2008 Woodie Awards
An increased obsession with self?
Faculty and students comment on a study stating that college students are more narcissistic
Nick Ngo
Issue date: 3/5/07 Section: News
John Edwards, an associate professor of psychology, said his first reaction to the article was that it wasn't really informative. He's waiting for further study and review of the subject to be published in a psychology journal.
"The study is not in a peer review journal, it's just something they presented at, I think, a workshop," Edwards said. "What that means is you really have no idea [of] the quality of the study. It may be fine, but until it shows in a journal or you get more details about it, it's hard to judge."
Edwards has been at OSU for 10 years and finds it hard to believe that narcissistic traits are in students.
"The students here are pretty cool - I don't see a lot of emotional rises out of them too much. That's probably just the culture of the Northwest," Edwards said.
Edwards said there are two types of narcissism, a Narcissistic Personality Disorder and levels of narcissism - a continuum with different levels. Edwards said the article was referring to students on a continuum of narcissism, not Narcissitic Personality Disorder.
Bernieri said narcissism is a chronic personality trait that doesn't develop in college but rather during childhood.
Generally, it has something to do with a lack of limit setting and over indulgence of child's demands and requests, he said.
"If you can think of if you gave a child everything they wanted while telling them 'you're perfect, you're wonderful,' that's a way to create a narcissistic person," Bernieri said.
Scott Safford, an assistant professor of psychology, said people who are narcissistic do not admit that they're narcissistic. He also believes the term is negative and it depends on the level of self-absorption to use it.
Safford said narcissism can be traced back to the self-esteem movement in the 1980s. Safford said low self-esteem is considered bad and can cause depression, so the movement was to help raise the self-esteem of children.
"The study is not in a peer review journal, it's just something they presented at, I think, a workshop," Edwards said. "What that means is you really have no idea [of] the quality of the study. It may be fine, but until it shows in a journal or you get more details about it, it's hard to judge."
Edwards has been at OSU for 10 years and finds it hard to believe that narcissistic traits are in students.
"The students here are pretty cool - I don't see a lot of emotional rises out of them too much. That's probably just the culture of the Northwest," Edwards said.
Edwards said there are two types of narcissism, a Narcissistic Personality Disorder and levels of narcissism - a continuum with different levels. Edwards said the article was referring to students on a continuum of narcissism, not Narcissitic Personality Disorder.
Bernieri said narcissism is a chronic personality trait that doesn't develop in college but rather during childhood.
Generally, it has something to do with a lack of limit setting and over indulgence of child's demands and requests, he said.
"If you can think of if you gave a child everything they wanted while telling them 'you're perfect, you're wonderful,' that's a way to create a narcissistic person," Bernieri said.
Scott Safford, an assistant professor of psychology, said people who are narcissistic do not admit that they're narcissistic. He also believes the term is negative and it depends on the level of self-absorption to use it.
Safford said narcissism can be traced back to the self-esteem movement in the 1980s. Safford said low self-esteem is considered bad and can cause depression, so the movement was to help raise the self-esteem of children.
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