Investigating the Predictive Effects of Perceived Parental Attitudes and Self-Esteem on Vulnerable and Grandiose Narcissistic Personality Types

Abstract

Objective: Childhood experiences have an important effect on the formation of a healthy personality and personality disorders that emerge in later periods. In this sense, narcissistic personality disorder has a close relationship with dysfunctional parental attitudes that the child was exposed to in early family relationships. In this study, it is aimed to examine the predictive effects of perceived parental attitudes and self-esteem in the etiology of two types of narcissistic personality structure, vulnerable and grandiose (Dickinson & Pincus, 2003). Method: Of the total 279 participants of the study, 136 were female (48.7%) and 143 were male (51.3%) and the mean age of the entire sample group was 21.3 years (SD=1.65). Addition to informed consent and sociodemographic form, The Five Factor Narcissism Scale-Short Form (Eksi, 2016), Abbreviated Perceived Parental Attitudes Scale-Child Form (Dirik, Yorulmaz, & Karancı, 2014) and Two-dimensional Self-Esteem (Self-Love / Self-Efficacy) Scale (Doğan & Eryılmaz, 2013) were used to collect the data. Pearson correlation and multiple linear hierarchical regression analyses were conducted using the SPSS v.25 program. Findings: After observing the data set distributed normally, passed to other parametric tests. According to correlation analyses, vulnerable narcissism was negatively and statistically significantly correlated with two sub-dimensions of self-esteem, self-love and self-efficacy (r=-.56, p<.01 and r=-.40, p<.01, respectively).The correlation of vulnerable narcissism with perceived parental attitudes towards mother and father was also statistically significant (.02<r<.25, p<.01).Grandiose narcissism has a positive and statistically significant correlation with self love and self-efficacy (r=.26, p<.01 and r=.42, p<.01, respectively).These values are largely parallel to the correlation values of total narcissistic scores with self-esteem and perceived parental attitudes (r=.18, p<.01 and .10<r<.26, p<.01, respectively). In the findings of the study, it seen that vulnerable narcissism had a positive and statistically significant (r=.26, p<.01) relationship with the overprotective attitude of the mother, and grandiose narcissism had a positive and statistically significant (r=.23, p<.01) relationship with the rejecting attitude of the father. As a result of regression analyses, it was found that vulnerable narcissistic personality was predicted by self-love and mother's overprotective attitudes by 33% in total, and grandiose narcissistic personality was predicted by self-efficacy and father's rejecting attitude by 31% in total. Discussion: The results of the study support that perceived parental attitudes play a key role in building children's self-esteem (Young, Klosko, & Weishaar, 2017). According to the analyses, early maternal overprotective attitudes, and poor self-esteem play an important role in the etiology of vulnerable narcissistic personality. The probable reason for this is the construction of a self-esteem that cannot develop realistically with the overprotective attitude of the mother in the early period and is easily damaged due to its exaggerated structure (Butcher, Mineka, & Hooley, 2009). It is another finding that the rejectionist attitude of the father in the initial period has an important share in the development of grandiose narcissistic personality. One of the possible reasons for this situation may be that the rejectionist attitude of the father, who is the authority figure at home, creates an unhealthy self-esteem in the child. It is supported in the literature that children who are exposed to such an attitude by their fathers strive to be an ideal person who will be accepted by the authorities throughout their lives (Kohut, 2006).