View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by East Tennessee State University East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 8-2013 Empathy and Threatened Egotism in Men’s Use of Violence in Intimate Relationships Jessica H. Turner East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Turner, Jessica H., "Empathy and Threatened Egotism in Men’s Use of Violence in Intimate Relationships" (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1184. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1184 This Dissertation - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Empathy and Threatened Egotism in Men’s Use of Violence in Intimate Relationships _____________________ A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Department of Psychology East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology _____________________ by Jessica Holt Turner August 2013 _____________________ Peggy J. Cantrell, Ph.D., Chair William T. Dalton, III, Ph.D. Jon B. Ellis, Ph.D. Stacey L. Williams, Ph.D. Keywords: Empathy, Narcissism, Self-Esteem, Threatened Egotism, Intimate Partner Violence ABSTRACT Empathy and Threatened Egotism in Men’s Use of Violence in Intimate Relationships by Jessica Holt Turner The current study was undertaken to explore the relationship between self-esteem, narcissism, and empathy with intimate partner violence perpetration among men in 2 samples: college students and inmates. The sample was analyzed both as an aggregate and separately. A negative relationship was hypothesized between intimate violence perpetration and both self-esteem and empathy. A positive relationship was expected between intimate violence perpetration and narcissism. A 2-way interaction was examined between self-esteem and narcissism as a test of threatened egotism, defined as high self-esteem coupled with high narcissism, which was not expected in the current study. Empathy was hypothesized to moderate the relationship between intimate violence perpetration and threatened egotism, such that low empathy coupled with high narcissism and high self-esteem was expected to result in increased intimate violence perpetration. Participants were 488 men (249 college students; 239 inmates). Surveys consisted of a demographic questionnaire, CTS2 for participants’ relationships, CTS for their parents’ relationship, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, entitlement and exploitative subscales of the NPI, and the IRI. Independent samples t-tests were used to explore differences in the 2 samples. Hierarchical multiple regression was undertaken in the aggregate sample as well as the college sample and inmate sample separately. For the aggregate sample significant main effects emerged for family violence, self-esteem, narcissism, and cognitive and affective empathy, as well as the 2-way interaction between self-esteem and narcissism. Results were similar for the college sample with the exception that affective empathy was not significant. For the inmate sample 2 main effects emerged for family violence, narcissism, and affective empathy as well as the 2-way interaction between self-esteem and narcissism. The results appear to support the theory of threatened egotism, though further analysis indicates the findings are not so clear. Empathy did not moderate the 2-way interaction between self-esteem and narcissism. 3 DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my family for without their support and encouragement, I would never have had the courage or belief in myself necessary to have started. In particular, I would like to dedicate this to my husband who has always encouraged me to follow my dreams, whatever they might be. He believed in me when I did not believe in myself and reminded me that if it was easy, everyone would do it. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I sincerely appreciate all of the support I have gotten throughout this process from my committee members. Thank you for agreeing to serve on my committee. Because of your input and support, this is a better project. Additionally, I would like to express a sincere thanks to Sheri Chandler for her help with data collection. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... 2 DEDICATION ........................................................................................................... 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... 5 LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... 10 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. 11 Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 12 Defining Intimate Partner Violence ............................................................ 15 Current Study ............................................................................................. 17 Self-Esteem ................................................................................................. 20 Self-Esteem and Intimate Partner Violence ....................................... 21 Narcissism ................................................................................................... 26 Narcissism and Aggression ................................................................ 29 Threatened Egotism .................................................................................... 32 Threatened Egotism and Intimate Partner Violence .......................... 36 Empathy ...................................................................................................... 37 Empathy and Antisocial Behavior ..................................................... 39 Empathy and Sexual Offending ......................................................... 42 Juvenile Offenders ...................................................................... 43 Adult Offenders ........................................................................... 46 6 Empathy and Intimate Partner Violence ............................................ 48 Empathy and Narcissism............................................................................. 51 Hypotheses .................................................................................................. 53 2. METHODS ...................................................................................................... 54 Participants .................................................................................................. 54 Measures ..................................................................................................... 56 Demographics .................................................................................... 56 Family Violence ................................................................................. 56 Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration .............................................. 58 Self-Esteem ........................................................................................ 59 Narcissism .......................................................................................... 60 Empathy ............................................................................................. 61 Variables ..................................................................................................... 62 Dependent .......................................................................................... 62 Independent ........................................................................................ 63 Statistical Analyses ..................................................................................... 64 Univariate ........................................................................................... 64 Bivariate ............................................................................................. 65 Multivariate ........................................................................................ 66 Summary ..................................................................................................... 66 3. RESULTS .............................................................................................................. 68 Demographics ............................................................................................. 68 Bivariate Statistics ...................................................................................... 72 7 Chi-Square.......................................................................................... 72 Mean Comparisons ............................................................................ 75 Correlation ......................................................................................... 78 Multivariate Statistics ................................................................................. 80 Complete Sample ..............................................................................