Narcissism Essay

Trends driving Narcissism
As there is a general rise in narcissism over time, the next pressing question is what factors drive these trends. Children develop cognitive processes to self-evaluate their actions and concept from the perception of others (Harter, 1999), but it is when these processes become maladaptive and the child develops excessive degrees of value of worth that narcissism develops (Thomaes, Brummelman, Reijntjes, & Bushman, 2013). This is exacerbated by dysfunctional parental styles where parents over-evaluate and inflate a child’s self-concept, thus creating the impression in the child that they are superior and makes them dependent on constant praise (Brummelman et al., 2015). Alternatively, perceptions of parental coldness

This is accompanied by much of the excessive control and invalidation schools that echoes the same processes that follow parental styles. In addition, the common practise of schools advocating for self-esteem programs where children internalise that ‘they are special’ further develops an exaggerated and inflated positive self-view that morphs into an almost deluded sense of celebrity and grandiosity (Twenge, 2014). The consumption of mass media also reinforces inflated positive self-views by appealing to one’s sense of uniqueness and individualism; and the prevalence and accessibility of such media, be it from television or through the Internet, serves to push it to epidemic proportions (Gentile, Twenge, Freeman, & Campbell, 2012; Twenge & Campbell,

Furthermore, the transience and impersonality of social media also plays into the narcissist’s tendency to form relationships, however often these relationships tend to be short-term and lack intimacy, and narcissists often use relationships in order to self-enhance themselves through support and affirmation (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). This is represented in social media by having the ability to form friends without need for interaction or intimacy through the filter of the