Why Narcissism Is Bad for Men

[skyblue1]

Why Narcissism Is Bad for Men

According to the conclusions of a new investigation conducted by University of Michigan (U-M) psychologists, and published in the latest issue of the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE, it would appear that being narcissistic makes men more likely to become sick.

This personality trait is apparently somehow linked to bad health, says study coauthor Sara Korath. She says that physical health disadvantages are added to the psychological costs that these males have to pay when it comes to their relationships with the opposite gender.

Past studies conducted by the same U-M team have revealed that narcissism is becoming increasingly common in the general population of the United States, and that men are the most likely to exhibit it.

Some of the most common “symptoms” med display include an over-inflated sense of self-importance, which is unjustified in real life, a tendency to overestimate one's uniqueness, as well as exhibiting a sense of grandiosity without too many achievements to back that up.

Together with colleagues from the University of Virginia, the U-M scientists analyzed a sample of 106 volunteer graduate students, in a bit to correlate narcissism and gender, on one hand, with cortisol levels in the saliva, on the other.

Cortisol is informally called the stress hormone, and its levels rise when people are subjected to stressful or damaging experiences. Each of the participants had their cortisol levels measured two separate times, so that the team could establish a baseline.

“Even though narcissists have grandiose self-perceptions, they also have fragile views of themselves, and often resort to defensive strategies like aggression when their sense of superiority is threatened,” UV investigator David Reinhard explains.

“These kinds of coping strategies are linked with increased cardiovascular reactivity to stress and higher blood pressure, so it makes sense that higher levels of maladaptive narcissism would contribute to highly reactive stress response systems and chronically elevated levels of stress,” he adds.

A significant implication of the new work is that narcissism may also play an important role in determining people's responses to daily interactions and routines. At the same time, the team learned that cortisol production could be boosted in males without being exposed to a stressing factor.

“Given societal definitions of masculinity that overlap with narcissism – for example, the belief that men should be arrogant and dominant – men who endorse stereotypically male sex roles and who are also high in narcissism may feel especially stressed,” Konrath concludes.


http://news.softpedia.com/news/Why-Narcissism-Is-Bad-for-Men-248288.shtml

[Icequeen]

Example #1...

[skyblue1]

 

[Al Swearegen]

Wow apart froom the whole difficulty in qualifying or quantifying such a diagosis, it also strikes me odd when the whole their self-image is bought into play. I thought that Narcissists have great confidence, ego and such, so why would their ego be fragile?

["couldbecousin"]

Wow apart froom the whole difficulty in qualifying or quantifying such a diagosis, it also strikes me odd when the whole their self-image is bought into play. I thought that Narcissists have great confidence, ego and such, so why would their ego be fragile?

 Your post count and karma are anagrams of each other. 

[ProfessorFarnsworth]

Don't ask, felt like it...

[Icequeen]

 

[Calavera]

He's Alex Jones' best buddy. No wonder.

[El]

I smell sample bias.

1.  Mean age:  20.1 years.  Here's your first damn clue.  This stupid fucking generation has been by and large ruined by parents who think that you're supposed to tell kids they're unique, special, amazing, and give them a gold star every time they shit.  It's action-packed with narcissists who can't handle real life because they've never had any remote degree of connection to it.  (except, of course, in some cases- especially the more recent spawn of well-meaning but still-destructive parents- the ones who've learned to be constantly constantly constantly doing shit because they have helicopter soccer moms who involve them in fucking every possible extracurricular activity under the sun)*
1.2  I'll add here this is a theory that is particularly likely to be possible because we're looking at college students (i.e. people who have been able to reach a higher level of education, which tends to correlate with SES).  These fine young folks are more likely to have had parents with the money and inclination to do the shit mentioned above (helicopter parenting costs money yo)
1.3  Those of us who are past our early teens and late twenties:  let's take a second and think back to what people in their late teens and early twenties are like.  Yeah, late twenties are when it stops being normal to have a slight personality disorder or two from sheer immaturity and lack of life experience.
2.  Let's extend this- and this is, mind, just ONE hypothesis.  Maybe you're looking at a sample that started off biased- as in, we've got some guys who for whatever reason started off a wee bit more fucked up than your average bear.  Maybe it's health reasons, maybe a broken family, maybe just a genetic predisposition towards some kind of mental problem or other (and it's a safe guess that 1. these are likely largely psych students and therefore 2. most of them are, to some degree, fucking batshit).  Whatever the reason- this may actually be (in a high enough percentage to skew results) a sample that got extra-coddled because they seemed extra-fragile.
3.  Again, if these are psych majors, there's one more bias- boys are in RETARDEDLY disproportionately high demand in psych.  They're like chicks in tech schools.  If they want to, they can have harems, just on the sheer virtue of having (amoungst the people they are most often around) relatively rare gentalia.

General sample problems, too.
1.  79 females, 27 males- Excuse me, boys, but you have a disappointingly small n.  I'm intrigued and think it might be fun to play with what you're presented me, but I can't solidly commit to this little.
2.  Undergrad students- OK, fine, but what major?  How *exactly* were they recruited?  Was this a survey handed out in classrooms, or did they have to show for a study?  If they showed for the study, they already biased the sample by being the kind of person who'd show for the study. 

Actual study itself:  http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0030858

*Yeah, my generation kind of pisses me off.

[El]

...God, I'm crotchety for not-quite-26.

["couldbecousin"]

...God, I'm crotchety for not-quite-26.

 You kind of remind me of House.  I think it's the cynicism. 

[El]

...God, I'm crotchety for not-quite-26.

 You kind of remind me of House.  I think it's the cynicism. 

You aren't the first to say that and probably won't be the last.   

["couldbecousin"]

...God, I'm crotchety for not-quite-26.

 You kind of remind me of House.  I think it's the cynicism. 

You aren't the first to say that and probably won't be the last.   

 I, in contrast, tend to think everyone is clean, sober, law-abiding and monogamous.
 A friend of mine just shakes her head and smiles at my obliviousness! 

[El]

I, in contrast, tend to think everyone is clean, sober, law-abiding and monogamous.
 A friend of mine just shakes her head and smiles at my obliviousness! 

Assume people are, at the core, not only selfish, but also too stupid to get out of their own way, and you'll be right more often than not.

["couldbecousin"]

I, in contrast, tend to think everyone is clean, sober, law-abiding and monogamous.
 A friend of mine just shakes her head and smiles at my obliviousness! 

Assume people are, at the core, not only selfish, but also too stupid to get out of their own way, and you'll be right more often than not.

 My friend tells me, "The reality is, most people are drinking and drugging and fucking
 anyone they can get their hands on," and I just look at her in bewilderment.