This research was aimed to discover the relationship between covert/overt narcissism and aggressiveness, according to the extent of covert/overt narcissism, aggressiveness and self-concept clarity. The Narcissistic Personality Disorder Scale(NPDS) and...
This research was aimed to discover the relationship between covert/overt narcissism and aggressiveness, according to the extent of covert/overt narcissism, aggressiveness and self-concept clarity. The Narcissistic Personality Disorder Scale(NPDS) and the Covert Narcissism Scale(CNS) were used to classify covert narcissism and overt narcissism, as well as to verify the relationship between covert/overt narcissism and aggressiveness, based on the extent of self-concept clarity. In total, 821 secondary school students were surveyed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder Scale(NPDS), Covert Narcissism Scale(CNS), Self-Concept Clarity(SCC), and Aggression Questionnaire-Korean Version(AQ-K). The datum was analyzed by SPSS14.0
The results showed that there was no significant difference between covert narcissism and overt narcissism according to sex. In addition, there was little difference according to the number of a subject's siblings. By analyzing the correlation in order to find out the relationship between narcissism and aggressiveness, there was a positive correlation between NPDS and the sub-factors of aggressiveness such as physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility. As NPDS increased, it was more likely that the tendency of aggressiveness would increase. Since those with narcissism thought themselves to deserve special treatment, they were more likely to be frustrated and aggressive unless their expectations were satisfied by others. Compared to the overt narcissist group, the covert narcissist group showed higher aggressiveness. The covert narcissist group might be more sensitive to others and feel more uncomfortable and timid with strangers. Therefore, the covert narcissist group might feel more frustrated than the overt narcissist group even when both groups faced the same situation. The covert narcissist group showed higher aggressiveness in the sub-factors of aggressiveness such as physical aggression, anger and hostility, however not for verbal aggression. The covert narcissist group showed the highest tendency of physical aggression, followed by the overt narcissist group. Furthermore, the comparative group, which consisted of respondents under 30% of NPDS, showed the lowest. In the field of verbal aggression, both narcissist groups had a significant difference, compared to the comparative group, but there was no relevant difference between both of the narcissist groups. The field of anger had the same result as that of verbal aggression. The field of hostility had a more distinguishable difference among the three groups. The covert narcissist group had the highest and the comparative group the lowest.
In order to investigate the relationship between narcissism and aggressiveness, it was analyzed how the extent of self-concept clarity affected the narcissist groups. The result was that the covert narcissist group with the lowest self-concept clarity had the highest aggressiveness. In the sub-factors of aggressiveness such as physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility, the covert narcissist group with lowest self-concept clarity showed the highest aggressiveness. In general, there was little difference between the comparative group and the overt narcissist group with a high self-concept clarity. In the fields of verbal aggression and anger, there was a significant difference between the comparative group and the overt narcissist group with a high self-concept clarity, but in the fields of physical aggression and hostility, the comparative group and the overt narcissist group with a high self-concept clarity had a similar level of aggressiveness and no significant difference. If the variable of self-concept clarity was excluded, the overt narcissist group had a higher level of aggressiveness than the comparative group did. But when the variable of self-concept clarity was taken into consideration (included), there was no difference in the extent of aggressiveness between the comparative group and the overt narcissist group with a high self-concept clarity.
The previous research rarely attempted to subdivide narcissist groups into covert/overt narcissist groups and verify their traits empirically. This research has been renewed in order to discriminate the types of narcissism and verify their consequences. Therefore, the result of this research is expected to help clarify and verify the traits of covert/overt narcissism further in the near future. It is natural that every human being has a more or less narcissistic personality, which helps one to love oneself as 'a valuable being' and live up to one's own desire and profit. However, excessive self-love keeps one from admitting one's shortcomings and limits, and also leads one to an irresponsible life of not empathizing with others' situations. This research was meant to provide useful materials in order to properly guide adolescents who were caught in their own snare of excessive self-love and who have had difficulty in building cooperative relationships with others.