No Wrench

The L.A. Times published an article today on a non-peer reviewed study that showed increased levels of narcissistic tendencies amongst current college kids. They made tentative associations with the self-esteem training that kids got in their pre-college education all the way back to nursery school.

Considering that I’m a few years out of college, I am probably right on the borderline of the generation that they’re talking about. I don’t remember ever singing songs about being special in nursery school, but I do recall being repetitively told that we could all be anything we wanted if we tried hard enough.

It was something that I actually took to heart. I grew up with a fairly high degree of confidence that I could do anything if I tried hard enough. It also breed a high level of competitiveness, since someone being better than me was an indication that I wasn’t trying hard enough. I am routinely accused of being cocky or arrogant because I exude confidence about my abilities.

But I think that this is somewhat different from what the authors of this study are discussing. There is a difference between believing one is capable of anything and having expectations of things being delivered to you because of your special nature. The worrisome nature of the second viewpoint is that it doesn’t lead to people succeeding in life. It leads to people making unrealistic decisions about life because they expect certain things to be given to them. In the current job market, a college degree is not the career builder it once was. Even a graduate degree can spell tough going outside of the academic world. (I’ve actually just started reading Generation Debt, which is an anecdotal look at how economic conditions for Americans who are currently coming of age are getting worse.)

With all that said, I don’t know if I have quite the same doom-and-gloom feeling that the organizers of the study have. A lack of self-confidence is often considered a large reason that people cannot get ahead or be successful in life. So now two-thirds of college kids have higher narcissism scores than they did in 1982. Isn’t self-confidence at least partially associated with narcissism? If you’re going to trust in yourself and your abilities, doesn’t that involve a certain amount of self-love?

Look at the three sample questions that they list from the exam.

1. “If I ruled the world, it would be a better place.” Given the current set of jokers who are running America, is this really an unrealistic statement to make. It is also an ambivalent statement. For example, I think the world would be a better place if I was in charge because I care about things like global warming, corporate corruption, the growing disparity in income levels, the lack of comprehensive health insurance, the rising cost and diminishing returns of higher education, and so forth. Is that such a bad position to take? Of course, it could also be that I think the world would be a better place with me in charge because I could make all the people who piss me off pay. Two very different takes, one motivated by intellectual confidence and political involvement, the other by a sense of entitlement. But there is no way to interpret which meaning is intended.
2. “I think I am a special person.” Wasn’t this the entire point of trying to teach people self-esteem as kids. So that they would think that they had unique value?
3. “I like to be the center of attention.” I’ve got to say, there is no bigger rush than being on a stage in front of hundreds of people and knowing that their attention is all on you. I love the feeling, mostly because I’m confident enough to enjoy it. If the statement said something like “I compulsively attempt to be the center of attention in every situation,” it might indicate a problem. But liking the feeling of being the focus of people’s attentions wouldn’t seem to indicate a problem to me.

Now I haven’t seen the entire test. I’d love to see it, but it doesn’t appear that the “Narcissistic Personality Inventory” is available online. I’d love to take it and see where I score on it. I’d bet I would score well above the 1982 average as well. But I wouldn’t take that as a sign that there was something wrong with me. I’d take it as a sign that I know my own worth and I am willing to put value on myself.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 1:57 am and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.