8/9/2019 Handout: Good things will come to me: Dimensions of
narcissism predict unrealistic optimism. SPSP 2008
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[email protected] [email protected]
Good things will come to me: Dimensions of narcissism predict
unrealistic optimism and decreased altruism
Karolyn Budzek & Ryan Brown, University of Oklahoma
The current research examined differential predictions from
grandiose and entitled dimensions of narcissism using measures of
optimism and altruism.
Narcissistic grandiosity and entitlement
Narcissism is associated with both self enhancing attitudes and
a lack of communal behavior. Individuals high in normal, or non
clinical, narcissism exhibit both self aggrandizing and other
derogating patterns of behavior (e.g., Morf & Rhodewalt, 1993;
Raskin, Novacek, & Hogan, 1991).
The majority of research on normal narcissism as a personality
construct uses the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin
& Hall, 1979; subscales identified by Emmons, 1987). Since its
inception, the NPI has been critiqued regarding a myriad of
theoretical and psychometric concerns (for a recent review, see
Kubarych, Deary, & Austin, 2004).
We suggest that more specific, recently developed self
report measures may prove useful in capturing dimensions of
narcissism along these two fundamental axes of agentic self and
communal other. Using grandiosity (as measured by the State Trait
Grandiosity Scale; Rosenthal, Hooley, & Steshenko, 2003) and
entitlement (as measured by the Psychological Entitlement Scale;
Campbell, Bonacci, Shelton, Exline, & Bushman, 2004), the
present study supports and extends previous work involving the NPI.
Narcissism and optimism
Previous research has identified a positive relationship between
optimism and narcissism, measured using the Life Orientation Test
and the NPI (Hickman, Watson, & Morris,
1996). Narcissism is also related to overestimates of
performance in school and laboratory tasks (Farwell & Wohlwend
Lloyd, 1998). A prototypical example of narcissistic self
enhancement, unrealistic optimism about future events, should be
predicted by grandiose, not entitled, narcissism. Sedikides,
Rudich, Gregg, Kumashiro, and Rusbult (2004) demonstrated that
narcissism is correlated with good psychological health, only to
the extent that the NPI is associated with self esteem. In the
current study, we predict that the relationship between grandiosity
and unrealistic optimism will not be mediated by self esteem.
Narcissism and prosocial behavior
While previous research has shown a strong relationship between
the NPI and negative interpersonal outcomes (e.g., Bogart,
Benotsch, & Pavlovic, 2004; Kernis & Sun, 1994), no
research as yet has examined the influence of narcissism and
prosocial, altruistic behavior. We predict that entitlement will be
negatively related to altruism, as the Psychological Entitlement
Scale is a stronger predictor than the NPI of antisocial behavior
including shared resource depletion, aggression after ego threat,
taking candy intended for children, lack of forgiveness, and
unforgiving attitudes (Campbell et al., 2004; Exline,
Baumeister, Bushman, Campbell, & Finkel, 2005).
Method Participants
Participants were 105 undergraduate students at the University
of Oklahoma; students were predominately female (66%) and Caucasian
(79%). Materials
Participants completed the following scales online at least
three weeks prior to the study session: State Trait Grandiosity
Scale (STGS, Rosenthal et al., 2003) The STGS consists of 16 trait
adjectives such as glorious andomnipotent. Participants rate the
extent to which each adjective describes them on a 7point Likert
scale. High scores on the STGS are indicative of a narcissistic
preoccupation with the self that is not confounded with
measures of trait self esteem. Psychological Entitlement Scale
(PES, Campbell et al., 2004) The PES was developed to capture
narcissistic entitlement more clearly than the
Entitlement/Exploitiveness subscale of the NPI. An example item
from the nine item scale is If I were on the Titanic, I would
deserve to be on the first lifeboat!, rated on a 7point Likert
scale. Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES, Rosenberg, 1965) NPI
scores are correlated with self esteem scores, depending in part on
the extent to which those self esteem measures load on dominance
(Brown & Zeigler Hill, 2004). The RSES captures a relatively
non narcissistic facet of healthy self esteem. An example item from
the RSES is On the whole, I am satisfied with myself, rated on a
4point Likert scale. Procedure
Optimism In a separate individual session, participants
completed a measure of unrealistic optimism for positive
andnegative events. Thirty six items describing potential future
events were selected from previous research (Weinstein,
1980;Chambers, Windschitl, & Suls, 2003). The events were
balanced by valence and general likelihood, including items such as
Going blind, and Winning a sweepstakes. Participants responded to
these items by indicating the probability that each event would
happen to them compared to other students at their university of
the same age and gender, using
a 5point response scale. Negative events were reverse scored
such that higher scores indicated greater optimism.
Filler task and deception After completion of a filler task,the
experimenter looked through several different file drawers and then
informed the participant that the materials for the rest of the
experiment were missing. She told participants that they would
receive one hours worth of research credit, even though they had
only been in the lab for 20 minutes.
Altruism Before each participant left, the experimenter casually
asked for some help with a few questionnaires that she needed to
pilot test for another study. Participants were given
8/9/2019 Handout: Good things will come to me: Dimensions of
narcissism predict unrealistic optimism. SPSP 2008
2/2
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