The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effects of ambivalence of emotional expression on anger-in expression and interpersonal problems in university students with covert narcissistic propensity. The subjects in this study were 481 stu...
The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effects of ambivalence of emotional expression on anger-in expression and interpersonal problems in university students with covert narcissistic propensity. The subjects in this study were 481 students in university located in Busan and Daegu. After a survey was conducted, the answer sheets from 432 respondents were selected, and the answer sheets from 207 respondents who scored in the top 30 percent in covert narcissism were analyzed. The instruments used in this study were a covert narcissism scale, an interpersonal problems scale, a state-trait anger scale, and an ambivalence of emotional expression scale.
To test the hypotheses of the study, a statistical package SPSS 20.0 was employed to obtain basic statistical data on each variable, and Pearson correlation analysis was utilized to look for connections among the variables. To determine the influence of anger-in expression and ambivalence of emotional expression on interpersonal problems, simple regression analysis was made, and hierarchical regression analysis was made to test the mediating effects of ambivalence of emotional expression on the relationship between anger-in expression and interpersonal problems. Finally, Sobel Test was carried out to measure mediating effects.
The major findings of the study were as follows:
First, there were significant positive correlations among the anger-in expression of the university students with covert narcissistic propensity, their interpersonal problems and ambivalence of emotional expression.
Second, the ambivalence of emotional expression of the university students with covert narcissistic propensity had partial mediating effects on the relationship between anger-in expression and interpersonal problems.
This study is of significance in that it figured out the relationships among anger-in expression, interpersonal problems and ambivalence of emotional expression and found ambivalence of emotional expression was one of integral variables for which intervention should be provided to reduce interpersonal problems.
Limitations to the current study and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Keywords: covert narcissism, anger-in expression, interpersonal problems, ambivalence over emotional expression