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A Sentence Completion Measure of Kohut And A SENTENCE COMPLETION MEASURE OF KOHUT AND WOLF’S NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY TYPES by Terence David Estrin B.A., University of British Columbia, 1987 M.A., Simon Fraser University, 1995 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Psychology © Terence David Estrin, 2003 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY April, 2003 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. National Library Bibliotheque nationale of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisisitons et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 0-612-81583-8 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 0-612-81583-8 The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, preter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of theL'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither thedroit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes reproduced without the author's ou aturement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying o f this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay: A Sentence Completion Measure of Kohut and Wolf’s Narcissistic Personality Types Author: (Signature) Terence David Estrin >■ ( I f 0 1 (Date) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL Name: Terence David Estrin Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (Psychology) Title of Dissertation: A Sentence Completion Measure o f Kohut and Wolfs Narcissistic Personality Types Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. John McDonald Assistant Profe: ^ Dr. Jame rcia Profess Senio Dr. Ray Koo Associate Pr Dr. Andrea Kowaz Registrar, British Columbia College of Psychologists Dr. RobeiTTev InternaTExternal Examiner Associate Professor Department of Psychology Simon Fraser University )r. Michael Cnandler External E^Mniner Professor Department of Psychology University of British Columbia Date Approved: 0 3 ^ 1 ^ 2-oq_£ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT The present study reconstructed a Sentence Completion test and scoring manual (Estrin, 1994) originally designed to measure Kohut and W olfs (1978) mirror-hungry, ideal-hungry, and twnship-hungry subclinical narcissistic personalities in a student sample. In order to extend the test’s range, 140 student and 20 psychotherapy client participants were recruited. Operational definitions were revised and subscales constructed according to theory-driven rules, resulting in a 24-item test with 3 subscales representing the behavioral expression of the narcissistic need (ml, H, t1), and 3 representing narcissistic vulnerability (m2, i2, t2). Inter-rater reliability was satisfactory for all subscales except H. Student participants demonstrated greater ideal- hunger and grandiose narcissism. Females scored higher than males on narcissistic vulnerability. An analysis of scoring patterns determined that, as expected, mirror-hunger was most prevalent, and twinship-hunger the least. A principal components analysis resulted in 4 oblique factors, suggesting both vulnerable and grandiose mirror-hungry narcissism, and the attraction and disappointment dynamics underlying twinship-hunger. Aggregated content validity findings were consistent with theoretical models for mirror- and twinship-hunger, but not ideal-hunger. All subscales except H demonstrated convergence with self-rating measures of the personality constructs, but predicted associations between subscales and corresponding other-rating scales completed by therapists of clinical participants were not supported. Convergent validity was not demonstrated for the H subscale, whereas i2 was related to defensiveness. Twinship-hungry scales were related to dependency and reassurance-seeking (for t1), and risk-avoidance (for t2). The combination of the m l and m2 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. IV subscales conformed to Kohut & Wolfs (1978) description of the mirror-hungry type as being both attention- and recognition-seeking, and defensive. As predicted, the m l (attention-seeking) subscale was related to overt narcissism, whereas the m2 (vulnerability) subscale was associated with both overt and covert characteristics. Product term multiple regression analyses were inconclusive in attempting to demonstrate: a) that the low m l / high m2 scoring profile was related to covert narcissism, and b) that narcissistic vulnerability (as manifested by the high m l / high m2 scoring profile) was associated with overt narcissism. However, cumulative evidence suggested a relationship between overt narcissism and narcissistic vulnerability. Overall findings supported the validity of the mirror-hungry scale as a measure of exhibitionistic-vulnerable subclinical narcissism. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION For Yael and Orly, with love. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While working on this dissertation, I often felt as if I had set off on an ocean voyage — while still in the process of constructing the boat. Fortunately, it was anything but a solo trip. To James Marcia, my senior supervisor, I owe a debt of gratitude: his belief in the value of this undertaking, ability to perceive the big picture (especially at those times when I did not), and unstinting support and patience kept this project on course. I would also like to thank Ray Koopman, my statistics advisor, for making himself available on a daily basis during six months of intensive work. I learned more about statistics in those six months than all the years of coursework combined. I am forever grateful to Felicity Estrin, my patient wife, who heard every single idea presented in this dissertation, read and commented on every word of text, and served as response-typist. Her love, support and enthusiasm sustained me. I would also like to thank Elizabeth Michno and Joan Foster, for their (daily) assistance with the execution of the analyses and for their moral support, and to Kate Slaney, who, along with Elizabeth and Joan, doggedly (and good-naturedly) persisted in getting the dreaded LISREL program to work. Thanks also to Joan Wolfe, for extensive help with formatting and de-bugging the dissertation document. To my co-raters and dear friends Alison Bell and Renee Wears, I have but one thing to say: never would I have guessed that I would actually enjoy scoring 4,560 sentence completions. I am grateful to Colleen Wilkie, former co-director of the SFU Clinical Psychology Center, for facilitating that portion of the research done at the CPC, and for her extensive Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V ll assistance in developing the consent forms. I would also like to thank the therapists and clients who gave freely of their time to take part in this study, and, of course, the student participants, each of whom completed three hours of testing. In their capacity as unofficial statistics advisors, thanks are due to Natalie Thompson of the UBC department of statistics, and Tsur Somerville of the UBC department of Commerce. Special thanks to Suzanne, who understood the true meaning of this voyage, and to Yitzchak and Chana, who always believed in me. Last of all, I would like to thank my parents, Larry and Dana Estrin, whose love and generosity made this all possible. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS APPROVAL.......................................................................................................................II ABSTRACT...................................................... Ill DEDICATION................................................................................................................. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................VI
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