The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Summer 8-2016 The Influence of Informant and Measurement on the Relations Among Adolescent Narcissism, Prosocial Behavior, and Emotional and Social Intelligence Rebecca Lynn Kauten University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Kauten, Rebecca Lynn, "The Influence of Informant and Measurement on the Relations Among Adolescent Narcissism, Prosocial Behavior, and Emotional and Social Intelligence" (2016). Dissertations. 120. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/120 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi THE INFLUENCE OF INFORMANT AND MEASUREMENT ON THE RELATIONS AMONG ADOLESCENT NARCISSISM, PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR, AND EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE by Rebecca Lynn Kauten Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School Of The University of Southern Mississippi In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2016 ABSTRACT THE INFLUENCE OF INFORMANT AND MEASUREMENT ON THE RELATIONS AMONG ADOLESCENT NARCISSISM, PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR, AND EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE by Rebecca Lynn Kauten August 2016 Adolescent narcissism has been extensively linked with aggression, but its relation with more positive behavioral correlates has been largely overlooked in the literature. Some research has investigated the divergent adaptive and maladaptive personality and behavioral correlates of non-pathological and pathological (i.e., grandiose, vulnerable) narcissism (Barry & Kauten, 2014; Barry & Wallace, 2010). This study sought to replicate previous findings that pathological narcissism is linked to self- reported prosocial behavior (Kauten & Barry, 2014) and further investigated the relation of self-reported narcissism with self-, parent-, and peer-reported prosocial behavior in a sample of 212 adolescents (M age = 16.8 years, SD = .77; 175 males, 34 females, 3 missing gender data). The present study also sought to examine the potential moderating effect of emotional and social intelligence on the relations between narcissism and prosocial behavior. Social intelligence moderated the relation between grandiose narcissism and self-reported ideal volunteer hours, and several interesting correlations were evident among the various dimensions of narcissism and informant ratings of prosocial behavior. For example, non-pathological narcissism demonstrated a positive relation with parent-reported prosocial behavior, and vulnerable narcissism showed a positive relation with self-reported prosocial behavior and an inverse relation with peer- ii reported prosocial behavior. Grandiose narcissism was positively related to both self- and parent-reported prosocial behavior. The implications of the findings are discussed. iii COPYRIGHT BY REBECCA LYNN KAUTEN 2016 The University of Southern Mississippi THE INFLUENCE OF INFORMANT AND MEASUREMENT ON THE RELATIONS AMONG ADOLESCENT NARCISSISM, PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR, AND EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE by Rebecca Lynn Kauten A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School and the Department of Psychology of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: __________________________________________ Dr. Christopher Barry, Committee Chair Associate Professor, Psychology __________________________________________ Dr. Bradley Green, Committee Member Associate Professor, Psychology __________________________________________ Dr. Randolph Arnau, Committee Member Associate Professor, Psychology _________________________________________ Dr. Donald Sacco, Committee Member Assistant Professor, Psychology _________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School August 2016 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation chair and major professor, Dr. Christopher Barry who has pushed me to reach my full potential, both in this project and throughout my graduate career, and without whom this project would not have been possible. Though the process has been difficult at times, his encouragement and expertise have afforded me several opportunities and have helped me to achieve more than I ever expected. Special thanks are also owed to Dr. Bradley Green, Dr. Randolph Arnau, and Dr. Donald Sacco for their time, suggestions, and encouragement throughout this project. In particular, their suggestions and expertise helped to develop the methodology for this project. Lastly, I am appreciative of the students in the Youth Personality and Behavior Lab at The University of Southern Mississippi for their assistance in data collection, and for the individuals at the Camp Shelby Youth Challenge Program in Hattiesburg, MS, for their cooperation and assistance with this project. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. .......................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 II. NARCISSISM ..............................................................................................3 III. AGGRESSION AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR ......................................7 IV. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ..............................................................10 V. SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE........................................................................13 VI. MEASUREMENT OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND MULTI- INFORMANT PERSPECTIVES ..............................................................15 VII. PRESENT STUDY ...................................................................................18 Hypotheses VIII. METHOD...................................................................................................21 Participants Measures Procedure IX. RESULTS ..................................................................................................31 Preliminary Analyses Correlational Analyses Regression Analyses Additional Analyses v X. DISCUSSION ............................................................................................44 Limitations Future Directions APPENDIX ....................................................................................................................... 55 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................56 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Descriptive Statistics for Study Variables .............................................................32 2. Correlations among Inflation Scores and Study Variables ....................................34 3. Correlations among Prosocial Behavior Variables and Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Desirability ..................................................................................................35 4. Correlations among Study Variables .....................................................................36 5. Relations among Prosocial Behavior and Elements of Pathological Narcissism ..............................................................................................................41 6. Correlations among Various Forms of Narcissism and Elements of Social Intelligence .............................................................................................................42 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Interaction between grandiose narcissism and social intelligence to predict self- reported ideal volunteer hours (with outlier excluded) ..........................................40 viii 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The growing empirical interest in adolescent narcissism has elucidated its relations with a number of behavioral and personality constructs. Perhaps the most robust and uniform finding across conceptualizations of narcissism is its positive relation with aggression (e.g., Barry & Kauten, 2014; Barry & Wallace, 2010; Bushman & Baumeister, 1998; Pincus et al., 2009). More recently, some dimensions of narcissism have demonstrated associations with attributes that are generally considered positive (e.g., prosocial behavior, empathy; Barry, Kauten, & Lui, 2014; Kauten & Barry, 2014). The investigation of moderating variables in these associations is important for determining factors that might strengthen narcissism’s connection to desirable behaviors and mitigate its association with antisocial behaviors such as aggression. Although the relation between narcissism and prosocial behavior has been evident only for self-reports (Kauten & Barry, 2014), the finding suggests that in some way, individuals with narcissistic traits perceive themselves as behaving positively toward others. The current study sought to explore potential moderating factors in the recently described relation between adolescent narcissism