Narcissism

6Apr11 update: ANOTHER study has found a correlation between Faecebook and narcissism.   Flagler College psychology professor Meghan M. Saculla and Western Kentucky University psychology professor W. Pitt Derryberry set out to discover whether there was a correlation between moral judgment development, narcissism, and technology use.  The study population was students - probably because they are captive.  Saculla and Derryberry found that students who use technology for self-promotion tend to be more narcissistic than those who simply use technology to connect to others.  The researchers focused on narcissistic and self-promoting behavior, as well as moral development based on the research of Lawrence Kohlberg.  


The researchers' main finding confirmed their previous suspicions: students who used technology and social media tools specifically to promote themselves and attempt to gain popularity tended to come off as narcissistic. Those students also tended to self-report as narcissistic, showing a correlation between perception and self-reporting. Importantly, Saculla and Pitt Derryberry note narcissistic people may find that technologies help amplify their already existing behavior, especially if those devices are used "as a replacement for face-to-face peer interactions or other venues that are beneficial for moral judgment growth." If students are able to use technology to accompany their normal interactions instead of replacing them, they don't have much of a problem. 

A new study has found that users of Facebook had higher self esteem after 3 minutes compared with participants who sat in front of a blank or mirrored computer screen.  The study titled 'Mirror, Mirror on my Facebook Wall: Effects of Exposure to Facebook on Self-Esteem' was by Cornell University researchers Amy Gonzales and Jeffrey Hancock.


Fair enough.  


A possible explanation for the rise in self esteem may be narcissism.  Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, said a study she conducted of 16,000 university students across the US showed 30 per cent were narcissistic in psychological tests.  


In a keynote address to the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders Congress in Melbourne, Professor Twenge will say that celebrity culture and the internet are among the causes of the emerging narcissism epidemic.  


Narcissists had an inflated sense of self, lacked empathy, were vain and materialistic and had an overblown sense of entitlement. Some resulting social trends were a greater interest in fame and wealth, more plastic surgery, and an increase in attention-seeking crimes.  


Professor Twenge was concerned about a culture ''that seems to not just accept narcissism but finds it laudatory … But the problem is that narcissism doesn't help you compete. It blows up in your face eventually.''