Those who are more narcissistic than average as children will continue to be so as adults. But the degree of narcissism seems to change with age, according to a new study.
It is researchers from Switzerland who have compiled several studies that have followed people with narcissistic personality disorder over a longer period of time. A total of over 37,000 people between 8 and 77 years old participated in the studies, most of whom came from Western Europe, the USA, and Canada.
Three types
The researchers divided the participants into three different types of narcissism – grandiose, antagonistic, and neurotic. Grandiose narcissism involves, among other things, that the person is attention-seeking and authoritarian, antagonistic that the person is often arrogant, insensitive, and lacks empathy, while the neurotic has difficulty with emotional regulation.
Overall, the researchers found that all three types of narcissism decreased somewhat between childhood and adulthood. The difference was most pronounced for those with the grandiose variant.
Developing character traits
But the researchers also saw that those who had very strong narcissistic traits as children continued to have strong traits compared to the "normal level" even as adults.
The researchers do not know why narcissistic personality traits decrease with age. But it may be because one adapts more as an adult, they reason.
“The social roles we take on as adults, such as partner, employee, or parent, can lead to the development of more mature character traits,” says Ulrich Orth, the study's lead author in a press comment.
By personality syndrome, we mean that a person has such deviant and inflexible personality traits that it leads to significant suffering for the person themselves, and/or to impaired ability to handle relationships both socially and in working life.
Personality syndrome in narcissistic form involves a great need to assert oneself, a very exaggerated self-image, and a lack of compassion for other people.
One often believes oneself to have great talents and fantasizes about great success, power, beauty, and status. One expects admiration from others and can be arrogant towards other people. One wants to receive special favors and often exploits others for one's own needs.
Narcissistic personality traits are relatively common in the population, but it is only about 1 percent who suffer from the fully developed personality disorder.
Source: Regin Uppsala, Psykologguiden
