., and Anderson, C.P (2013) The NPI- 16 items are drawn from across the dimension of Raksin and Teroy’s( 1985) 40 items measures. Ames, D. R., Rose,P., and Anderson, C.P, ( 2013 ) .The NPI- 16 as a short measure of narcissism. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 440 – 450. This scale has 16 pairs of statements and the participants has to select the sentences which comes closest to describing your feelings and belief about yourself. The question were like Choose from the either statement that comes closest describing you.

• I really like to be the center of attention
• It makes me uncomfortable to be the center of attention

The statement which is highlighted is the statement which carries 1 marks and and other statement carries 0 marks.

Score ranges from 0 to 16, with higher scores on the scale indicate a high level of narcissism trait.

Reliability and Validity- a= .72; mean inter-item correlation = .13; loadings on the unrotated factor ranged from .13 to .66 with the first factor capturing 19.99 percent of variance; correlated with the NPI-40 at r= .90 (p< .001)

General Self-Efficacy Scale

This scale is a self report measure of self efficacy. The test is developed by Schwarzer, R., & Jerusalem, M. (1995). There are total 10 items in this scale.The 10 items scale was created to assess a general sense of perceived self- efficacy. Each question is to be answered by putting a tick mark on any of the 1 option out of 4 .

Procedure

The data was collected by snow ball technique. Google forms of the scales were prepared and were sent to the individuals, who then were asked to forward it. The Google forms also consisted of the consent form . 60 participants (30 males and 30 females) answered the questionnaire online through Google forms.

Results

Descriptive method ( mean and standard deviation ) was calculated. Correlational co-efficient method was used to find the significant relationship between Narcissism and Self-efficacy. One way ANOVA was used to collect data on significant difference in Narcissism and Self efficacy among age groups. t-test was used to find gender differences in Narcissism and Self efficacy. Mega Stats was used to all calculate all of these Statistical tests. The aim of this research was to find if there is any relationship between narcissism and self efficacy.

The findings indicate that the mean score of Narcissism of people belonging to Young Adulthood is on a higher side when compared to Adolescents and Middle adulthood, which means that Young adulthood individuals are high on narcissistic trait when compared to others.

The findings for Self efficacy indicate that individuals who are in their middle adulthood are high on self efficacy followed by individuals on their Young adulthood and least of Adolescents.

The results indicate that there is a significant low positive relationship between narcissism and self efficacy, which means that people having high traits on Narcissism will be having high self efficacy.

The results indicate that there is no significant relationship between the scores of Narcissism and Self efficacy of Males and Females. This indicates that there is nothing such that male or female for specific will have high scores on Narcissism or Self efficacy.

Discussion

H1- The first hypothesis was to investige whether there is any relationship between narcissism and self efficacy and by the use of Pearson correlation matrix we found that there is a significant low Positive correlation. This can be because people high on Narcissism means that they are so engrossed in themselves, but this also results in, they very much having the ability to complete their work. (Refer Table 2)

H2- The second hypothesis was to find out whether there is any gender difference in the score of Narcissism and self efficacy. By using t-test we found that there is no significant relationship between the scores of Narcissism and self efficacy of males and females. Though theories and past research indicate that Men tend to be at a high risk to develop the traits of Narcissism. (refer Table 3)

H3- The third hypothesis was to see if there will be a significant difference in the scores of Narcissism and self efficacy among different age groups. With the help of ANOVA we came to know that mean score of Narcissism of people belonging to Young Adulthood is on a higher side when compared to Adolescents and Middle adulthood and for Self efficacy it indicates that individuals who are in their middle adulthood are high on self efficacy followed by individuals on their Young adulthood and least of Adolescents. (refer Table 1)

Limitations

1. Due to small sample size this findings cannot be generalized to the larger population
2. The sample was only restricted to Mumbai City.
3. Only educated respondents knowing English language participated in the study.
4. Since google forms were used there is no way that participants’ mental and emotional state could not be assessed.

Conclusion

The results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between Narcissism and Self efficacy, which indicates that an individual who score high on Narcissism will have a high score on Self efficacy. Middle Adulthoods individuals are high on self efficacy this may be because of more experience in life and maturity. And the results indicate that young adulthoods are high on narcissistic trait. There is no relationship between the scores of Narcissism and self efficacy of Males and Females.

Reference

1. Ames, D. R., Rose,P., and Anderson, C.P, ( 2013 ). The NPI- 16 as a short measure of narcissism. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 440 – 450 www.midss.org
2. Ames, D. R., Rose,P., and Anderson, C.P,(2013) https://www.statisticssolutions.com/narcissistic-personality-inventory-16-npi-16/
3. Beattie, S., Dempsey, C., Roberts, R., Woodman, T., & Cooke, A. (2017). The moderating role of narcissism on the reciprocal relationship between self-efficacy and performance. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 6(2), 199–214. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/spy0000092
4. Carey, M.P., Forsyth, A.D https://www.apa.org/pi/aids/resources/education/self-efficacy
5. Clark, D.O .The Gerontologist Vol. 36, No. 2, 157 https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article-pdf/36/2/157/1522796/36-2-157.pdf
6. General Self-Efficacy Scale by Schwarzer, R., & Jerusalem, M. (1995), www.midss.org
7. Grijalva, E., Newman, D. A., Tay, L., Donnellan, M. B., Harms, P. D., Robins, R. W., & Yan, T. (2015). Gender differences in narcissism: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 141(2), 261–310. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038231
8. https://docplayer.net/29758118-The-npi-16-as-a-short-measure-of-narcissism.html
9. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism
10. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-13222-001
11. Lilienfeld, S.O., Arkowitz, H. (2013) https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/scott-o-lilienfeld/
12. Rhodewalt, F https://www.britannica.com/science/narcissism
13. Schwarzer, R., & Jerusalem, M. (1995) https://www.statisticssolutions.com/general-self-efficacy-schwarzer-gses/
14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6398294/