This article is from the WeChat public account: Nut (ID: Guokr42) , author: Luo Yu, head Figure source: Figure worm ^ ^ ^
In Greek mythology, the beautiful young boy Narcissus saw his reflection in the water and couldn’t fall in love with himself; he did n’t think about it every day, and eventually died, turning into a daffodil label = “Remarks”> (Narcissus) . Later, people referred to the self-fascination of American teenagers as “narcissism” (Narcissism) .
Today, examples of “look in the mirror where you see reflections” and “photographs of people who can make friends in the world” can be found among young people. Narcissism has become a very popular personality trait among people on earth.
A few thousand years later, Huang Xiaoming’s narcissistic words and deeds in the program also formed a new school of “Ming Xue” | “Chinese Restaurant”
Have you noticed that this narcissistic personality may be changing as you get older?
At the end of the 19th century, Freud introduced “narcissism” into psychological monographs and applied it to clinical treatment. Narcissism becomes a personality disorder, which is characterized by excessive obsession with self, exaggeration, love to show off, longing for others to pursue, lack of compassion.
Of course, the narcissism of most people is not enough to diagnose “narcissistic personality disorder”. They just show certain characteristics- self-centered, have a high self-evaluation, use various methods to maintain and enhance the public image, such as bragging, the whole content; at the same time very sensitive When others’ words and actions threaten their image (such as exposing the leather and exposing the photo before the facelift) , they are apt to show anger, hostility, and even aggressive behavior.
Cocky people are still sensitive? This is not a contradiction. With reference to Trump, he will even get crazy because the media took his pictures badly | Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons
When China was old, it was not just the hair that was missing
In a large-scale study of narcissism, by tracking the performance of subjects at different ages, psychologists found that: When we are old, some narcissistic characteristics will be reduced.
For example, From 13 to 77 years of age, the degree of sensitivity and irritability has been decreasing with age; especially after the age of 40, the decline is more pronounced. Similarly, the “symptoms” of willfulness and arrogance are also decreasing, but the reduction is relatively small.
Some narcissistic characteristics increase with age, such as autonomy and ambition.
Another group of psychologists focused on the narcissistic trend of 20-30 years old, and found no significant changes in arrogance and willfulness. This means that the decline in narcissism generally occurs after middle age.
Also, although narcissism changes with age, its relative level in the population is stable. The narcissistic guy around you is probably the most narcissistic person in your partner at middle age and old age.
Why does narcissism go up and down?
After figuring out how the narcissism changed, a new question came again-why does narcissism sometimes fall and sometimes rise? In response, psychologists have made some assumptions.
Social role changes
Some psychologists believe that the development of narcissism should conform to the requirements of mature personality and changing social roles.
As an adult, if you are as capricious, sensitive, and caring as a child, you will often offend customers, bosses or loved ones by accident. These narcissistic characteristics are not conducive to walking in the adult society.
Some researchers believe that the first job is an important driving force for the reduction of narcissism. An important characteristic of narcissists is that they do not accept criticism. When they have to accept feedback, they may reflect and realize that they are not so good.
Although the characteristics of autonomy and ambition are narcissistic, they will not destroy interpersonal relationships. People also generally accept and even admire aspiring adults. Therefore, with the increase of age, these characteristics rise instead of falling.
Significant life events
Another explanation is that the level of narcissism will change after some major life events. A psychologist conducted a ten-year survey of nearly 10,000 German youths, tracking them from their 20s to 30s, and found that:
>> Lifestyle habits
Young people’s narcissism levels increase slightly when eating or sleeping habits change and they recognize the changes themselves. Researchers speculate that this may be because changes in living habits can improve health, body shape, quality of life, etc., and make people feel good about themselves.
>> Break up
After breaking up, if you think about breaking up positively, the narcissism of young people will increase slightly. Although breaking up is a sad thing, if you do n’t think it is negative, or even turn grief into a motivation, and switch to the mode of studying and improving day by day, then people will feel that they have the ability to reverse the situation and control themselves fate.
>> Transfer
When going to school with a positive attitude, the level of narcissism will increase slightly. Successful transfer means entering a learning environment that is more suitable for you, and at the same time people feel that they have the autonomy and grasp their own destiny and future.
>> Exam admissions
Failure in major exams will increase the narcissism of young people. This result is also quite counter-intuitive, but this is how the narcissistic classmates go unusually. In order to resist the negative effects brought by hanging subjects, especially the destruction of Xueba’s image, the narcissist’s self-esteem will increase in revenge to maintain the hidden glass heart.
Data show that the above events are related to changes in narcissism; however, it is unclear how they affect narcissism. It is not yet possible to rule out another possibility- The level of narcissism has increased first, and these life events have occurred later. But whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, it may seem to the narcissist that it is evidence that he is good.
Some narcissism is written in the DNA
Since the maturity of personality and changes in life may cause changes in the level of narcissism, why are young people who are more narcissistic still older when they are old?
This is largely due to heredity.
Overseas and our own twin studies have found that, in general, the level of narcissism is determined by genetics and half by the environment. Kind of life event) decision. Whether a person will suffer from narcissistic personality disorder depends mainly on heredity, that is, whether close relatives such as parents are narcissistic.
The twin experiment is a classic method of psychological research. There are two types of twins: identical twins have exactly the same genes, and fraternal twins are the same as ordinary siblings. Many twins have similar growth conditions and environmental impacts. Therefore, whether the identical twins have a more similar personality than the fraternal twins is related to genes. If narcissistic twins are more similar to each other than fraternal twins, it means that narcissism is affected by genesinfluences.
By tracking the twins, we found that the genetic factors that affect narcissism do not change with age, but rather maintain the good self-awareness of the narcissist. In other words, there are some genes that make people young and mad; when people reach middle age, they are still mad.
The environmental factors that affect narcissism will change with age; the degree of narcissism will change accordingly.
Genetic makes narcissism stable, and environment changes narcissism.
Dating with a highly narcissistic person, it is best to think about it
What are the benefits of studying narcissism? In fact, it can help us avoid many pits on the road of life.
For example, a newly-acquainted romantic partner is confident and also likes to stage a domineering president / goddess. You have to be careful and watch if TA is narcissistic. It is best to ask about the story of TA’s interaction with other people, even “family history”.
After all, studies have shown that falling in love with someone with a high narcissism level can hurt. In addition, the narcissism under the influence of genetics is very stable, and some narcissistic “symptoms” will increase with age. The overbearing president is in love with me at this moment, and may hurt me in the future. Moreover, narcissistic people enjoy the feeling of narcissism and it is difficult to change them.
If you are a narcissist, will you have a bad life?
Not necessarily. On the one hand, as you get older, you hope to become less narcissistic. On the other hand, these “symptoms” are not all negative. They can work more on self-confidence and ambition praised by society, and consciously control the unseen personalities of sensitivity and willfulness.
There are more and more narcissistic people, and people no longer talk about narcissism. If you are really powerless to change, you do not need to have a psychological burden.
References
[1] American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC.
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[3] Grosz, MP, Göllner, R., Rose, N., Spengler, M., Trautwein, U., Rauthmann, JF,… Roberts, BW (2019 ). The development of narcissistic admiration and machiavellianism in early adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 116 (3), 467–482.
[4] Livesley, WJ, Jang, KL, & Vernon, PA (1998). Phenotypic and genetic structure of traits delineating personality disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 55 (10 ), 941-948.
[5] Luo, YLL, & Cai, H. Stubborn narcissists: phenotypic and genetic evidence on the stability of narcissism. Journal of Personality, under review. < / p>
[6] Luo, Y. L. L.,Cai, H., Sedikides, C., & Song, HR (2014). Distinguishing communal narcissism from agentic narcissism: A behavior genetics analysis on the agency-communion model of narcissism. Journal of Research in Personality, 49, 52-58.
[7] Miller, JD, Lynam, DR, Hyatt, CS, & Campbell, WK (2017). Controversies in Narcissism. Annu Rev Clin Psychol, 13, 291-315 .
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This article comes from WeChat public account: husk (ID: Guokr42) , author: Yu Lo