Psych 213 - Self-Esteem and Narcissism

Gloria Vega

Research

Psych 213

February 18, 2016

Orth, U., & Luciano, E. C. (2015). Self-Esteem, Narcissism, and Stressful Life Events: Testing for Selection and Socialization. Journal Of Personality & Social Psychology, 109(4), 707-721. doi:10.1037/pspp0000049

Study: This case is studying whether Self-Esteem and Narcissism predict the occurrence of Stressful Life Events. And whether Stressful Life Events predict change in Self-Esteem and Narcissism.

Design: The design of this study is a Quasi-Experimental. To be exact it is a longitudinal study. I can tell that it is Quasi-Experimental because the independent variable can’t be manipulated. This study was taken over a course of six months with two different age groups.

Sample: This study was broken up into two groups. Study number 1 was 328 young adults between the ages of 18-25. The medium of age was 21 years old. While in Study 2 there were 371 adults between the ages of 18-61 years old, and the medium of age was age 29. 50% were males and 50% were females. The individuals that participated did represent the population the authors were targeting. The main idea behind this study was to examine and find out whether narcissism and self-esteem predicted stressful life events, and if stressful life events predicted change in narcissism and self-esteem (Orth pg.1).

Measures: Using a web-based questionnaire is how the data was collected. There were a total of four assessments over the course of 6 months. The four categories were Self-Esteem, Narcissism, Stressful Life Events, and Depression. Self-esteem was evaluated using the RSE, which is the 10-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. It was based on a 5 point scale 1-5, 1 being the one you strongly disagree and five being the one you strongly agreed with. Narcissism was measured using NPI, which is the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Each form had two statements, one that was not a narcissistic statement and one that was a narcissistic statement. Individuals had to choose which one of the two choices best described them. Stressful life events were figured out by using a checklist that had 16 events on it. Questions such as divorce, marriage, crime, conflicts, etc. were asked. The only difference between Study 1 and Study 2 was that in Study 2 the question about “rejection by a person you loved” was not added. The last assessment was Depression. Depression was measured CES-D, which is the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. This assessment was based on a four-point scale. “(0= rarely or none of the time, less than one day; 1= some or a little of the time, one to two days; 2=occasionally or a moderate amount of time, three to four days; 3= most or all of the time, five to seven days)” (Orth p.9).

Summary: The end results of this study showed that low self-esteem did lead to stressful life events, but it changed when depression was controlled. High narcissism also led to stressful life events and it did not matter whether depression was being controlled or not. Stressful life events did have an effect on self-esteem but not an effect on narcissism. I personally believed that stressful life events would have an effect on narcissism, but when I read the end results and saw that it had no effect I was a bit shocked. Narcissism is all about self-admiration, and being vain. So I would of thought that having that obsession with yourself, and thinking you are the best, and thinking you deserve the best of the best would make stressful life events have an impact on narcissism. I agree with the result that low self-esteem would lead to stressful life events. If you do not feel good about yourself and are not confident then you will build up stress, and the more stress that is being built up in your body more stressful events will occur. I remember last semester I had very low self-esteem when it came to taking exams. I was taking five classes and I just didn’t have confidence in myself and I remember that that caused so much stress to my life, that not only school but my personal life, and my work life became even more stressful. It was just like a domino effect. Teachers can use this information by just examining their students. Those who have low self-esteem are usually quiet, very shy, and are extra hard on themselves. Teachers can go the extra mile by trying to boost that student’s self-esteem and confidence or noticing the way the students behave to lessen the stress.