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Oh, those terrible young people
Mar. 2nd, 2007 09:32 pmNewspapers in the last couple of days have been full of stories about this study that was done on narcicissm in college students. The basic premise of the study goes like this: self-esteem is not all it's cracked up to be. In fact, encouraging high self-esteem in children is bad and has created a generation of narcissists.
The coverage of this has driven me crazy in the way that news coverage of sensationalistic sounding studies always drives me crazy.
The study was done by administering a test called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) to 16,475 college students between 1982 and 2006. This is a psychological test used to diagnose narcissism. The articles about this study have all quoted sample statements from the NPI (it appears to be one of those tests where they give a statement and you mark agreement or disagreement to it). I would really like to see the full list of questions, but I wasn't able to turn it up with some focused googling, and my suspicion is that it's a proprietary test so they can't put the questions online.
Sample questions they mention in the Globe article: "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person" and "I can live my life any way I want to."
So, my first thought, when I read about this study, was that I wanted to know if these college students are actually interacting with others in a way that would be symptomatic of narcissistic personality disorder, or are they merely checking off the answers that have been fed to them over the years until they're automatic. Every child in my daughter's kindergarten class would check off that they agree that they're a special person, because, duh, that's the right answer. It doesn't mean that they all act as if they believe that they are so special that rules don't apply to them. (Well, okay. They do. They all do. Because they're five and six, and part of the process of civilizing a child is teaching them that everyone is special, and no one is that kind of special.) But, yeah. "I'm special"? That's the right answer in most schools, so most kids will check it off whether they have high or low self-esteem. "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place"? Well, in my fantasies where everyone does what I tell them to, sure, and a college student taking a battery of personality tests as part of a research study is unlikely to think much beyond the fantasy of saying "okay, everyone, quit shooting at each other" and having them do it. "I can live my life any way I want to"? Well, yeah! You can go to college, or you can go audition for American Idol, or you can go do whatever kids these days do instead of following the Grateful Dead... I have always been pragmatic enough that I'd have checked "no" even as an 18-year-old, but I don't see a serious indication of pathological thinking here.
The study goes on to say, apparently, that narcissists "are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors." And sure. The problem arises when kids don't just say they're special, but really, truly believe that THEY ARE SPECIAL in a "oh, taxes are for the little people" sort of way. But the study does not appear to have observed whether college students were actually exhibiting these behaviors at higher levels than in the past.
I would also be very curious as to the colleges where they administered the NPI. Was it the same college? Was it a private college or a state university? The populations at colleges change over time in ways that are independent of the changes in the overall population. For example, at some point Macalester made the leap from a top regional liberal arts college to a well-regarded national liberal arts college. Frankly (and I'm speaking as someone who went to a top national liberal arts college) I would expect more narcissists at a nationally ranked liberal arts college than I would at, say, a state university. None of the articles give any information about the methodology here, beyond the number of students tested, the fact that the study took place between 1982 and 2006, and the fact that two-thirds of the students in 2006 were "above average" in narcissism, 30% more than in 1982.
Methodology matters.
If this were a published study, I could go to the university library and look it up (and read the methodology section!), but I can't. It's being presented at a "workshop on the generation gap." Whether it's going to be published somewhere later isn't stated in any of the articles I've seen.
The lead author (Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, who incidentally is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
genme on LJ), published a book last year called Generation Me. I am curious enough about her agenda and research that I've requested the book from my library; I may post about this again when I've read it. It is clear from excerpts and reviews that she has a vehement agenda against the idea that high self-esteem is a worthy goal.
And part of why I was sufficiently curious about this study to try to hunt up methodology information is that I both agree and disagree with her.
( Read more... )
I'll keep you posted on what I think of the book.
The coverage of this has driven me crazy in the way that news coverage of sensationalistic sounding studies always drives me crazy.
The study was done by administering a test called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) to 16,475 college students between 1982 and 2006. This is a psychological test used to diagnose narcissism. The articles about this study have all quoted sample statements from the NPI (it appears to be one of those tests where they give a statement and you mark agreement or disagreement to it). I would really like to see the full list of questions, but I wasn't able to turn it up with some focused googling, and my suspicion is that it's a proprietary test so they can't put the questions online.
Sample questions they mention in the Globe article: "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person" and "I can live my life any way I want to."
So, my first thought, when I read about this study, was that I wanted to know if these college students are actually interacting with others in a way that would be symptomatic of narcissistic personality disorder, or are they merely checking off the answers that have been fed to them over the years until they're automatic. Every child in my daughter's kindergarten class would check off that they agree that they're a special person, because, duh, that's the right answer. It doesn't mean that they all act as if they believe that they are so special that rules don't apply to them. (Well, okay. They do. They all do. Because they're five and six, and part of the process of civilizing a child is teaching them that everyone is special, and no one is that kind of special.) But, yeah. "I'm special"? That's the right answer in most schools, so most kids will check it off whether they have high or low self-esteem. "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place"? Well, in my fantasies where everyone does what I tell them to, sure, and a college student taking a battery of personality tests as part of a research study is unlikely to think much beyond the fantasy of saying "okay, everyone, quit shooting at each other" and having them do it. "I can live my life any way I want to"? Well, yeah! You can go to college, or you can go audition for American Idol, or you can go do whatever kids these days do instead of following the Grateful Dead... I have always been pragmatic enough that I'd have checked "no" even as an 18-year-old, but I don't see a serious indication of pathological thinking here.
The study goes on to say, apparently, that narcissists "are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors." And sure. The problem arises when kids don't just say they're special, but really, truly believe that THEY ARE SPECIAL in a "oh, taxes are for the little people" sort of way. But the study does not appear to have observed whether college students were actually exhibiting these behaviors at higher levels than in the past.
I would also be very curious as to the colleges where they administered the NPI. Was it the same college? Was it a private college or a state university? The populations at colleges change over time in ways that are independent of the changes in the overall population. For example, at some point Macalester made the leap from a top regional liberal arts college to a well-regarded national liberal arts college. Frankly (and I'm speaking as someone who went to a top national liberal arts college) I would expect more narcissists at a nationally ranked liberal arts college than I would at, say, a state university. None of the articles give any information about the methodology here, beyond the number of students tested, the fact that the study took place between 1982 and 2006, and the fact that two-thirds of the students in 2006 were "above average" in narcissism, 30% more than in 1982.
Methodology matters.
If this were a published study, I could go to the university library and look it up (and read the methodology section!), but I can't. It's being presented at a "workshop on the generation gap." Whether it's going to be published somewhere later isn't stated in any of the articles I've seen.
The lead author (Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, who incidentally is
genme on LJ), published a book last year called Generation Me. I am curious enough about her agenda and research that I've requested the book from my library; I may post about this again when I've read it. It is clear from excerpts and reviews that she has a vehement agenda against the idea that high self-esteem is a worthy goal.And part of why I was sufficiently curious about this study to try to hunt up methodology information is that I both agree and disagree with her.
( Read more... )
I'll keep you posted on what I think of the book.
