First Name:
Erik
Last Name:
Van Beek
Major Department:
Business Management
Thesis Director:
James Westerman
Date of Thesis:
May 2010
Recent research indicates that levels of narcissism have been steadily increasing for the past 25 years (Twenge, Konrath, Foster, Campbell, & Bushman, 2008). American college students are now approaching a level of narcissism that rivals that of celebrities (Bergman, Westerman, & Daly, 2010). Though seemingly insignificant, the rising levels of narcissism in American youth may have a long-term effect on the quality of the next generation of business and political leaders.
Narcissism is a character trait that exists within every person. It may individually manifest in a range that starts at what is considered to be a healthy level of narcissism and ends at the negative extreme of a clinical personality disorder (Rhodewalt, 2007). Rhodewalt (2007) reported that narcissism typically appears as a love for one‟s self and is displayed by consistently choosing one‟s own desires over others, even if it is at the cost of others. Part of this self-love is "a grandiose sense of self-importance or uniqueness, a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, an exhibitionistic need for constant attention and admiration, a strong sense of entitlement, interpersonal exploitiveness, extreme self-centeredness and self-absorption" (Smith, 1990). This is often coupled with a very fragile ego, which the individual will go to great lengths to protect (Rhodewalt, 2007). In many cases, the narcissist will protect his ego by using social contexts such as public announcements of success and drawing attention to others mistakes. According to Penny and Spector (2002), in the context of a work setting, threats to a narcissist‟s ego could trigger aggression and counter-productive workplace behavior.