A study of the relation between narcissism and achievement motivation

• Main Author: Ziffer, Rita Lieberman
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-1990
• Subjects: Clinical psychology; Educational psychology; Personality; Personality psychology; Psychotherapy
• ISBN: 9798208154243

Narcissism is a construct frequently discussed but with little empirical study to support various theoretical positions. This study attempted to further clarify narcissism and was conducted with 120 student volunteers enrolled in a four year college. Research participants responded to the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Work and Family Orientation Questionnaire, Mehrabian Achievement Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Seven dimensions of narcissism and four factors of achievement motivation were observed. The hypotheses proposed positive relations between narcissism and the four factors of achievement motivation, independent of, or controlling for, self-esteem. Research questions were posed which related various demographics to the variables. The results of this study supported the hypothesis that narcissism related to the competitiveness factor of achievement motivation, independent of self-esteem. Because of the differential relations that the achievement motivation factors had to narcissism, future research should consider achievement motivation a multi--rather than unidimensional construct. Research questions addressed some of the following issues: narcissism was related to occupational aspirations (designated by the six Holland codes); students in the conventional group had higher narcissism scores than students in the social group. Males had higher narcissism, entitlement, self-esteem, and competitiveness than females. Narcissism did not relate significantly to GPA, race, or other demographic variables. The seven dimensions of narcissism were significantly correlated with self-esteem, suggesting that narcissism is not an inherently negative construct. Self-esteem related most strongly to authority, self-sufficiency, superiority, vanity and significantly but less strongly to entitlement, exhibitionism, and exploitativeness. These dimensions were correlated with the four factors of achievement motivation (global, mastery, work, competitiveness). The canonical correlation yielded two significant roots. In the first root the sum of competitiveness and global achievement motivation related directly to authority and self-sufficiency. The second function represented competitiveness with global achievement motivation removed, and it related directly to entitlement and exhibitionism and inversely to self-sufficiency. Based on the canonical correlation and the relation between self-esteem and the dimensions of narcissism, a case was made for two encompassing aspects of narcissism called authentic narcissism and compensatory narcissism. Authentic narcissism (authority, self-sufficiency, superiority, vanity) serves to maintain self-cohesion and buttress positive, proactive feelings about the self. Compensatory narcissism (entitlement, exhibitionism, exploitativeness) emerges in a reactive and possibly more defensive manner.